oldfortyfiveauto
Member
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2008
- Messages
- 488
I broke down and got one of Doug Girauld's case annealers.
http://www.giraudtool.com/annealer1.htm
My goal was to get more consistent prairie dog loads with my usual mixed bag of surplus 223 brass. From all my research annealing doesn't do a whole lot for accuracy, but generally helps make the loads more consistent by evening out neck tension. Neck turning is the next logical step, but is a pain for high volumes and limited value in production rifles.
My notes so far after loading 50 annealed and 50 without:
1. The machine is easy to set up and use. It's well thought out. As an engineer and gadget nut I'm impressed.
2. While you can readily over heat the neck, you really would have to make over heating down to the base a deliberate action. The range of adjustment makes it pretty easy to do a good job. I did some experimenting with temperature indicating liquid and found that with the lights out adjusting to just a hint of maroon color was about right with 223's.
3. While reloading I noticed no difference full length sizing, but resistance increased pulling the case back down off the expander ball. I believe the non-annealed necks spring back further and come off the ball easier. The catch, however is that the neck ID of the non-annealed ends up being about .0005" tighter. You could easily feel the difference when seating bullets...much harder on the non-annealed cases due to the slightly tighter ID and harder brass.
4. Also noticed that copper shaving pretty much disappeared with the annealed brass. Some of those old surplus cases would shave copper despite proper chamfers. Again hard brass and tighter ID.
5. I have a RCBS case mic. I checked for any changes in shoulder length both annealed and not. In all cases the shoulder is pulled back about .0025-.0030".
6. I've read that annealed cases will chamber easier. That's highly subjective in production guns. I think I could detect a slight difference in my Savage.
7. In all my research on annealing there is much conflicting information and not much useful stuff.
http://www.giraudtool.com/annealer1.htm
My goal was to get more consistent prairie dog loads with my usual mixed bag of surplus 223 brass. From all my research annealing doesn't do a whole lot for accuracy, but generally helps make the loads more consistent by evening out neck tension. Neck turning is the next logical step, but is a pain for high volumes and limited value in production rifles.
My notes so far after loading 50 annealed and 50 without:
1. The machine is easy to set up and use. It's well thought out. As an engineer and gadget nut I'm impressed.
2. While you can readily over heat the neck, you really would have to make over heating down to the base a deliberate action. The range of adjustment makes it pretty easy to do a good job. I did some experimenting with temperature indicating liquid and found that with the lights out adjusting to just a hint of maroon color was about right with 223's.
3. While reloading I noticed no difference full length sizing, but resistance increased pulling the case back down off the expander ball. I believe the non-annealed necks spring back further and come off the ball easier. The catch, however is that the neck ID of the non-annealed ends up being about .0005" tighter. You could easily feel the difference when seating bullets...much harder on the non-annealed cases due to the slightly tighter ID and harder brass.
4. Also noticed that copper shaving pretty much disappeared with the annealed brass. Some of those old surplus cases would shave copper despite proper chamfers. Again hard brass and tighter ID.
5. I have a RCBS case mic. I checked for any changes in shoulder length both annealed and not. In all cases the shoulder is pulled back about .0025-.0030".
6. I've read that annealed cases will chamber easier. That's highly subjective in production guns. I think I could detect a slight difference in my Savage.
7. In all my research on annealing there is much conflicting information and not much useful stuff.