Do you anneal straight wall cases? 350 Legend for instance

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markr6754

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I've just produced my first 40 once-fired cases for 350 Legend. I ran them through my ultrasonic cleaner and pulled them from the dehydrator last night. So, I'm left wondering...does one anneal a straight walled case? I've only annealed .300 BLK and .223 REM at this point, as I understand that necked brass needs to be (or benefits from) annealed.
 
I do not anneal any straight walled handgun cases but I do not load for 350 Legend either.

For that matter, I do not anneal any bottleneck cases either. I probably could improve case life with annealing, but I feel a proper annealing machine is necessary. I feel "shade tree" annealing is too variable for consistent results.
 
When I loaded .351WSL I tried annealing and not annealing. No change. The rims/bases tear long before the necks crack and they don't tend to lose neck tension easily. At 39Kpsi it's not exactly a "monster" for a rifle round. .45-70 does maybe kind of sort of a little possibly... Nah, never mind. I'm pretty sure all of the split necks/bases I get in .45-70 are from the Marlin's bratwurst sausage-reamed chamber over-expanding and subsequently work-hardening the brass. Annealing adds maybe one extra loading before it's splitsville. I still get at least five loadings out of a R-P .45-70 case. Unless you're using a JM bratwurst-chamber Marlin, it's not going to be an issue, and I haven't seen a Marlin in .350L yet, don't think Ruger is planning to build one, and if they did, it wouldn't be a JM Marlin bratwurst special chamber reamer used on it.
 
I have not done so with my 450 BM yet. At the modest pressures I am not sure the brass is getting worked enough to harden a lot. That said I don't believe I have loaded a case more than once yet, I fell into a heap of once fired brass.
 
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Thanks for the input. I'll have to give it more thought. I have the Burstfire Annealer, so it'll give me more time with that machine. I just installed the aluminum upper replacement wheel, so I guess I'll have to put it to use. That said, I have several hundred .223 Rem cases that I just cleaned, I have another 100 rounds of factory 350 Legend ammo to fire, so I'll fire that off before making a decision.
I bought 200 new Winchester cases, and they do not show any signs of annealing after forming, but they may clean the cases prior to packing. My new 300 black brass have the color change indicative of annealing, but that's also bottleneck brass.
 
I’ve annealed 44mag, 454 Casull, 357/44, 480, and 475 brass. Surely I did some 357 along the way, but don’t recall specifically when I would have. I’ve annealed 45-70, 458wm and 458 Lott pretty regularly.

But the Legend isn’t really the same thing as most straightwall pistol cartridges. I wouldn’t apply the same logic just because it’s a straightwall.
 
troy fairweather said:
Maybe if you had a heavy crimp but they headspace there so usually the crimp is minimal.
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I'm going to give just a bit more crimp when I reload these. The factory ammo experienced quite a few setback rounds. Seems I have some kinks to work out between the magazines and the barrel feed ramps. This Winchester ammo seems to be all over the place. Early on, I saw videos where the crimps were so severe the brass was ripping away in the middle. I don't think I'll truly feel comfortable until I have some Starline brass to load.
 
I never annealed 357 Max brass and I put a bunch of loadings on the brass but I never put a heavy crimp on them either as I shot them out of a Contender. The annealing machines I've seen on videos put waay too much heat on the brass in my opinion. Brass needs to just get hot, that's it. Not glowing red.
 
Annealing softens/weakens brass, If your set up likes light neck tension annealing may help whereas if your set up likes increased bullet hold annealing may harm accuracy.
If you want extend brass life use good dies that don’t overwork the brass.
 
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In straight wall cases I anneal; .40-70, .45-90, and .45-100.

Besides increasing longevity, consistent annealing also helps with neck tension.
 
mcb said:
Do you anneal you straight wall pistol brass to then?
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Sometimes I do. As you probably know, there are times that the mouth of the brass may hit the slide upon injection or hit something hard on the ground and gets bent. I feel that working the brass to make it round will harden it, so annealing it for me extends the life of the case.

I believe that there will always be a little disagreement on these and believe that both answers are correct. It is like debating whether to neck size only or full length size. I do both depending on chamber size of my rifles and fire forming my brass. May as well ask what came first the chicken or the egg.
 
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bluetopper said:
I never annealed 357 Max brass and I put a bunch of loadings on the brass but I never put a heavy crimp on them either as I shot them out of a Contender. The annealing machines I've seen on videos put waay too much heat on the brass in my opinion. Brass needs to just get hot, that's it. Not glowing red.
Click to expand...

650-700 degrees F does it.

I have never annealed pistol brass but quickly learned to anneal my 50-140-550 Sharps cases.
 
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