First Annealing Session with Burstfire Annealer Aluminum Wheel

[markr6754]

I received my upgraded aluminum upper drive wheels for the Burstfire Annealer and put it to the test on Sunday (Yesterday). I had 181 brass cases and 50 Nickel Plated cases of mixed .223 Rem/5.56 Nato to use. Unlike my previous test in .300 AAC Blackout, the flame comes nowhere near the drive wheels, thus, setting the drive wheels on fire was highly unlikely, and impossible in the case of the gorgeous Red upper feed wheel.

I ran two batches...one with all of the brass cases and one with all of the nickel cases. I have to say...I'm impressed. For the first time in my reloading/brass prep experience, the brass cases came out with a beautiful color change. I'd achieved some various color changes in my prior manual annealing experience, but this was an entirely new situation.

I didn't get a color change in the nickel cases, but I probably shouldn't expect to see anything as the annealing is for the underlying brass. Nonetheless, I set the cases to sit in the flame just a little longer than the brass cases. It's possible that I did nothing beneficial, but at least I did nothing to hurt the cases...of course I won't be absolutely certain until I've loaded and fired them.

 

[redcon1]

I'm looking at the Burstfire 2 in 1. How did you establish optimum time and temperature? Templaq? I watched Eric Cortana's youtube video on how he does it and he just goes by the color change of the brass to orange. And it seems like there's a wide window before you ruin a case from what he was showing. I hate the idea of wasting cases figuring it all out though. Annealing seems like such a black art when you can't easily gauge the change in hardness of your brass with a scientific instrument-not easily anyways.

 

[BBarn]

I'm looking at the Burstfire 2 in 1. How did you establish optimum time and temperature? Templaq?

The Burstfire instructions outline two methods, one using Templaq, the other brass color change. With both methods, the time required to achieve the result is noted and used to set the anneal time.

 

[markr6754]

I ran Tempilaq on some cases when I first got my Burstfire. I also had some input from Desmond, the developer/proprietor of Burstfire at the start of my journey. I've watched Eric Cortana's video, and yes, he's an expert compared to me, but everything else I've watched on annealing said that if you see the flame turn orange you're burning off zinc. I also started with the totally unscientific 4 seconds rule as a gauge to see how much change in the neck coloration, and adjusted the duration until I had a 1/2" to 5/8" silver blue color band starting from the case mouth. I with the ability to easily change the duration I fiddled a bit to see just when a bit of orange flame appeared, then backed off a step. So by time, I'm getting about 4.5 seconds of heat with the blue flame tip about 1/16" from the case.
YMMV.

 

[redcon1]

So what kind of results did you observe in the brass as far as improved case life and improved accuracy and SDs and ESs once you got it all dialed in?

 

[JFrank]

Annealing softens brass, if your set up likes light neck tension you may see increased accuracy or if your set up likes more neck tension you may see a decrease in accuracy. Ya gotta test to know for sure.
Guys use to say Nosler brass was too soft and preferred Lapua brass for its strength and then defeat the whole purpose by annealing.
Lol

 

[redcon1]

I think I'd be happy just having consistent neck tension.

 

[markr6754]

So what kind of results did you observe in the brass as far as improved case life and improved accuracy and SDs and ESs once you got it all dialed in?

Haven't a clue. I have far too much brass to actually track results. My post was highlighting the ease of using the Burstfire 2 in 1. It'll be some time before I load and shoot this brass. I tried my hand at annealing because I read that "if one shoots, one should anneal". That followed "if one shoots, one should reload". I load to spend more time shootng with my son before I'm too old and worn to do so.

 

[redcon1]

I tried my hand at annealing because I read that "if one shoots, one should anneal". That followed "if one shoots, one should reload".

I mostly shoot and reload for semi-autos so I'm hoping to get a few extra loads out of the brass before it needs replaced. If I can improve neck tension consistency, that would be great. I look at it like starting a new blood pressure pill. The only way to know if it's doing what it's supposed to do is to measure your blood pressure before taking the medicine and again after. In the case of annealing, most of us don't have micro-hardness testers or microscopes for evaluating before and after hardness and grain structures so the only real measure of the effectiveness of what we're doing would be before and after group sizes and velocity data which seems easy enough to accomplish actually. I think I need to just quit thinking about annealing and get to it actually.

 

[Crosshair]

Oops. I need to go and order mine

 

[45 long]

he just goes by the color change of the brass to orange

I'm pretty sure Eric was saying he waits for the flame to turn orange. If the case turns orange, you've gone too far.