The potential difference annealing can make

[gamestalker]

Back when I first started reloading more than 30 years ago, we didn't have "You Tube" or any videos to speak of, by which to refer to. I tried annealing back in those early days, but not having a clue how to properly anneal, I quickly gave up and just used my brass as is for the last 30 or so years.

So not too long ago, I decided to give it another go, this time I had lots of sources by which to learn how to properly anneal, I did some extensive home work. I then practiced on a bunch of scrap brass, and now feel pretty confident.

So what I did, is I took ten 7mm RM - Winchester head stamps, and ten .270 win, also Winchester head stamps. I lubed the brass, resized, trimmed, reamed and chamfered all. Then I cleaned all the lube off using acetone, just to make sure my test would be that more accurate. BTW, all necks had been turned down to uniform thickness as well, thus eliminating that particular variable.

Then I measured 10 bullets of each, this was to ensure consistent comparisons, and seated all of them to the same oal. Using two single stage presses, one with a bullet puller, the other set up for seating. Then I bumped the bullet .010 deeper to make sure they hadn't created a welding effect. Then put a cartridge in the bullet puller and used my trigger scale to measure how much weight it required to pull each. I made sure to index the scale at the same exact place on the press handle, and used the same angle, so leverage would be consistent. Since leverage is different in different presses, and scale indexing would be different also, posting the pulling weights would be meaningless. So instead I broke it down into percentage variances.

Un-annealed brass averaged a 21% variance in pulling weight with 7 mag, and 17% with .270 win.. I wasn't expecting such a significant swing. I didn't include the ES or SD numbers, just averages, I thought this would be good enough for general information purposes.

I did the same with annealed brass, and I could immediately feel the difference when seating them. The average variance was only 4.2 % with .270 win., and 4.6% with 7 mag.. I was surprised how similar and consistent the improvement was between both types of cartridges.

I'm now totally convinced annealing is significantly beneficial, at least in terms of neck tension anyway. We'll see what difference it makes at the range, I'm expecting to see some noticeable improvement at 200 and 300 yards.

I'm fairly new to this aspect of reloading, so it could improve even more as I become more accustomed to performing this process. Although I'm really quite sure I did it correctly, and I'm confident I didn't over anneal, if anything a couple may have been slightly under annealed. So this may improve over time as my skill level develops.

BTW, I got this idea when measuring set back weights AL handgun cartridges.

Good day gents!

GS

 

[Walkalong]

What did you use to measure the seating pressures and pulling pressures to get such fine variances? Interesting.

Anyway, consistency is more important than exactly what the neck tension is. I like either FL sized cases with medium neck pull and bullet jump, or very light neck pull with a case fitted closely to the chamber and the bullet nearly or into the lands. Never measured any of it.

 

[gamestalker]

Walkalong, in my post I described how I used a trigger gauge to measure pulling weights in the press using a collet puller. I thought about measuring seating weights, but I figured seating weights could be flawed depending on how they they start into the mouth.

I don't know how accurate this analyses is, but it provided at least some insight I think. I would think it has some value since I also compared using the same process with brass that wasn't annealed.

Oh well,I just thought maybe this might inspire someone that's considering annealing.

GS

 

[MCMXI]

I realized that .223 Rem case necks will split after as few as two loadings many years ago due to cold working. Also, I realized that annealing can make a huge difference to neck tension and shoulder bump about five years ago when I was regularly competing in F-Class matches. I neck size only and bump the shoulder back .002" when needed. I soon discovered after three loadings of the same Lapua cases that I was getting inconsistent bullet seating force and wasn't able to control shoulder bump. I borrowed a friend's Bench Source to anneal 100 cases and suddenly all was good again with significantly improved accuracy at 300, 500 and 600 yards. One of the reasons that brand new Lapua brass shoots so well is that the neck hasn't been cold worked and comes in the annealed condition which helps to achieve consistent neck tension. I have hundreds of Lapua .338 LM cases so plan on shooting my way through all of those first before I start annealing them but I only have 200 or so .375 H&H cases so annealing is a must. That's why I bought a Fluxeon Annie annealer recently. I'm still learning but it's going well. Good job on the test that you conducted. We had digital bullet pullers at Remington and neck tension varied a fair amount on loaded ammunition, even with annealed case necks, but the spec was fairly generous. I developed an improved .308 Win load for the FBI's new AR308s from LaRue and that load has waterproofing inside the case mouth. That really helped reduce bullet pull variations from lot to lot and improved accuracy as one would expect.

 

[243winxb]

Gamestalker, Annealing may be the hardest thing to get right in reloading. Looks like you got it right. The results you will get on target, have me interested.

 

[MCMXI]

gamestalker, how many times had you reloaded the 20 cases that weren't annealed? Also, did you use those same 20 cases for the annealed test.

 

[Sunray]

Annealing does one thing and one thing only. It softens work hardened brass to extend case life. Work hardened brass can cause all kinds of daft stuff to happen.
"...30 years ago, we didn't have..." But we did have books.

 

[Chuck R.]

I anneal rifle brass about every 3-5 firings using a Ken Light machine. I do think it helps your chrono stats some, especially if you can't seat your bullet out to the lands. As the OP stated I can feel a difference when sizing also. Brass longevity has also gone way up.

BC1000 annealing .223 brass:





Chuck

 

[MCMXI]

Annealing does one thing and one thing only. It softens work hardened brass to extend case life.

It's not just to extend case life although that's certainly a benefit. Annealed brass can be controlled whereas cold worked brass isn't controlled as well. If you're trying to bump a shoulder back .002" ~ .005" or control neck tension it gets much harder, if not impossible, to do as the brass gets harder.

 

[Walkalong]

For a tight chambered/necked gun with a custom sizer if one bumps the brass a tee tiny bit (< .001) every sizing and doesn't let it get too long it can be controlled for many more firings, but will eventually get harder to do. My necks were turned to fit the .262 necked chamber and were expanding such a tiny amount (<.001), that the neck tension would remain the same as well.

Standard chambers are a whole nother ball game as the brass is worked more when sized and the necks expand a great deal more, which only increases if you neck turn.

In my FN SPR .308 my Lapua cases needed to be annealed after three firings because neck tension was changing due to light work hardening. I could cheat and use a larger bushing on the fourth firing, but that isn't the best, and it won't work on the next loading, so why not just anneal after three. As an aside, the accuracy was still good not annealing after three, even though the neck tension changed a little. But it will only get worse.

So I agree with Chuck R., about every three to five firing, depending on factors. Some people anneal every time now.