Annealing for cash. Options and opinions please.
- Thread starter Rstjean
- Start date
- Status
I can anneal the following calibres 22-243w, 243 win, 6 slr, 257 wby mag, 260 rem, 6.5 slr, 6.5 Rem mag, 264 win mag, 270 wby mag, 7-08 rem, 7mm rem mag, 7mm wby mag, 308 win, 300 win short mag, 325 win short mag, 338 federal, 338 win mag, 338 lapua mag, 358 win, 9.3x62, 416 Taylor, and 458 win mag.
Yep. I only just started. But there are lots around that have been using the gas annealing guys to do theirs. And their rate was/is $25/100. We just need to find those guys who need it done. I've only done one guy with 109 rounds of .308.
You may wish to check on potential liability insurance? Hate to dampen your enthusiasm but that's the world that we live in today.
So much can go wrong that's out of your control and if something does go haywire you may be called upon to produce documentation for quality control for every step in the process that you laid your hands on.
So much can go wrong that's out of your control and if something does go haywire you may be called upon to produce documentation for quality control for every step in the process that you laid your hands on.
No receipts, no records. I think this world has gone Ga-Ga over "correctness". Whether it be "liability", political, gender, privacy.....it's nuts! Try telling that kind of a warning to a guy who's been gas annealing for his buddies for the past decade or two. Most will laugh in your face.
I would too.
EDIT: I'll give you a short story to illustrate this gone crazy correctness. In our shop, which has been in operation for 86 years. We have some jack stands that were home-brewed almost 40 years ago. They have held up every conceivable vehicle from a Volkswagon to a tank. (They are extremely heavy.) When we needed to get our shop "certified" for provincial inspections, the government would not accept these jack stands as (their words) "safe to use". It seems they didn't have a certification stamp on them.
Absolutely laughable. The ones we "replaced" them with probably wouldn't support a one ton truck with a diesel engine. Yet they have the "certification stamp". To make a long story short, we don't use those POS jack stands for anything. We haven't even taken them out of their boxes yet, and we probably never will. All of the tech's feel much more secure using the home made heavy duty stands over those. We mostly laugh at these so-called government "certifications". Same goes for this "liability" so-called issue.
Last edited:
This machine is so simple I can't see how I personally could be liable if anything went wrong. Put in machine press start.
My entrepenural spirit has worked very well, when one adds up all the various ways I, often thought of myself, have annealed cartridge cases over a lot of years, but it comes to a dead end stop, when cash is offered in exchange.
In fact, being paid for doing any part of reloading for another shooter, just doesn't sit well with me, regardless of the very real liability angle.
Everything associated with our shooting is on the lines of amateur sport/fun/activities, so lets keep it that way.
Bruce
Absolutely, without doubt, this liability thing has gone a way too far, just one of the many things that makes life more unpleasant now, than it was not many years ago.
To answer your question, "My client paid you money to prepare a brass cartridge case for him to load and make a cartridge with. You used heat to alter the very structure of the brass the case was made from. My client loaded the cartridge, fired it in his rifle, the rifle blew up and caused injury to my client----"
Bruce
As a professional engineer who has designed and certified man carrying equipment (and gone aloft in them at the end of a crane boom) I do understand the ins and outs of "certification" - as well as the folly so much on display in some cases.
And as one who has done forensic engineering investigations and had to deal with human beings who were burned beyond recognition, crushed, electrocuted etc. all that I can say is that too many of them got a shot of bad luck combined with just the right mix of causal factors. None of them were laughing.
Taking you back to the OP, they asked for others' opinion which is a very smart and mature thing to do. When someone does that I will do my best to make sure that they have all of the facts (as I know them) to help them make their decision.
My concern wasn't so much for the machine and its operation in your care - even though there are enough variables of time / temperature etc. that you have to stay on top of - as I am concerned about the potential for you being given brass that has been trimmed too often (or not often enough), bulged from overpressure or headspace problems, oversize primer pockets etc.
If a gun then goes boom it will come to light, even without receipts etc., that you performed a "critical operation" on a batch of brass used by the shooter. It may not even be the brass in question but without batch traceability you have no proof that it wasn't yours. From that point on you get dragged into the legal process until you, your lawyer and your wallet convince a judge that you were diligent and in no way contributed to the mishap. That's for a civil suit.
And remember, at $25/100 you are going to want to crank them through to make a buck which means more of your brass is out there. Numerically that increases your odds of an incident.
Again, sorry to be a damper. Not saying not to do it; just research it thoroughly and make your decision based on all of the facts - technical, economic, legal etc.
Sorry, it is a good idea but I don't agree that there's "no liability". The machines accuracy, precision and repeatability can be called into question as well as the owner giving a person of unknown capability permission to use the machine on his premises. I'm not a lawyer and could be totally wrong but I do see an exposure for Rstjean.
- Status
