I'm getting motivated in long range precision and am wondering how often winning shooters anneal their brass. The most I care about is extending case life, and if it makes for more consistent neck tension, all the better. I'll be doing .308 winchester with Norma brass and 6.5 creedmore with Lapua brass. Annealing is 7 sec. in a salt bath at 900deg F. I use a temp stick to ensure case body does not overheat. TIA.
How often to anneal cases?
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What he said!
Munkey1973
CGN frequent flyer
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- Regina, SK
I have a home made induction annealer (that I can adjust to the millisecond)
And because its fast (dare I say faster than AMP machine) I choose to anneal 308 Lapua Palma brass before every reload.
Its my second step in my reloading process... I do it right after the stainless wet tumble (with the cases de-primed).
IMO its always best to anneal the brass everytime before its bump sized.
And because its fast (dare I say faster than AMP machine) I choose to anneal 308 Lapua Palma brass before every reload.
Its my second step in my reloading process... I do it right after the stainless wet tumble (with the cases de-primed).
IMO its always best to anneal the brass everytime before its bump sized.
No. The important is the annealing temperature/time! There is a relationship with the time and the temperature, basically if heated for a longer period of time the temperature required is lower. But in our usuall annealing process for reloading brass, the ideal temperature for annealing in 5-10 seconds is 750F.
If annealed at 750F, the brass will get back to its natural hardness. If you don't heat enough, nothing will happen. If you heat too much (passed 900F) you modify the brass alloy, and it gets too smooth and no longer usable.
So you don't reduce the lifespan of your brass by annealing them every time.
For optimal consistency between every shots, annealing every time you reload (before resizing) is the optimal procedure. But depending of the brand, some brass (like Lapua) are pretty forgiving and can be reloaded couples times before the neck tension start to rise. Other brands like Peterson are very stiff, and needs to be annealed very frequently. The temperature required also change a bit due to the different alloy used by different manufacturers.
Gong Joe are building nice and cheap annealers (the Echo Model), and are very consistent and easy to use. They also provide the Tempilaq with the unit, which make sense as flame annealing without templiaq is kinda risky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmcIgSsbR1M
Evil_Dark
This isn't true.
Not true. Bs.
Terry Perkins
CGN frequent flyer
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- Bruce County
If you're annealing, anneal every time, otherwise, don't anneal at all.
I have 15+ fired Lapua 308 cases that act the same as when they we're born.
Soft loads mind you so primer pockets still have a grip.
Was annealed every firing, my perceived seating tension on the K&M arbour press with dial indicator doesn't show any signs of change...
Soft loads mind you so primer pockets still have a grip.
Was annealed every firing, my perceived seating tension on the K&M arbour press with dial indicator doesn't show any signs of change...
BattleRife
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While technically true, time isn't of that much importance in this application. Annealing time is largely controlled by what is convenient for us, and by how much heat migration into the body we can tolerate. It may vary from something like 3 seconds up to maybe 15 seconds, but this isn't really enough to make a substantial difference. You would need to test annealing for seconds versus minutes versus hours to see the difference.
The 750°F number is widely touted but largely fictional. I don't know where it came from but I have never found any data that backs it up, and I have looked. A temp that low will provide only an incomplete stress relief, you will get no drop in hardness (or strength). 900F will give you complete stress relief but very little drop in hardness.
I have never heard of a concept of "natural hardness", hardness is controlled by several factors and can vary widely with thermomechanical history of the material. I don't know how you define "modify the brass alloy", but 900F won't do much of anything except relieve the stresses. "...too smooth and no longer usable"? Now you're just making stuff up.
Watch this guy, he is a reloader with a metallurgist background. He explains annealing and debunks the myths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7WtHFwNZYk&t=559s
BattleRife
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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I've tried to watch a few of his videos, especially the annealing ones. I don't know I've ever seen someone use so many words to say so little. And anything he does say he's just repeating or explaining data from somewhere else, I've not seen him generate any data or findings of his own.
That was me. Top of the page.
