Anyone annealing their 500 S&W brass?

Spawn-Inc

Spawn-Inc

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i've been using the same brass for the 5th or 6th reload and i noticed they don't seem to hold as good as far as the crimp is concerned. i put a heavy crimp and will fire 4 rounds and pull the last one out and see that the bullet has moved 1/4". I've also had 2-3 rounds come apart so much that it went past the cylinder.

it seems to happen to the lee 440 gr bullets the most. but i shoot up to 600 gr as that's the biggest mold i have at the moment. waiting for the 700gr on cast boolits.

i did try and anneal 5 cases and they seemed to hold a bit better, but i don't think i had a big enough flame.
 
i use 350 gr hornady bullets JHP i use factory crimp die. I do not aneal cases. mind you i only reloaded them 3 times so far. Usually its a good idea as this factory hornady brass may actually split.
 
drslav said:
i use 350 hornady JHP i use factory crimp die. I do not aneal cases. mind you i only reloaded them 3 times so far. Usually its a good idea as this factory hornady brass may actually split.
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Are you loading them hot? I mostly load full power loads with h110 or Lil gun. 4227, 4198, tightgroup, 2400 all seem to give medium loads and trailboss is great for light loads.

I've read you should load hot loads then move the brass to light loads only.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
I've read you should load hot loads then move the brass to light loads only.
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I would recommend this. I have a bunch of Starline brass loaded with Hornady XTP MAG 350 grain bullets running large rifle magnum primers at 34.3 grains of N110. This is close to hottest load, though once I fire a few, I'll take a look at how the brass holds up. I probably won't run loads that hot again for the Starline's just in case.

Some of my Winchester brass though, I'm on the 3rd reload. Haven't had issues yet, but I am mostly running cast lead 375 grain loads. I haven't annealed them yet, and I imagine as they aren't bottleneck casings, they probably won't need to be annealed as often. One method I am considering for annealing when I need to, is one where you dip the brass into a pot of molten lead with your bare fingers. You hold the brass by the base and keep it in until you feel your fingers get a bit warm, then remove the brass and drop it in water.

I could imagine the only reason I would have to anneal the brass though would be the flexing on the crimping portion of the brass. I tend to have a pretty decent crimp on my lead rounds. Last firing of some of my Winchester brass, I started to notice a bit of a light banding on the crimp. I couldn't see it after polishing. I'm not sure if tumbling brass will get rid of signs of wear as well or not. I don't see any other signs of pressure on the casings though.

It will take me a while before I get around to needing annealing though. I have 200 rounds of brass to go through right now before I get back to the Winchester stuff... :)
 
I know it's not 500 S&W, but I load all my 460 S&W with 340gr hard cast bullets and 41.5gr of H110, that produces an average of 1950fps and 55,000psi. I have some Hornady brass and Federal brass that are on the 8 reload with out any problem, I do not anneal my cases and I use a Lee FCD.
 
09outlander said:
I know it's not 500 S&W, but I load all my 460 S&W with 340gr hard cast bullets and 41.5gr of H110, that produces an average of 1950fps and 55,000psi. I have some Hornady brass and Federal brass that are on the 8 reload with out any problem, I do not anneal my cases and I use a Lee FCD.
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lee doesn't make a FCD for the 500 :(

no cracked cases or loose primer pockets


i will give the lead annealing a shot and see how that does, otherwise build an annealing machine.
 
Paulinski said:
Look at Redding Profile Crimp Die

I had all kinds of problems fitting big 700gr bullets into the cylinder when crimped with Lee Die. Switched to Redding and they all slide with ease.....
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i had the same issue with the 600 gr mold, so i reamed the die as well i have to seat them deeper then the crimp grove regardless of dies used.

i will look into the redding die.

ps, i assume your not wanting to sell the 700 gr mold?

thanks.
 
Paulinski said:
With redding die I seat at 2.320" and no problems...
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The crimp die won't change that, the bullet is .501 about ⅜" past the crimp groove. So either my mold was oversized or my cylinders throats are undersized. I have to seat the bullet at 2.2"
 
Paulinski said:
Well...Since it used to be my gun...700gr seated at 2.320" worked fine with redding die lol...

Might be the mould. I sized to .501
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Correct, the 700gr bullets you gave me seated fine at the crimp groove.

Ohwell, the 600 gr ones still work my way.
 
You're giving up some case capacity seating them that deep...just less recoil I guess..

I even seated the 500gr Hornady to 2.320" looked goofy with the cannelure way out of the case mouth but they worked.
 
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