annealing and neck tension??

stvnbrg said:
So I'm in the process of loading up a batch, and i notice the press is unusually easy to work while seating the bullet. As in-I let go of the handle and the weight of it finishes the stroke for me. measuring the inside diameter and I'm getting about 2-2.5 thou of tension which is fine. I do anneal, and I am not overheating my brass. I am also using a collet die. The only thing i can think of is that annealing is unnecessary and quite possibly counter productive if using a collet die due to the fact that the brass isn't working enough to re-harden the softened brass??? Can anyone shed light on the issue? Should I stop annealing altogether? start anneal every 2nd loading? or is this totally an unrelated issue? Any input would be appreciated.
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If you are exposing the necks to heat too high and/or too long, you may be softening them more then desired. Annealing is a very precise process and it is very easy to get it wrong. Doing it by sight or hand may not be consistent enough.

So what is your process for annealing? I know you have listed that you are not overheating... how do you monitor?

I use the collet neck die alot, I anneal often. It is all about consistency. If the process is consistent, then the results are too.

When seating bullets with properly annealed and sized brass, there is little resistance per se. Seating bullets is supposed to be smooth and not hard.

As long as the bullet doesn't move with handling and gets into the chamber, that is enough.

It doesn't take alot of neck tension to hold a bullet properly in place.

Jerry
 
I try to anneal every 10 or so loadings depending on brand of brass.I neck size everything and brass last me years.
Than again I shoot casts so brass doesn't get stretched all that much.

Edit-I ruined few batches of brass when I was learning how to anneal.Now I know that "not enough heat" is usually bang on.
 
I anneal every 4th or so loading.

I've found lee collet dies to be a PITA; brass needs to be very soft, you need to twist brass + redo sizing twice per piece as opposed to one pass, and you need to thin your mandrel by about .003 so it neck sizes smaller than the factory die would do. Once I got this all figured out my loading with them seems to be going okay.
 
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