Annealing Brass - Over Annealed???

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fclassguy

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I have read articles on annealing of rifle brass and it has been said that if the brass gets too hot even for a few seconds the case will be ruined.

If the body is in water to protect the base of the cartridge from getting hot, how is the case ruined if the neck gets soft? Isnt that the whole idea?

If it gets too soft, why would the case be ruined?

Would it not simply work harden itself hard again after a few firings?
 
Others who know more about this stuff then me will answer I'm sure, but I believe you can make the brass so soft that the necks will crush when seating a bullet in the press. Might bugger up the necks hold on the bullet as well.
 
Oh boy :popCorn:

There are those who insist that no home reloader can possibly correctly anneal brass without hundreds of dollars worth of expensive gear, and then there are others who are unaware of that, and have been annealing successfully for years with just a torch, a dark room and their fingers. Many, many people say how dangerous it is to over anneal to (the ridiculous) extent that the casehead would be softened, but I've never heard a reliable story of the resulting danger and injury part happening. Those people suggest that the case could blow apart, but it's more likely that the primer pocket would loosen prematurely, ruining the brass.

If you over heat it, more of it will be softer than you intended, but as you pointed out, with time, it will work harden back (if it hasn't been ruined before then by careless handling in your dies).
 
many things can happen
if brass is too soft when you go to seat a bullet
shoulder colapses just from neck tension
or when you go to size it after anealing it shoulder colapses
and have seen brass from semis with shoulder colapsed with a bullet still in it that you can see new anealing marks still on it

i tried it(over heated it) on some brass that was going to the scrap bucket
was just to soft to do anything with
 
I've annealed many 1000's without any problem, straight and necked cases but mostly straight cases. I've always held the case in my fingers, don't get it beyond about a blue colour and drop in water. I think Mike Venturino, a well known writer, says he anneals his 45-70's EVERY time he reloads as it keeps all cases the same. Can't say I agree with the every time thing but he is very successful competitor in Black Powder Cartridge shooting. Another writer (John Barsness ?) anneals with a candle. Of all the many 1000's I've annealed, I've ruined exactly....let me count.....0 and I've reloaded some cases over 20X at least. I use to mark the cases (450's) for ID to see how many reloads I was getting and stopped counting after the 20 mark.
 
I anneal before resizing, never had a problem collapsed cases when seating, but the neck tension is minimal, too low for my liking in the mag so I use the collet crimper doodad. It takes some fiddeling to set right so theres enough tension but its so easy after annealing to bulge the shoulders at this stage. To make matters worse my oal sets my bullets way out past the groove. Im 3 grains over max of 4831sc with 180gr in .300 win mag, ZERO issues with the casings other than they seem to grow in length more, I have to trim each firing.
I know they say crimping is bad for accuracy but I believe the brass is so soft that neck tension is pretty equal throughout each batch, where hardened brass might have greater tension values between casings.
 
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