- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Does anyone have experience with neck annealling? I thought I would give it a try, and found 2 methods to follow. The method most often encountered is that you stand a number of cases in a pan of water heat the necks then knock the cases over. The other method is to hold the head of the case in your fingers while heating the neck, turning the case quickly for even heating, then dunking the case in water before you burn your fingers.
I decided from the outset to try the latter, and I managed not to blister my fingers - or soften the case heads. I began with 50 twice fired .375 Ultra cases (Remington) some of which were neck turned. The first problem I encounterd was that if I directed the flame from the torch directly on the neck of the case, the turned necks would melt, or perforate. I began then to heat on the shoulder, and when the case neck glowed red I dunked it in a container if water - about a litre. After 25 cases were annealled the water had warmed up considerably so I changed the water for the remaining cases.
In the coarse of things I dropped one case which hit the concrete floor on the case mouth, flattening the neck. I immediately ran the case through the resizer to true it up and the neck crushed. Upon further examination I discovered that the case mouths could be easily dented with pressure from my thumb nail.
Obviously I got the necks too soft, and I need to be able to read the colour better when I am heatiing them. I hope I can load boat-tails in these cases, but I doubt if I could load flat base bullets without damage until they have been fired and resized at least once.
An interesting article in the A-Square manual concerning work hardening of case necks, suggests that as a cartridge is fired and resized a number of times that the work hardened neck increases bullet pull and therefore increases pressure. They provide a table showing this phenomenum with .30/06 cases being repeatedly resized and fired and the increase in velocity and pressure as they go. It further advises that cases be annealled after every second firing. In due coarse I intend to conduct a similar experiment to see if their findings stand up.
If you have annealled cartridge cases what have your experiences been?
I decided from the outset to try the latter, and I managed not to blister my fingers - or soften the case heads. I began with 50 twice fired .375 Ultra cases (Remington) some of which were neck turned. The first problem I encounterd was that if I directed the flame from the torch directly on the neck of the case, the turned necks would melt, or perforate. I began then to heat on the shoulder, and when the case neck glowed red I dunked it in a container if water - about a litre. After 25 cases were annealled the water had warmed up considerably so I changed the water for the remaining cases.
In the coarse of things I dropped one case which hit the concrete floor on the case mouth, flattening the neck. I immediately ran the case through the resizer to true it up and the neck crushed. Upon further examination I discovered that the case mouths could be easily dented with pressure from my thumb nail.
Obviously I got the necks too soft, and I need to be able to read the colour better when I am heatiing them. I hope I can load boat-tails in these cases, but I doubt if I could load flat base bullets without damage until they have been fired and resized at least once.
An interesting article in the A-Square manual concerning work hardening of case necks, suggests that as a cartridge is fired and resized a number of times that the work hardened neck increases bullet pull and therefore increases pressure. They provide a table showing this phenomenum with .30/06 cases being repeatedly resized and fired and the increase in velocity and pressure as they go. It further advises that cases be annealled after every second firing. In due coarse I intend to conduct a similar experiment to see if their findings stand up.
If you have annealled cartridge cases what have your experiences been?
