Does annealing make your brass sticky?

bcsteve

bcsteve

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Recently started annealing. Today I was reloading some 6.5x55 with my Redding Master Hunter dies like I've done hundreds of times and was getting bullet nose deformation (Nosler 140gr Accubond). Tried to pull the, with my kinetic puller, no luck. Since the bullet was ruined anyway I tried pulling the bullet out with the press and pliers, almost ripped the rim odd the Lapa brass.

Obviously the necks are too tight. I ran the brass in the sizing die just enough to get the expander button through the necks. Seating pressure doesn't seem excessive but I'm still getting bullet deformation on some bullets and inconsistent seating depth (up to 0.010)?! The only variable I can see is the annealing, never ran into this in all my years of reloading. Can annealing make your brass "grabbier"?? Suggestions, thoughts?
 
"Can annealing make your brass "grabbier"??" - maybe?? But so does making it very clean - no carbon or lube residue. I can not say that I have seen your experience, but I have only done the salt bath annealing procedure, I have never used an open flame type procedure.
 
I use an induction method, it melts off any lube during treatment. You've just softened the metal and made it more malleable. Previously it was work hardened into shape. Now it's allowed to retain a little more plasticity it will grip tighter when the bullet gets seated. Thats why you heat treat the cases right, to remove the work hardening and make the material softer by allowing the grain structure to relax? As to how tight they are, no idea.

This gets into the whole malleable vs ductile arena
 
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I don't think any type annealing would do this.
In fact if brass is over annealed, it will loose neck tension all together.

If the inside of your necks are too clean (likewise for the projectile), then you might be experiencing "cold welding."

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/for...e-Cold-Welding-I-hear-about?highlight=welding

I've never experienced this problem myself, but its a real thing.

I SS wet tumble my brass -but I usually reload no more than 72 hours or so before I intend to use my reloads as to avoid this potential problem.

However, if I reload and expect that the loads may need to be shelved for some time, I will try to ensure the bullets have a thin residue of release agent on the them... some kind of oil residue to prevent a bond.
 
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IMO, there are two factors that will make necks have more friction first is ultrasonic or media cleaning here's an article http:// bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/05/ultrasonic-cleaning-case-neck-friction-and-bullet-seating/ which makes the neck to clean. The second is annealing which burns off the carbon from the inside of the neck. The carbon inside the neck acts like a lubricant or even a barrier to cold welding. I always use dry neck lube/graphite prior to charging/seating a bullet it will produce more consistent seating pressure. Carbon inside the case is not always a bad thing.
 
Softer metal against harder metal will “stick” more. The friction coefficient of softer metal is higher. Annealing hard brass to make it softer is the name of the game.
Not a scientific type, or even educated, but work with metal every day.
Not saying it’s what’s happening, but you never know.
 
I think I know what happened. I had similar but different issue, with having to rip apart a bonded case after annealing.

After flame annealing, I have accidently "bonded" the neck of the brass to the mandrel in my Lee collet neck sizing die. Bonded so well that the press arm had to be used to pull the case off by ripping the case from the neck at the shoulder/neck junction. Removing the bonded neck fragment from the mandrel was done by tapping it through a hole in a wood block. This has happened a few times.

Lesson: I learned that a freshly annealed case will not spring back and will resize tightly. Neck sizing with the Lee collet die is NOT what I want to do immediately after annealing.

Solution: I full length resize the annealed case as normal (I do not have bushing dies, and my FL sizing dies tend to size very tightly - I need to get them honed out). Then dry lube the inside neck with graphite, and then expand the neck with a Sinclair expander mandrel die. The expander is sized 1 thou smaller than the bullet. This works perfectly and never had an issue since. The bullets seat perfectly and there is left over graphite in the neck which helps.

I always graphite and neck expand with the Sinclair expander as my last step anyways for all target ammo, so this is not an extra step in my routine. Based on your story, I suspect your FL sizing die is also sizing on the tight side, so I recommend the graphite and expander step.

After firing the annealed case, the neck spring back returns and I can use the Lee collect neck sizing die with no problems.

Regarding the inconsistent seating depth: That may be a donut issue. I have had that same 0.010-ish amount of inconsistency in seating on multi-fired cases, and I solved it by reaming out the donut with my Forster inside neck reamer on the fired case (done before sizing). The change in seating consistency is remarkable.
 
After walking out of my shop out of frustration yesterday, I went back in today. I had annealed that brass about a month ago before moose hunting and I had kind of forgotten what steps I had taken before and after. To be safe I relubed and resized them all then threw them in the wet tumbler. Reloaded a few rounds once they were dry and everything is back to normal. Looking at the brass, it looked like I hadn't tumbled it after annealing and it left a rougher, grippier surface. Tumbling took care of it. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
I deprime, dry tumble, flame anneal, body size, Lee collet, never a problem. Even when I forgot to dry graphite the inside of the neck the odd round.
 
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