Annealing

W

William Suter

Well-known member
How many of you anneal your brass? I know it is a major part of reloading and all these years I've spent reloading I have never owned one. I have a friend that has one I can use but its a PITA going to his house to work on brass and he's kind of a PITA to be around very long to. To many BS stories you have to listen to while your working on brass that you know aren't true. But, I do notice after resizing brass that is not annealed some bullets seat easy and some take a little more pressure to seat a bullet. I'm thinking this may be because the brass is getting hard. Which also makes me think I'm not getting the same neck tension on each bullet. I'm (kinda) sure that effects accuracy somewhat. What are your thoughts? Am I thinking correctly and is annealing going to improve my neck tension? I don't use bushing dies and I'm sure that will help but hate to start all over again replacing dies. Now I'm in the process of trimming to length 243 cases. Another process I have grown to hate. I know a lot of shooters just trash their brass when problems arise but my pockets aren't that deep these days. I use my brass till its not usable any longer. (Just rainy day thoughts from an old fart that is taking a break from trimming brass.)🤪
 
I've been annealing for a long time, it's kind of a must for forming brass. I've been using a socket, drill and torch, it is a lot better than standing brass up in a pan of water. My nephew just gave me an annealing machine that is adjustable for duration, just drop a case in and it spits out an annealed case.

Annealing not only helps with neck tension but really extends the life of brass. When I was first making 25-204 brass, it would start splitting at around 4.reloads,.with annealing most have lasted 20.years.
 
I don't anneal my brass but if I notice a tight neck I mark the brass with a sharpie or color the primer so I don't use that one expecting gild edge accuracy. I might put it with plinking ammo or as the 3rd or 4th shot in a magazine for running coyotes as "Hail Mary" ammo. I toss those cases after shooting them.

There's the old fashion annealing process where you stand the brass in about 1 inch of water and heat the necks with a torch to red hot then tip the case over to cool it.
 
Another friend of mine has two AGS Annealers and is very happy with them. I just looked and they have a model that would do all my annealing needs and sells for $210. Its not the fanciest but it works. And...it doesn't take up a lot of room. Probably the one I'll get.
 
I still use a cordless drill/deep well socket(case just fits in to reduce wobble). With my torch most 223 size brass is 7-9 seconds, tip of blue flame on the neck while turning the case slow(seeing a dull red for a couple second). FL sizing is more consistent (headspace) most of my rifles like- 0.002 neck interference fit.
 
When I'm not chasing critters I enjoy long range shooting. All of my long range ammo gets annealed after every firing. I have brass with 11 or 12 firings on it so it does help extend brass life, which you mentioned is your main motivation for annealing. Consistency is key for long range. Neck tension affects velocity and that matters down range as velocity variation leads to impact dispersion. Now, closer in you can tolerate more of this velocity dispersion. I'm no expert but I have found annealing to really help with consistent velocity.
 

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doggin coyotes said:
I wish I could anneal primer pockets for more life. :)
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I read about some new primers by White River (Powder Valley) that are suppose to be a little larger than normal. Some say they take a little more effort to seat. They also say they are good primers to boot. Just not sure if buying a brick of primers to save a few pieces of brass is cost effective.
 
If you shoot using a Garmin chronograph it really shows what annealing does to brass. Short range it doesn't matter much but extreme spreads are all over the place if you don't anneal.
 
If you ever want to be serious about long range accuracy annealing is a must to get the SDs and spread down for consistent velocity, no other way around it.

I anneal every firing and it doesn't take long.
 
I shot 308 brass in mid-range competitions (600yds) for at least 8 firings and didn’t notice a difference. Now this was many years ago and I didn’t know anything about annealing, and I wasn’t worrying about SD, just scores at matches.
As I reflect back on that I bet I was having variations and close to having more noticeable issues. This was in a single feed bolt action so no bullet movement like a repeater of semi auto may see. I also shoot brass until I see failure. (which is mostly in the primer pocket.)
After lots of reading all the benefits I now anneal. Very much like you I have a neighbor with a machine 🤓…so I bought my own AMP annealer. Expensive but great results and fast. Starting my prairie dog loading a couple of days ago and did 800 in one afternoon.
 
Dew Claw said:
If you shoot using a Garmin chronograph it really shows what annealing does to brass. Short range it doesn't matter much but extreme spreads are all over the place if you don't anneal.
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Does it have to be a Garmin? LOL, just yanking your chain, but I do agree with you. I worry about neck tension to. I think annealing would be a big help with consistency there also. I'm not really a long range shooter but I do like accuracy.
 
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