45-70 anneal or not to anneal?

[Alibiiv]

I just got a salt annealing system, and have been playing with it. I did some .358 Winchester brass and some 45-70 brass. Basically I am just messing around with some old brass trying to get by the learning curve. I have read (somewhere??) that annealing 45-70 brass really isn't necessary. My question is why not? With the straight wall casing, I am thinking that the brass is worked more than a bottle neck case, especially at the mouth of the casing. The brass is resized, then expanded and bell mouthed, and then crimped. To me that's a lot of working of the brass. I am shooting this ammunition out of a Marlin Guide gun, I don't expect to shoot bug-holes; however, that's always what we strive for. Looking for some input from others.

 

[yorke-1]

It's definitely worth doing because like you said, those cases get pretty good workout after getting sized, expanded and then crimped. You'll get more consistent neck tension and crimps.

 

[Alibiiv]

It's definitely worth doing because like you said, those cases get pretty good workout after getting sized, expanded and then crimped. You'll get more consistent neck tension and crimps.

Thanks those are my thoughts too. I remember where someone in one of the threads on salt bath annealing had written that you didn't really have to anneal 45-70 brass. I tried searching the forums on this subject, but could find nothing on it. I did expand the necks and found that they went a lot easier. Thanks for the reply.

 

[venatic]

Friends who shot long range Black powder 45-70 say annealing is a must.

 

[ehryk]

I shoot only jacketed bullets in mine, so there is no need for me to bell the mouths then crimp. Because of this, I don't need to anneal. If I did shoot lead though, yeah, I most certainly would anneal.

Edit to add: Yeah, crimping may not be a bad idea to prevent setback, still, it would be just enough to grab the bullets cannular.

 

[six pack]

I have a Marlin 1895 and have not annealed anything yet. However, I have heard from folks that do lately and they are substantially increasing the life of their brass. Not sure that it will help me much due to heavy loads. I shoot 350g Hornady Flat Points and 400g Barnes Busters with close to a max load of H4198.

 

[Greyfox]

From my experiences with the 45-70 shooting black powder/cast and smokeless/jacketed, IMO, annealing helps for different reasons with each. With the higher pressures/recoil in tube fed lever rifles using smokeless, a tight fit and heavy crimp avoids bullet set-back and inconsistent pressures(accuracy). Annealing helps to maintain tension as brass is re-worked. With black powder/cast, while there might be some advantage to accuracy, cases are frequently used for 20+ reloads, and annealing can prolong case life, usually dictated by case splitting at the case mouth, as can be experienced with a 38 Soecial using wadcutters with high volume case use.

 

[J E Custom]

This is one that ether option may be right.

I anneal all bottle neck cartridges, But don't anneal straight sided cases because they grow more in length if they are soft they have to be trim'd more. pressures are low on the 45/70 so this growth is not bad.

I have never seen a 45/70 case split so I haven't annealed any. This doesn't mean that Annealing would hurt or could even help. Logic tells me that It "Should" be better. I just have not seen the need to on straight sided cases.

I size only what is needed to chamber and don't over work the brass very much. This may explain why my records show that trimming starts out on new cases and almost ceases after a few firings. I also have not had trouble with the "Big" 45 cal straight cases. Including the 45 x 3.25" 45-120.

All I can say is try both annealed and non annealed cases and see if there are any benefits to one over the other. There are a few things that I haven't tried, and this is one of them.

J E CUSTOM

 

[dakewlndn]

I anneal all my brass, even my 45-70 that I shoot smokeless/jacketed out of my Marlin 1895sbl
Only negative I see would possibly be growth. Since I have not a split neck on any of my hot loads, its not that big of an issue.