jasent
Well-Known Member
Anealing brass. When and how often?
When I first learned to aneal I would do it once every 4 loadings. It worked well and my brass lasted a very long time. I don't run high preasure so my primer pockets rarely open up. As my skills improved I started chasing the acuracey rabbit. Picked up a concentricity gage. First lot I checked was a freshly anealed lot and my worst ones where a .0015" out. I thought well that was a waste of money! But I continued to check them after sizing. 2nd loading I averaged .002-.003 still good but I wondered what I did differently. 3rd loading .002-.005 Hmmm. Fourth loading .003-.007". Now I was resizing some brass twice to straighten the bad ones. Then I check case length. Hmmm all different ranging .01". I anealed resized and trimmed and checked again. .0015" extreme spred on concentricity. I kept up this cycle for few weeks trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. It finially dawned on me after reading an article about brass work hardening and spring back. I decided to do like some of the nut jobs online that preached about anealing every loading :yikes:
What happened? Well my brass stayed in the .001-.002 area for concentric, all my brass grew at the same rate with in .002". Resizing was easier, seating was easier, trimming was easier. Grouping improved at distance, Es/sd went down and most importantly confidence went up.
Now I'm one of those whack jobs online preaching about annealing every loading!
I used to anneal with a drill going super slow and a bit I made to hold the cases and then drop them in water to stop the heat from going down too far on the case. Now I anneal by hand. Holding the brass by the head and turning it by hand. Then I set it on a tin plate to cool. No water mess or waiting for brass to dry, heat dosent go past the shoulders but maybe .1-.15" still getting the same results but faster and less fuss. Typically when I finish the last peace I'm able to just start picking them up and place them in my loading block. They cool quickly.
Jmo based off my exp.
When I first learned to aneal I would do it once every 4 loadings. It worked well and my brass lasted a very long time. I don't run high preasure so my primer pockets rarely open up. As my skills improved I started chasing the acuracey rabbit. Picked up a concentricity gage. First lot I checked was a freshly anealed lot and my worst ones where a .0015" out. I thought well that was a waste of money! But I continued to check them after sizing. 2nd loading I averaged .002-.003 still good but I wondered what I did differently. 3rd loading .002-.005 Hmmm. Fourth loading .003-.007". Now I was resizing some brass twice to straighten the bad ones. Then I check case length. Hmmm all different ranging .01". I anealed resized and trimmed and checked again. .0015" extreme spred on concentricity. I kept up this cycle for few weeks trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. It finially dawned on me after reading an article about brass work hardening and spring back. I decided to do like some of the nut jobs online that preached about anealing every loading :yikes:
What happened? Well my brass stayed in the .001-.002 area for concentric, all my brass grew at the same rate with in .002". Resizing was easier, seating was easier, trimming was easier. Grouping improved at distance, Es/sd went down and most importantly confidence went up.
Now I'm one of those whack jobs online preaching about annealing every loading!
I used to anneal with a drill going super slow and a bit I made to hold the cases and then drop them in water to stop the heat from going down too far on the case. Now I anneal by hand. Holding the brass by the head and turning it by hand. Then I set it on a tin plate to cool. No water mess or waiting for brass to dry, heat dosent go past the shoulders but maybe .1-.15" still getting the same results but faster and less fuss. Typically when I finish the last peace I'm able to just start picking them up and place them in my loading block. They cool quickly.
Jmo based off my exp.
