The reason we anneal brass cases.

[RYEWSKY25284]

If you have the funds the machines are nice but definitely not necessary

I watched a video on YouTube by,Eric Cortina regarding Annealing. He's saying that you can overheat them by quite a bit and they are still useable and don't have much affect on accuracy.
This was one of the reasons I decided to try it. My Gunsmith here told me it wasn't that difficult and not as sensitive as people say.
Did I see it correctly that annealing machines are around $1000.00??
Sure glad I tried the drill & socket first.

SC.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

[J E Custom]

You don't have to spend anyway near that much,=. There are many available for under $300.00. If you are handy, you can build one for less than $100.00.

Hear is just one example of a simple design that works well.



J E CUSTOM

 

[ButterBean]

I watched a video on YouTube by,Eric Cortina regarding Annealing. He's saying that you can overheat them by quite a bit and they are still useable and don't have much affect on accuracy.
This was one of the reasons I decided to try it. My Gunsmith here told me it wasn't that difficult and not as sensitive as people say.
Did I see it correctly that annealing machines are around $1000.00??
Sure glad I tried the drill & socket first.

SC.

Happy Thanksgiving

Your Smith is correct, It's not that hard, constancy and the dark room is what counts with the drill, When your flame changes color is when the damage occurs

 

[RYEWSKY25284]

You don't have to spend anyway near that much,=. There are many available for under $300.00. If you are handy, you can build one for less than $100.00.

Hear is just one example of a simple design that works well.



J E CUSTOM

Thank you, J.E. I can always count on you...
This looks like a really slick setup for not a lot of $$.
This is now on my "must have list"

Thanks again.

 

[BigDon]

^^^ That's what I use the Templaq for also. If you look at what brass costs for a .338 Lapua, then the additional costs associated with making it into a 7mm Allen Magnum, then the cost of any annealing equipment is quickly returned.

As for the cold or age welding, I wonder if that problem is still there if Moly bullets were used? I don't shoot them, so there is no way I can test it.

Like all the other things in this game, the further you stretch your distance, the little things that aren't consistent are more apparent.

I have the same cold welding question with regard to HbN. Seems like the HbN should mitigate the weld problem and...you probably need to crimp for consistent release

 

[esshup]

I have the same cold welding question with regard to HbN. Seems like the HbN should mitigate the weld problem and...you probably need to crimp for consistent release

Or maybe just load before I'm going to shoot. I loaded and shot it the other day. 4 or 5 shots were within 8 fps of each other with the mean being 3222 fps for a Berger 195g EOL bullet.

 

[Marine sniper]

Overheating can be a MAJOR problem if you overheat the body / and definitely the case head. If you only overheat the neck it is not that big of a deal.

 

[birdiemc]

Your Smith is correct, It's not that hard, constancy and the dark room is what counts with the drill, When your flame changes color is when the damage occurs

The flame changing colors seems to happen right when the appropriate temperature is reached. I was actually advised when first getting into annealing to watch for the flame to change to orange and that's when you're there. I've watched several videos this week of folks teaching annealing school, one of which was the Erik Cortina video mentioned earlier and if you pay attention the flame color changes right as they determine its done. Another video I watched the guy had painted every case neck with tempilaq, and right when he dumped them based on the templiaq reading, the flame changes to orange...seems to be something to it.

 

[yobuck]

Well if your a competitive shooter, you will naturally be grasping for every leaf that floats down stream in hopes of improving your results.
Especially if all the top dogs are doing it.
I feel there is little doubt that consistant neck tension is better than the opposite.
But lets not also get carried away with the idea that all is lost if we dont anneal our cases, especially for hunters, including L/R hunters.
As recently as 25 years ago most of us didnt even know anybody owning a chronagraph.
Now it is on the must have list.
Ten years ago most werent familiar with the term (annealing) either, but now ditto with that.
Being from Pa, im very familiar with the worlds first 1000 yd benchrest club from its inception.
And ive known quite a number of the shooters who have competed there, including some of the record group holders.
In as i recall 1986, a late friend by name of Earl Chronister set a new heavy gun 10 shot record of roughly 3.25 inches. I know Earl didnt anneal any cases.
The modern record now closing in on 10 years, beats Earls old record by about a whopping half inch.
But i frankly dont know if that record was with annealed cases or not.
So we can see just how far weve come here by way of accuracy, at least for 10 shots.
I frankly do now use a manually operated fairly inexpensive system which uses 2 torches.
And i use 750 deg Tempilac on the case neck as a reminder when to flip them.
Does it give me longer case life?
No it dosent, because i still lose the primer pockets with the same number of firings.

 

[ButterBean]

Well if your a competitive shooter, you will naturally be grasping for every leaf that floats down stream in hopes of improving your results.
Especially if all the top dogs are doing it.
I feel there is little doubt that consistant neck tension is better than the opposite.
But lets not also get carried away with the idea that all is lost if we dont anneal our cases, especially for hunters, including L/R hunters.
As recently as 25 years ago most of us didnt even know anybody owning a chronagraph.
Now it is on the must have list.
Ten years ago most werent familiar with the term (annealing) either, but now ditto with that.
Being from Pa, im very familiar with the worlds first 1000 yd benchrest club from its inception.
And ive known quite a number of the shooters who have competed there, including some of the record group holders.
In as i recall 1986, a late friend by name of Earl Chronister set a new heavy gun 10 shot record of roughly 3.25 inches. I know Earl didnt anneal any cases.
The modern record now closing in on 10 years, beats Earls old record by about a whopping half inch.
But i frankly dont know if that record was with annealed cases or not.
So we can see just how far weve come here by way of accuracy, at least for 10 shots.
I frankly do now use a manually operated fairly inexpensive system which uses 2 torches.
And i use 750 deg Tempilac on the case neck as a reminder when to flip them.
Does it give me longer case life?
No it dosent, because i still lose the primer pockets with the same number of firings.

I agree with this completely,even though I do anneal now I shot 20 years before I ever heard of it and in all honesty I was shooting just as good then as I am now,I have some old Hornady 25-06 brass that have 23 loadings on them and have never been annealed and they were still shooting fine

 

[RYEWSKY25284]

The flame changing colors seems to happen right when the appropriate temperature is reached. I was actually advised when first getting into annealing to watch for the flame to change to orange and that's when you're there. I've watched several videos this week of folks teaching annealing school, one of which was the Erik Cortina video mentioned earlier and if you pay attention the flame color changes right as they determine its done. Another video I watched the guy had painted every case neck with tempilaq, and right when he dumped them based on the templiaq reading, the flame changes to orange...seems to be something to it.

Great info.
Thank you

 

[RYEWSKY25284]

I agree with this completely,even though I do anneal now I shot 20 years before I ever heard of it and in all honesty I was shooting just as good then as I am now,I have some old Hornady 25-06 brass that have 23 loadings on them and have never been annealed and they were still shooting fine

Funny you mentioned it..
I've been shooting the same brass (100 pieces) for my 25-284 for about 27yrs.
That brass was fully prepped by me, including turning the necks. They've never been annealed and rarely ever needs trimming and the rifle is a sub 1/2" shooter with that same brass.
Out of the 100 pieces I have about 70 left due to split necks and losses during hunts
So now, Am I sending myself down the rabbit hole??? :-/
Geeez, just what I needed, more "shite" to worry about... lol

 

[J E Custom]

The flame changing colors seems to happen right when the appropriate temperature is reached. I was actually advised when first getting into annealing to watch for the flame to change to orange and that's when you're there. I've watched several videos this week of folks teaching annealing school, one of which was the Erik Cortina video mentioned earlier and if you pay attention the flame color changes right as they determine its done. Another video I watched the guy had painted every case neck with tempilaq, and right when he dumped them based on the templiaq reading, the flame changes to orange...seems to be something to it.

There is one problem with using the flame change to stop the anneal. When the flame starts to change color you are ether burning some of the brass alloy's off, or you have a dirty case and you may possibly contaminate the material shortening it's life.

When you anneal, you want to bring it back to it's original annealed hardness state without changing the metallurgy. If I see any color change in the setup cases, I reduce the dwell time to prevent this because if you lose any alloy, It is not the same brass alloy, and performance will be affected.

J E CUSTOM

 

[RYEWSKY25284]

There is one problem with using the flame change to stop the anneal. When the flame starts to change color you are ether burning of some of the brass alloy's off, or you have a dirty case and you may possibly contaminate the material shortening it's life.

When you anneal, you want to bring it back to it's original annealed hardness state without changing the metallurgy. If I see any color change in the setup cases, I reduce the dwell time to prevent this because if you lose any alloy, It is not the same brass alloy, and performance will be affected.

J E CUSTOM

I'm guilty.. I annealed a few cases without cleaning the necks. The necks turned black and it won't come off.

Can they be saved?