Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Anneal Brass

Best to anneal brass before I form for a new calber, or after I do the forming.
Thanks Bill

First off I dont anneal brass, I dont load anything with expensive or hard to get brass. If I did, anneal before forming to soften brass and after a few fireings again to bring back to soft.

Jamie

I agree and I don't anneal, either. I form brass from new unfired brass, usually Winchester, and have never needed to anneal.

Jim

does any one anneal brass?
Bill

Absolutely. It's not worth it, of course on common calibers where brass is cheap. On cases where you've spent the time to trim, turn, work the flash holes, reform, fireform, after you paid $.60 a piece for Lapua........ Makes a lot of sense to anneal rather than replace every four or five firings.

I use Todd Kindler's tip, and a tempilstick (but I recommend using the Tempilaq). In about 10 minutes, I can do a batch of 50. No big deal. JMO, Dutch.

I did it once but super heated some parts of the cases and decided to never try that again. If the brass turns red you've gone too far and made things worse (it's not as easy to anneal that it makes it worth it to me).

i.e. - not worth it.

Spot

I do it all the time on 223 brass. Shoot it 4-5 times and anneal.
I have it down, such that I do it with a propane torch and get the neck just about red, at that point its getting hot in my fingers, I drop into a bucket of water. Can do many at that rate.
Never had an issue, don't use the templi sticks etc... though have in the past to test how I"m set up.
IMHO the finger test usually works fine. If I were a BR shooter I might be more anal, I just want to keep accuracy and prevent split necks on loaded and fired ammo.

Jeff

Jeff, I think I like your method better than the one I have used. I have been using a method offered by varmint-Al. using a candle and holding the brass in your fingers for aprox 6 seconds over the flame. When the potato is getting hot one quenches the brass in a damp rag while removing the soot.

Dad used to stand his brass up in a cake pan with approximately 3/4� of water, & heat with a propane torch until just showing a hint of a dull red color and tips the brass into the water, to quench. I think it helps to do this in dimly lit room to allow one to detect the earliest stages of the red glow.

I have been a little concerned about drawing the brass back too much so I went with varmint Al's recommendations initialy.

I would say that annealing depends on how much forming you are going to do. If you anneal first, and go too soft, you'll just ruin a mess of cases.
6BR down to 22, you don't need annealing...my guess is one caliber or two you should be fine. I would form 20, then fireform, and see if the necks crack AND/OR how well the shoulder forms up, then decide whether to anneal, and how aggressively to do so.
In regular use, I don't anneal until I split necks, then do the whole lot before the next go, culling whatever necks split that cycle. Then the next anneal will be one less cycle down the road.
I fabricated a spinner thingie out of brass plumbing fittings. It reveals to just below the shoulder. Chuck it in a cordless, set up the torch so your flame is above a sink of cold water. The thingie holds the brass loosely enough that you tip the drill and the case falls out.
I aim for the neck/shoulder point and watch closely, when the color starts to run, tip and ploop. I can rip through a couple hundred cases in an hour or so, I change the water when it reaches room temp.
I have been getting pretty good case life. I only partly size my necks and FL-bump the cases only when needed. As long as the pockets are good and I'm not getting the Ring of Death at the base, why not?

Jeff pointed out correctly that you don't use the Tempilaq on every case. Just on a couple to get your timing right. For my setup, it takes about 7 seconds on a 223Rem case to anneal, but about 23 seconds for the 223WSSM case. The length of the case and the thickness of the brass make a pretty big difference. The tempilaq shows what is going on.

When doing long range stuff, I find that annealed cases have less velocity spread. FWIW, Dutch.

I'm getting ready to anneal another batch of 223 Remy tonight, I learned more in a fews minutes of reading this thread than many hours of continued trial and error would have allowed for, thanks for the good input guys, I'm making some changes in technique asap that should work much better and faster now. Wife's cake pan is going mia when I get home, brass needs a new swimming pool to cool off in. I sure enjoy this website and it's members, theres a combined lifetime of experience that gets shared in a pleasant and practical manner by so many that sure is helpfull to anyone in a particular stage of a learning curve, I for one sure appreciate it alot!

I've been annealing case necks for years using the same method outlined at Varmint Al's using a propane torch in a dimly lit room.

My Case holding/spinning tool of choice is a Mechanics flex-finger retrieval tool, the four little jaws grip the rim securely, and it's easy to spin the cartridges without dropping them.

I dont' use a tool to hold because the brass cant' be hurt by heat if I'm holding it by my fingers. A HUGE and CHEAP safety net for me.

5 gallon bucket, pillow to sit on and lights out watching TV. Can do hundreds of rounds pretty quick. Adn if in a hurry to dry, stick in the oven at 150 or less a bit....

Jeff

I have just read two artcals that say anneal brass when its new
particulrly if your going to reform it.