Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Hail, Sun, Rain and Hornets

In central Ontario today. Complete with severe thunderstorms and high winds. The perfect day to go to the range!

I had several projects that had to be put off because of family commitments. I wanted to check capacities of several case brands and start a test to destruction of annealed vs unannealed brass. In the past, I have posted annealed vs unannealed targets, suggesting that it's good to do. These are 2 - ten shot groups using brand new, unfired Hornady 22 Hornet brass. These are 50 yd groups. No need to lob them farther to determine if annealing works.

I will keep annealing and loading them until half self destruct. To be honest, I was surprised that annealing brand new, unfired brass would shoot better than new, annealed at the factory brass.

The annealed brass 10 shot group - 0.56 inches. (.785 - .224)
The unannealed 10 shot group - 0.81 group (1.03 - .224)

The bottom four targets are just to make fired brass for some case capacities. My rifle seems to like Hornady and Remington brass.

I dodged the hail, wind and rain, shooting in the sunshine.

That was an interesting set of groups Steve, It woukd be good to know if it is repeatable with other brands of brass.
Cat

I think so, Cat. Originally, I annealed 303 and 308 brass. The big thing for me was seeing smaller groups by the people who I used to shoot with. Most of the guys I knew used IVI brass, with a smattering of Win and Rem. Groups stayed smaller with annealing regardless of what they used. I had a mentor when I first was in the service who told me it was the consistent bullet release. It was made possible by returning the brass to the same state after every shot.

Later on, I found that cases lasted longer too.

I can definitely feel the difference between unannealed and annealed brass when I resize it.
In a conversation the other day it was mentioned that a top Canadian team member does not anneal his cases, but tosses them after 8 firings.
Well, I cannot afford to do that , but in retrospect, if a person is shooting matches, that would work out to 800 shots per box of 100.
Cat

Buying brass, or even finding it, can be a chore. As they say, nothing is cheap.

I really notice the difference in feel after two or three firings. Seating bullets with unannealed brass is a bit harder. It's more of a snap rather than a push. You might want to experiment with annealing some brass. You can do it cheaply with a candle or an alcohol lamp and methyl hydrate, if you don't like the soot.

I have annealed my wildcats and Sniders before forming by hand with a torch for about 45 years now, but only a few wildcats needed to be annealed on a regular basis .
Cat

Then you know what to expect. Most of the competitors I knew were annealing. I just didn’t know the frequency.