Derek, I appreciate the response. Funny my son's name is spelled the same way. As a consumer, I would not want to have to anneal a new pistol case. I would expect it to work with a very well know load. The pistol was a S&W 52 which now is getting rather expensive. No damage but I would not want to subject it to split cases an a regular basis. It seems every manufacturer has issues from time to time. A QC issue I would guess, a changed process, new raw material etc. To me it is the response to a problem that makes a difference. Most often right or wrong the "customer" is right even If they are not. The cases actually split in the center, The top and bottom was fine.
That makes perfect sense about not wanting to re-anneal. Ours did the same thing too. Split in the center. The crack started just below the shoulder and continued down the body about half way. The mouth was fine and the lower body was fine. We could never figure out exactly where it originated from. The shoulder, or the center of the body. It happens in the chamber, so we just got to see the aftermath on the casing. Kind of weird, but the hardness was our culprit. I believe pistol casings are batch annealed after they are finished being drawn to help relieve the stress put into the brass during the drawing process. I’m not sure of that though. For us in rifle, we anneal the body before tapering and then the mouth and shoulder region one last time as a final step to make sure all of the stress is out of the mouth and shoulder to make sure the casing doesn’t crack over time and to make sure the bullet has correct tension and release.
