Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Weigh and Anneal

Who does either of these?

I noticed that my fliers went away when I started weighing brass.
Still on the fence about annealing.

I eliminated individually weighing each charge and just started throwing it. So, I considerate it a push as far as time -especially since I only weight the first use.

I don't weigh brass, but I do sort by headstamp.

Annealing should get you longer brass life and more uniform neck tension. I anneal unknown brass, and again after several firings.

For practically all applications, individually weighing charges is a complete waste of time. I can post about the math behind that if anyone is interested.

I stopped weighing when I switched to Lapua brass. If Lapua doesn't make brass for a specific caliber then I default to Nosler (280 Ackley and 300 Win Mag).

I do anneal after 3 or 4 firings.

I do both...find that cases with the same head stamp can vary a lot...from different lots. Just try to eliminate variables. Also anneal after two reloads. Again, for consistency.
But I like to tinker. Do I get better results, depends on your out look. It has a positive effect on me, and as a hand loader, I started doing this to make better ammo than I could buy. I believe I`m still succeeding. So for me, it`s worth the effort.

In more than 45 yrs. reloading I have done neither.

I just did 1K IMI match cases.

All the 180.xx in one box 179.xx in another. Had about 15 that were below 179 and about 80 that were above 180. I'll look at the heavies and see if a trimming or demurring will get them range. Since I have two rifles I'll probably keep the bulk separate, but I would have no problem mixing it back. After looking at 1000 measurements, I would say 180 is the average.

Out of the whole box, only one bad neck. Not too bad.

I’m in the same camp except I anneal after every three firings. I’ve also encountered considerable weight variations between lots with the same headstamp. Federal brass is the worst offender for this. I’ve seen as much as a 15 gr. difference between lots. I’ve found Remington to be quite consistent. I have 3 different lots of PPU 7x57 that average exactly the same. Can’t beat that.👍 Can’t speak for Winchester - quit using that stuff years ago.

I have used Winchester brass for the entire 45 yrs. that I have been reloading and have never had any issues. I haven't bought any Winchester brass in the last say 5 yrs. so I can't speak to the issues some cite with recently manufactured stuff.

Some handload and shoot more often and in greater quantity than others.

I was once given about 180 pieces of 6mm Remington brass. All was headstamped "R-P." When I began to evaluate it I could see that it all came from at least three different eras, based on subtle differences in the font or style of the headstamp. As it turned out, there was variation of about 20 grains between the average weight of each type. I'd call that considerable.

I do all the "nit-picky" brass prep stuff, including weight sorting and annealing. I thoroughly believe the tests that Mr. Barsness and others have done to show that "match prepping" brass is just noise level time-wasting for hunting ammo. But like a previous poster mentioned, I'm kind of a tinkerer and enjoy it. To my wife, I call it "knitting." I'll sit down at our dining table in view of the TV and listen to the evening news while I run 50 rounds or so of new brass through all the nit-picking (after running the necks over the expander ball at my reloading table).
- Uniform primer pocket depth (any time in the sequence)
- Trim to trim-to length if greater than trim to length; trim to just square up the mouth on the shortest case if less than.
- Chamfer mouths (OK, this actually is necessary as I think everyone agrees).
- De-burr flash holes (only after trimming to uniform length and chamfering since the tool registers on the case mouth).
- Weight sort the cases (only after all the "cutting" on the brass is done).
I can anneal there too since I just use an alcohol lamp.
I think the annealing may be the only thing really important besides chamfering, and it's probably not until a few firings on the brass. I also don't think any of the above hurts. Anybody disagree (assuming I enjoy doing it and am happy to spend my time doing so)? I have heard one person say that using the tool to flatten/uniform the bottom of the primer pockets might inadvertently remove a little from the sides of the pockets and lead to premature loosening of the pockets. I should mention I typically use "working class" brass. The one run of Lapua I have used was so perfect I just omitted most all of the above, except trimming and chamfering.
Regarding weighing each powder charge - with stick powders, is there an assertion that weighing each charge actually is worse than not?
Same question for ball powders.

Cheers,
Rex

I do both also. I've done quite a bit checking accuracy and velocity. Every round I fire at the range is over an Oehler. I've even got some records on the effects on velocity, which increases on the heavier brass. One comparison I remember well was on 338WM brass. The European brass was 17g heavier than the American brass and that was enough difference to equal one grain of the same propellant. Plus or minus 1 grain of variance in brass has little effect, but it does have effect. On smaller brass that much difference will be more pronounced.

I anneal every 4 reloads. I also did quite a bit of checking its effect. My second reloads after annealing were always the most accurate after which accuracy would start diminishing.

Yikes! That’s a lot. I’ve only had one occasion where a lot of Remington ‘06 brass varied drastically (~10 gr. heavier) from the norm. I’ve used Remington brass in 243 Win., 257 Roberts, 270 Win., 308 Win. & 35 Whelen and found them all to be nicely consistent. Naturally, average weight would occasionally vary by 3 or 4 grains between lots but that’s no big deal.

So those that sort, what do you consider acceptable, or what lots do you sort by? +-1 grain? 2?

I have ZERO data to support that the following is better than some other target value, it's just what I have kind of fallen into.
On magnum brass I tend to go +/- 1 grain. On .308 and smaller, +/- 0.5 grains. In between on .25-06 through 9.3x62 - no more than 1 grain, a half grain if the brass permits.
That doesn't mean I throw the other stuff out, just sort it into lots.
As I said, +/- 2 grains (or even more) might be just fine; no comparative data of mine supports the above. I just kind of fell into it when I started paying attention to brass weight and usually don't end up with too many culls within a lot using those values.

Cheers,
Rex

On 223, ±1g. In the 338 size cases, ±3g. I "cheat" sometimes and allow maybe .5g more on small cases, 1g on larger. I don't worry about head stamps. The outside will be the same. The only differences are internal, usually the thickness of the head, or aberrations in the walls in the main chamber.

Bob: I'm guessing you meant grain (gr) not gram (g)? There is a substantial difference.

I usually weigh 15 rounds and take an average of that. Once an average is determined, my parameters are +/- 1.5 grains. Anything outside of that is set aside for plinking, fouling shots, etc.
Whether or not this makes much, if any, difference in the field is probably debatable. However, it satisfies my (semi) anal tendencies.🙄🙂

Comments on the process of weighing cases. Have been doing this for a while. Am retired, so I do this because I can.

What I have learned/observed so far:

There is a huge difference in the weights of sized TTL cases, IME. Was weighing 30-06 cases for my son's rifle. A large batch of mixed brands. The most common weight was about 187 grains. The lightest was 180 grain... and the heaviest 204 grains. So there for a large difference in internal volume.

In my experience cases grouped by weights were a little more consistent at the range... in 223, 7 x 57, and 30-06.

Since I don't always know what the case weights will be, I don't decide beforehand any +/- . I group by results.
After I weigh a few of the cases to get an idea of what my weight range will be.... I get/make a long piece of lined notebook paper.
tape it to my work surface. Draw a new heavy line on that skinny blue line. then I number each blue line with the sequence of grain weights thru the range I expect to measure. Then I weigh cases on my digital scale and stand each case up on the line labeled with its weight, such as 187.6 grain.

This 'physical histogram' ends up with uneven piles.... a distribution of the case weights in the lot I have weighed.

Now I can decide how to group the cases in groups that have similar weights. The outliers you can use however you want.

Once you have done this a few times its not complicated. Save the pages you use for next time....

If you don't tape the page down... or you bump the table... some of the cases will fall over and have to be reweighed.
Doing this in the presence of your conjugal partner is sure to generate snarky comments defaming your character and intelligence.

Yup, that will work - including the wife’s derisive comments.😄