Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Case annealing with Ken Howell's method

In Ken Howell�s book of cartridge drawings it has a detailed explanation on case annealing. Ken says the temp has to be in the 660-665 degree temperature range to get the grain structure to change and do its thing. Now, Hornady sells an annealing kit that has in it the material that is applied to the brass and melts at the correct temperature when it is reached. The stuff Hornady sells is rated at 475 degrees. When I called Hornady to see what their explanation for the 475 degree stuff was, Lonnie on the technical desk, said that 475 degrees was where it needed to go to. He also actually said that one could anneal with just a candle flame, which I find hard to believe. Either it�s one big candle or Lonnie does not know what he is talking about.

So why is there such a difference between in the temperature stated by Ken Howell and Hornady? What temp does it need to be? Even though I believe that Hornady would be a credible source, I believe Ken Howell more.

The reason I am asking is that I need to form some 9.5 x 56 Mannlicher-Schoenauer out of .35 Whelen brass and I want to be sure that I an annealing to the correct temp.

The 670� temperature is the IDEAL for cartridge brass. It actually starts the annealing process under 500� and continues up the ladder until it is dead soft. If you don't heat it to the ideal, the brass does anneal somewhat but it isn't the recommended. If it varies several degrees from the ideal it's usually OK, just not the best and ideal temperature. The number doesn't need to be exact to end up with useable brass.

Hey bob338,

Thanks for the reply. Would you venture a guess why would Hornady be pushing a 475 degrees number? It's almost 200 degrees less. Is anything happening at 475 degrees?

That's where the recrystallization of the brass structure begins, the starting point for annealing. I'm not familiar with their system so I can't comment on why they say this number. You can Google some of the other non shooting sites and verify this. There's a real good site in the UK which has graphs providing all this data which is where I got it long before Hornady was peddling their system.

If you read the instructions with the kit the indicator is placed just below the shoulder. The neck will be hotter when the indicator changes color.Rick.