Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles How to properly anneal and when?

I am about to anneal some of my rifle case necks. My question is... when do you anneal? Before or after cleaning and resizing?

Before resizing ?

Always before for both.

Magnums anneal each time, lighter stuff you can do a second load or two.

Depends on brand of brass

Same here and I anneal most of my brass every 4th reload...

Little scrutiny on the powder charge and annealing every 4th time and utilizing a neck sizing die ( I use Lee) and a body die when the shoulder has to come back.... you can be rewarded with some pretty long life span on brass....

So you aneal twice ?

No. Anneal and clean. Load.

I don't anneal nor clean again until the brass has been reloaded and fired 4 times. Then anneal, but clean only if necessary. Usually is to get rid of discoloration and corruption from annealing but not always.

If most of the shooting is at the range, I carry an old 35mm film can with a patch dampened with bore cleaner and I wipe the necks of the fired case with it. Very easy to keep cases shiny before the residue on the neck dries and hardens. It's not necessary and depends on how shiny and clean you like your brass.

1. Decap fired cases with decapping die
2. Tumble in rotary tumbler with SS media
3. Anneal
4. Resize
5. Wash to remove lube, let dry
6. Prime and load

Don't anneal cases that haven't been cleaned. It just bakes crap on them

You anneal after every firing for magnums, and after two firings for "lighter stuf?"

This is what I do also.
I run a Bench Source annealer and anneal every other or third load depending on the cartridge.
YMMV

Anybody use the Mule Deer method of annealing ?

I tumble first.. Anneal with a mini-ductor. Then re-size

I do. After the brass has been fired 3 times,this is how I do it:

1 - Deprime
2 - Anneal
3 - Tumble
4 - Resize
5 - Tumble
6 - Reload

Seems to work well like most of his recommendations.

I always seemed to overdo it with a butane/propane torch especially with Nickle cases where you cant see any heat or color changes as well.

I wouldn't do it more than twice unless major case forming was involved. By the second or third time probably time for new brass anyway. Others will do it on every loading.

For accuracy on the correct temps and duration a person can use Templaq
Then you're not overdoing it and ruining cases.

How many shots do you get out of your cases? I am on 80+ shots on some and they are still going strong... I anneal every 7th shot with all my bottle-necked cases.

I did a test on a batch of Rem 223 brass... loaded them 100 times, neck sizing, shoulder bump with body die when needed... and annealing every 4th time...load had a pressure of about 45,000 CUP...

had 3 casualties, but those were operator error at the reload bench...

Seems to work good for me. I've done an awful lot of brass with his method. First time was for fire forming some 400 Whelen from 30-06 military match. Worked great with few casualties.

Mart

For the record, the candle method is not the Mule Deer method. It was developed using Tempilaq by Fred Barker, who reported the method in PRECISION SHOOTING magazine.

Probably the most accurate way to anneal with ANY method is to use Tempilaq, or any other heat-indicator paint. But the Barker Method works pretty darn well.

Like some others here, I'm wondering about Spotshooter's reasoning on why "magnum" cartridge brass should be annealed twice as often as other rifle brass.

Which temperature rated Tempilaq do you guys use?