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Lizard333
07-01-2011, 10:07 AM
How often do you have to do this?? Do do it to all of your rifle brass including bolt and lever action? Does it matter?? Do you do it to both brass and nickel plated brass. Would you do it to larger caliber brass like 44 mag??

truckmsl
07-01-2011, 10:31 AM
I only anneal bottleneck rifle cases. I got a bunch of IMI 7.62x39 with over 15 reloads on them. I anneal after 5 or 6 reloads, but this would depend on the pressure levels you're loading to. I've never annealed pistol caliber brass and have never needed to.

jonk
07-01-2011, 11:57 AM
Goodness, I have some rifle rounds with mild cast loads at past 100 firings with no annealings!

With higher end loads.....I can take it or leave it. Yes, it extends brass life. However, unless you have a way to control the heat to each case and evenly distribute it- and eyeballing it isn't good enough- you're going to get inconsistent results. Yes, you'll extend the life of the brass, but neck tension from one case to another will vary a lot. This will result in a fall off in accuracy.

I usually don't bother except with some very oddball and expensive cases (like my 8mm Kropatscheks for instance). In those instances I want max brass life even if accuracy falls a little after annealing.

I might also do it if the brass gets so hardened that on resizing it won't grip the bullet properly but if the brass is still in good shape otherwise.

It also depends on the initial quality of the brass.

truckmsl
07-01-2011, 05:05 PM
If that is 100 firings with full length sized brass run through a semi auto rifle I am impressed. I'm thinking you're talking bolt gun, though. The semi-autos are a bit harder on brass.

williamwaco
07-01-2011, 09:06 PM
I don't know about semiautomatic rifles except the M1 Carbine and AR-15.

I have been loading for rifles of all calibers since 1956.

I am using cases today that were acquired in the '60s.

I have never annealed a case in my life.

The only case failures I have experienced have been split shoulders caused by repeated excessive shoulder setback during resizing or by excessive pressure causing the head separation ring.

It is true that the 5.56 cases probably need more agressive resizing for reliable functioning than the same cases in a bolt rifle. Since my use of these arms is not "in defence of live and property" I just neck resize even in the AR rifles. Again, since I am firing only my cases in only my rifle, it works fine.

Cut to the chase: Annealing is an effective way to extend case life. I find it to be an uneconimical use of time. These cases get lost long before they fail.

BOOM BOOM
07-01-2011, 10:20 PM
HI,
I anneal rifle cases, strait walled & bottle neck.
I do not believe you can anneal nickle cases w/out ruining the plating.
Best way is to start w/ a lot of brass, shoot till 1 splits then anneal the whole lot.
Or if you have bunches of mixed lots of brass, you could just anneal them all this year, then treat as 1 lot.
Pressure & amount of case sizing are factors in case life. I usually get 10-15 firings before cracks appear. then anneal the whole lot again.
I have never done pistol brass.:Fire::Fire:

Ozarklongshot
07-01-2011, 11:39 PM
I can't even count the calibers I load for. But the only one I can remember annealing in recent history was a 33 win. Just because the brass is crazy high and it needs doing if forming from 45-70.
I too lose them faster than they crack

Char-Gar
07-02-2011, 01:40 PM
In 50 years of reloading and hundreds of thousands of rounds latter. I have only twice annealed cases. One time was a batch of 80 year old cases that started to split in the necks due to age. The other time was some .218 Bee cases that split the shoulders when fired in the improved .218 Mashburn Bee chamber.

In both cases annealing cured the problem. Other than that I do not anneal when there is not a problem. I just load and shoot like most of the above folks.

This notion of the need to anneal, is way over played these days.

1Shirt
07-02-2011, 08:17 PM
I anneal rifle cases only, and depending on cal, pressure, etc, do somewhere between 6-8 loadings unless I start to get split necks, and that seldom happens before the 5th. loading. To me it is a fast and easy process.
1Shirt!:coffee:

cajun shooter
07-05-2011, 08:59 AM
Annealing is not just for keeping the brass from splitting. Starline has a notice in it's brass that it is made with a thicker neck and they advise that you anneal the brass before loading.The amount of grip on a bullet will effect downrange accuracy in many guns. Some of this forums top shooters in BPCR anneal after every firing. For plinking and other types of informal shooting, I find this may be cut back to every 5 times. If you have shot your brass and never annealed then it should be done if you would care to see the difference it may make for you.