Brass and lead

[ian45662]

When shootin cast boolits how often should one anneal bottleneck brass?

[Calamity Jake]

I anneal every 10-12 loading/firings.

I have 0tt6 match brass that has been loaded/fired over 40 times and still using it.

[ian45662]

Wow that's great

[Von Gruff]

Depending on how much the brass is going to be worked I usually dont like them to get beyong thre or four reloads between annealing, at least for higher velocity cast loads. For top jacketed loads it is every second load at most while I have seen where some of the 1k shooters might anneal every load. There was a chap on AR who did a test with med hot loads and annealing every 3 0r 4 reloads. He started with 10 cases and just kep running them and was aproaching 100 times through the rifle.
I got a number of Norma and Win cases when I bought a mould a few years ago. It had numerous loads through it but the chap said it might last a time or two for testing. I have had another 30 plus loads through them and it shows no signs of being loose in the primer pocket nor has it needed trimming. I only neck size so minimal brass working.

Von Gruff.

[1Shirt]

I anneal after I see the first neck split, or after the 5th. or 6th. loading which ever comes first.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[prs]

I anneal after I see the first neck split, or after the 5th. or 6th. loading which ever comes first.
1Shirt!:coffeecom



Neck splits are no biggie. A little Mighty Putty and good as new.

prs

[Buckshot]

................Just a suggestion if you're going to anneal, I'd keep your brass is batches. Possibly you already are? Freshly annealed brass will shoot differently due to boolit grip. That is assuming you have a rifle, or rifles that are scoped or equipped with iron sights capable of that level of definition. For plinking it's of no real concern. Benchresters usually will use freshly annealed brass for practice or sighters until they have been fired the number of times to give them the grip they've found to work best for them.

My entire reason for annealing is simply to make the brass last longer and shooting it through M95 Chileans, M98/08 Brazilians, M38 Turks, M91/30 M-N's, and such isn't of much concern to me so far as any small accuracy change goes. However, keeping it in batches allows you to keep closer tabs on it.

When I got my first 577-450 Martini cases ($108/20) I figured I'd anneal every other firing. Wasn't long before it was every 4th firing. Now it's every 5th, and the 60 Bertram cases (3 lots of 20 cases) have over 30 firings apiece and are still going strong. Probbaly firing them from the same rifle has contributed to thier longevity.

Long ago I helped an aqauintance replace the clutch in his car, and he paid me with a 3 gallon pail of LC45, 30-'06 brass. At the time I kept all my rifle brass in 20 round slip top boxes and each was a 'lot'. He assured me they were all once fired, and they did look like it. I pulled 200 cases out and prepped them, including annealing them. Once again these cases were shot only in my -03A1 using cast lead. I settled on annealing after the 8th firing. I've lost a few but my most senior lot of 50 (I changed from 20 to 50 round boxes a few years back) has over 40 firings.

In case you wondered where I went, I just went out and checked and they've been fired 42 times and trimmed 4 times. I think they get more wear being chambered and extracted, or in the tumbler then they do getting shot :-) BTW, I dislike case maintenance like a trip to the dentist.

................Buckshot