Annealing

[castmiester]

Is it needed for straight wall cases ?

[duckndawg]

most will tell you no. In my experience shooting BP subs in CAS in 38 special, I anneal the cases and it made a HUGE difference in the lever action rifle as far as the action staying clean. I can shoot a 5 stage match without having to lube the carrier in between stages. YMMV

[pworley1]

It depends on weather you load with a heavy crimp or no crimp, or how much you have to expand the mouth to load the brass, anytime you work the brass you are hardening it and making it more likely to split. The question for me is "is it worth the effort?" and the answer is usually not. Unless the brass is very expensive and hard to find, I don't.

[castmiester]

in regards to expanding/belling, mainly expanding.....

[dverna]

It depends on weather you load with a heavy crimp or no crimp, or how much you have to expand the mouth to load the brass, anytime you work the brass you are hardening it and making it more likely to split. The question for me is "is it worth the effort?" and the answer is usually not. Unless the brass is very expensive and hard to find, I don't.

What he said.

[243winxb]

No, not needed. If you do, case head must be kept below 400 degrees. Primers out. Case head sitting in water.

[centershot]

243winxb brings up a good point; Regarding pistol brass, because the case is so short, it is more important to control heat transfer to the case head. I wouldn't anneal with a case held in a socket spinning in the flame of a torch! The water bath would be the preferred method if you don't have a machine that will precisely control temperature and heat.

[castmiester]

My problem with using expanders, with even bottle neck cases, to get the neck tension that's needed and is time consuming. I remember having the necks dragging a Lee collet neck die mandrel withdrawing the case. After annealing provided spring back that was sufficient and they stopped dragging the mandrel. My issue is case bulging when seating cast boolits.

duckanddog

In my experience shooting BP subs in CAS in 38 special, I anneal the cases and it made a HUGE difference in the lever action rifle as far as the action staying clean.

Thanks for that.

centershot

Regarding pistol brass, because the case is so short, it is more important to control heat transfer to the case head

Good to know

pworley1

"is it worth the effort?"

If it prevents case bulging, yes. I got away from standard FL dies and went to body dies and Lee Collet dies. I know I asked on another thread about standard carbide and cowboy dies. The inserts are larger on the cowboy dies.

I'm assuming cowboys don't oversize case mouths.

CH4D makes custom expander/bell mandrels.

1 thou under the bullet diameter to avoid as much shaving of the base of the bullet as possible.

Guess neck tension isn't as critical considering a heavy crimp is needed for a magnum cartridge. I recently bought some factory 44 Mag ammo from Barnes that didn't have a crimp

Getting ready to slug my Redhawk soon to see where I'm at. Was told they have a pretty consistent groove diameters.

[ipopum]

I have not tried pistil cases but do anneal rifle cases. I use a alcohol burner that i made that heats just right for me.

No worry about to hot but heats fast enough to many cases at 1 time. No black soot to clean off of the case neck either.

[JimB..]

I’ve annealed 357 mag and 41 mag cases to prolong life, it works for me. I have not annealed anything as short as 38spcl

[stubshaft]

I anneal magnum length and longer pistol brass. It doesn't take a lot of time or effort and keeps the mouths from splitting.

[Gav-n-Tn]

No, not needed. If you do, case head must be kept below 400 degrees. Primers out. Case head sitting in water.

I watched a video of Starline making pistol brass and the whole thing went into the oven. Kinda threw me off because everyone says not to anneal the web.

[Gav-n-Tn]

Correction on my post. I went back and watched that segment of the video. The brass is annealed after the first draw with more draws to come. Annealing the whole case makes sense at that point.

[Gav-n-Tn]

For anyone interested and poor like me, I bought this propane torch kit at HF for the tip that provides a circular flame. I just need to figure out the dwell time in order to not over heat.

[John Wayne]

I watched a video of Starline making pistol brass and the whole thing went into the oven. Kinda threw me off because everyone says not to anneal the web.

I have not seen that video but they may have "normalizing" the brass and not annealing the brass.
JW

[M-Tecs]

Not needed normally but annealing improves accuracy and case life.

[John Wayne]

For anyone interested and poor like me, I bought this propane torch kit at HF for the tip that provides a circular flame. I just need to figure out the dwell time in order to not over heat.

You apply a temperature paint, "Tempilac" rated at the temp you want to reach. Split second it starts to burn/ change color you stop. You'll have to rotate the case evenly and not get burnt. I would buy an "Annealez". Search the archives for more.
JW

[45_Colt]

For anyone interested and poor like me, I bought this propane torch kit at HF for the tip that provides a circular flame. I just need to figure out the dwell time in order to not over heat.

That circle flame attachment looks interesting. Should work a treat.

As for how long in the flame to anneal. Darken the room and look at the brass as you heat it up. Once it starts to glow red, done. Do that a few times while counting up 1001, 1002, 1003, ... until red.

Can then continue using the proper count with the lights on.

45_Colt

[Gav-n-Tn]

That circle flame attachment looks interesting. Should work a treat.

As for how long in the flame to anneal. Darken the room and look at the brass as you heat it up. Once it starts to glow red, done. Do that a few times while counting up 1001, 1002, 1003, ... until red.

Can then continue using the proper count with the lights on.

45_Colt

I got it home, hooked it up and turned it on. It produces a perfect circle of flame so no need to rotate the case. It’s going to be a 100% manual operation because of the U-shape. I’m going to just lower it over. I watched another video shot in the Remington factory about 8 times trying to count how long they kept it in the flame. It was longer than you would think and kinda surprised me after reading so much on the interwebs about over annealing.