anneal now???

[bigted]

i have around 100 rem cases that i have dedicated to my black powder shooting. the most recent fooling was soaking them in suddsy warm water for a couple days and i dunked them rit into the water rite outta the chamber.

so after finishing the washing and de-priming and cleaning pockets then letting them girate in the vibrator for a few hours and so on i figured i would size them becouse i hadnt done so for awhile and i have shot them in 3 different guns so i was going to dedicate some cases for a particular gun and keep them paired up.

upon sizing them tho i noticed that some were easy and some werent so easy...also i observed that none were in need of trimming so i finished them and allowed them to set overnite. then the other morning i went out to load my fav 68gr load with the felt wad op wad. upon compressing the wad n powder for the seating i began seating my lyman 520's in the case and i also wanted to crimp them over the top band for consistant preassure. upon loading the first one i see that the boolit jumps back out of the case upon the downstroke of the press....after four of these i stopped to try to figure out why this was happening.

upon meassuring the id of my cases i see that they are .4575 dia. meassurment of my boolits come in at .458 average. so i tryed to finger seat and walla...they slid rite home with the trapped air shoving them back out as soon as i released the boolit. on holding the boolit in for a 5 count...they stay where i want so then i finish the seat and crimp.

i then meassure my other 45-70 cases that i have sized n primed n ready for loading for my marlin [ the non bp cases]and they meassure .4565 id the same as the inside dia die that i use for belling the mouth.

so the longwinded question is this...have i workhardened my bp brass with shooting bp in them and dunking them instantly into water? is this why there seems like no elasticity in the brass in that they wont seem to size and retain the sized configuration? will annealing bring them back to the new like sizeability that they had at one time?

can someone remind me of the oven style annealing procedure? im gonna go search for the procedure but if it is easy to explain then id like to hear bout it here

thanks for staying with this longwinded explanation....:groner:...[smilie=b:

[August]

Remington brass is hard to begin with. It would benefit from annealing at any time. Once you anneal it, you can run it for many cycles without doing it again.

[montana_charlie]

have i workhardened my bp brass with shooting bp in them and dunking them instantly into water?

can someone remind me of the oven style annealing procedure? im gonna go search for the procedure but if it is easy to explain then id like to hear bout it here
No. Dropping freshly fired cases into water does not harden the brass.

You can anneal bullets in an oven, but not brass.
Brass requires a temperature of about 650 degrees to be softened (annealed) and kitchen ovens top out at 500.
Besides, an oven would heat the entire case, and you only want to soften the neck.

A propane torch and drill are the commonly owned tools that will get you by.
Here is a how-to for the process ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgD5D0Wzu-c

CM

[John Traveler]

You do not use an oven to anneal cartridge cases. Oven heating is not a good idea because it softens the entire case, including the head. What you want is case MOUTH annealing to maintain a consistent bullet tension and prevent future case mouth cracks.

The recommended procedure is to start with polished brass. Use a lead melting pot with temperature cranked up to 800 or 900 degrees, dip case mouth in grahphite to prevent leading sticking, and quickly dip half of case into the melt. Shake off any clinging lead, and drop in water.

An alternate method is to stand cases mouth up in pans with an inch or so of water in pan. With room lights dimmed or off, pass the flame of a propane torch over the case mouth slowly, watch the case mouth start to discolor (blue-to-purple, start to glow dull red, and pass the flame onto next case. You can tip case into water, but it is not necessary. You can use almost any convenient bottled gas, or even natural gas. Avoid bringing brass to bright red because that will burn the grain structure.

With periodic case annealing as described, your selected batch of cases will last indefinitely.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

I have tried the lead dipping method, got lead tinned to the brass, flinging hot lead droplets around is not recommended.

I use a spinner and a drill, any time and I mean any time you get red color in your brass you have over cooked it. I spin the case into the flame at a angle and in a darkened room, once we get some hit of color in the case it goes into a pan to air cool. Usually to the count of 8-10 Different temps and color of brass with yield a variance in your annealing, Air cooling allows a mild anneal and more consistent one.

The above outlined method has, gave the shooter, excellent results, at the target in regional and National level matches and a couple of World Records.

KW
The Lunger

[bigted]

thanks everybody! i thought i read about anealing in the oven but thinking about it...prolly was boolit tempering at that.

so i have either a propane torch settup and also a setalene settup. either will probably work tho huh? the setalene/oxy settup is adjustable with what kind of flame to be used...do i want a carbonizing flame or a clean flame...long tounge of yellow flame just about to smoke or a fairly short flame ?

maybe id be better off with just the propane torch as it is either on or off.

[montana_charlie]

maybe id be better off with just the propane torch as it is either on or off.
... good thinking ...