Anneal 45-70?

[grampa243]

to Anneal or not to Anneal that is the question.

i'm just starting to try Annealing. i'm sure it's beneficial for the smaller bottle necked stuff but, is there merit to doing it to the 45-70 brass?

anyone here Anneal their 45-70 or other straight walled brass?
it seems like most things i read say not to try Annealing handgun brass.

so what calibers are you Annealing?

[Tatume]

A friend of mine once ran an experiment to determine the life span of 38 Special cases using moderate loads. Although I don't remember the exact numbers, the cases ran well into the 20s before the necks started splitting. One batch was annealed and the experiment restarted. He finally gave up before any of them started splitting.

My 45-70 cases eventually split at the mouth from work hardening in the belling and crimping stages. When you see this start in a batch of cases, you can anneal the remainder and return them to service as if they were almost new. Annealing does work.

Take care, Tom

[groovy mike]

good answer ^
I have never bothered annealing straight walled cases, but find it necessary for 303 British.....

[pdawg_shooter]

I anneal all my brass every 5 shots. I use melted lead and water drop to keep the heads from softening. Must work, I have some 3006 LC 51 brass with over 30 full power load on them and still going strong. Same with my 44mag brass.

[cajun shooter]

Annealing is not just to save cases. It has a lot to do with down range performance. Ask any of your top BPCR shooters. If you don't care about your rifle shooting the best it can with each load then don't anneal.Take Care David

[blackthorn]

Handgun brass is not annealed due to the danger of criticaly softening the head as well as the body of the case. It has nothing to do with whether the case is straight-walled or not. Any comparison between handgun and rifle brass is like comparing apples to grapes.

[1Shirt]

I anneal all rifle brass as needed. This is usually between 5 and 7 loadings. I finger turn in flame of propane torch and drop in cold water when I get color change. Been doing it for years because it works for me. Not fancy, but effective. Have some LC-64 match brass that I have no idea how many times it has been loaded, but think at least 30.
1Shirt!

[joec]

I have 500 pieces of new Starline 45-70 brass that I anneal before trimming the first time and then about every 5 times I reload. Now I have some nickle Starline also that I've not used yet but will give it a try using the same method. I use the torch drill motor method personally.