New Brass ?

[johnme]

I went to LGS and bought first ever new brass. Happens to be win. brand in 45-70. I am new enough in reloading, but I know that I will have to check sizing, etc. But the brass shows no sign of annealing inside or out. Should I just go ahead and reload or anneal all the brass first? Anneal after first rounds fired ? I am going to keep track of this ammo so I anneal at the correct times. What does everyone do with there brass after a few reloads as far as annealing goes on 45-70. The cast 405's I reload have a deep lip to roll crimp into and want to get as many reloads out of these I can . Thanks everyone !!

[w5pv]

I would anneal after about three shot.Resize the brass first,I wasted a little time by trying to load new brass with out sizing if first.The brass was 45 colt and was to large to grip the bullet.

[cbrick]

All new brass IS annealed, they couldn't manufacture it without annealing. Most all brass for the commercial market (reloaders) is tumbled so you don't see the annealing. Some factory loaded ammo isn't tumbled and military brass isn't tumbled. No need at all to anneal your new brass.

Don't over crimp. Just because the boolit has a deep crimp doesn't mean you have to fill it with brass. Just enough crimp to keep the boolit from moving, no more.

Rick

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

I have been handloading since the 60s and have yet to anneal a piece of brass.

Now, in no way am I saying it is bad or incorrect to do so, but just that it is no where near the first thing you need to do.

Congrats on finding the new brass.

Winchester is good stuff.

However, Keep your eyes open and buy Starline brass next time. Great product and at least a 1/3 less in cost.

And Rick's advice on not over crimping is good. Flair and crimp just what is needed and nothing more.

On my RUGER #1 45/70, single shot, I would not crimp at all except it seems to increase the quality of my loads.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[waco]

I agree with coot. In 14 years of casting, reloading, I too have never annealed a piece of brass. I'm sure I could have gained more case life in some cases ( pun intended )

[Randy in Arizona]

I lucked out a couple of weeks ago.
The LGS had 100 Starline 45/70 for 22.95 / 50.
I checked the price that evening, and beat feet back ASAP to buy it.
Too bad that was all they had!

The only brass that I have found I had to anneal was some LC 63 Match I fireformed for 243 Super Rockchucker.
When I originally made them, no problem.
The box of 20 I had not fireformed at the time I made the rest, lost about 60% when I fireformed them 40 years later.
I got some Winchester 25-06 brass to work with for the next try. Ought to work better.

72

[dtknowles]

I agree that you not only don't need to anneal new brass, you should not. It should be properly anneal already and annealing now would over anneal the brass. You should anneal after a few loadings but over annealing or annealing unevenly will hurt your accuracy because it will cause variability in bullet tension/release. This could be insignificant depending on style or purpose of shooting. I do recommend annealing to increase case life and is not hard to do right but is not trivial.

I had loaded some .22 Hornet more than 20 years ago and then let them sit for 15 or more years while focused on other things. When I opened the boxes, thinking of taking them to the range I found that maybe a quarter of the rounds had developed neck splits while in storage. Thinking of the work to save the undamaged brass, I decided to just go shoot the lot splits and all. Accuracy was as good as I remembered (did not have any notes to compare, but I know the rifle pretty well). A few more split when fired but not a lot. I annealed the ones that survived and am still shooting them today. They have probably have been annealed again. I don't keep many records after I have developed my loads, just load some more and go shoot. This is a bad habit, keep good records, how can we benefit unless we take notes and report to the group. Guilty as charged and will try to do better in the future. I posted another tread about my new hornet bullet mold and it dropping at 0.226 +/-. That bullet is a barely slips into a fired case (Super X, important later) and I fired them seated to cover both lube bands and with one exposed and the bullet touching the rifling (something I tried with a 6mm PPC). The short rounds shot more accurately but at 1.3 MOA vs. 1.5 MOA at 100 yards from front and rear bags and a brisk and variable wind and no wind flags. This is a Ruger #3. I loaded some more this past week and found out (dugh) that the bullets are not all snug in all my brass. I don't have the right mike so I don't know if it is the neck thickness or maybe the pressure of the load and the brass spring back due to possible variable brass hardness. Like I mentioned, I anneal and different lots of brass have a different number of loads (Very Many :-) ), can't tell you because I have not kept any records (stupid). It is R-P brass that too big. I think it is cool that I can load these round without sizing either the brass or the bullets. I could load the rounds at the range with just a decapper, priming tool and a powder measure.

Tim

[Baja_Traveler]

I've got a big Buffalo Match next weekend, and needed more than the 350 rounds I have loaded for my Sharps - checked Starline and they were out of stock as expected, but were accepting pre-orders. I pre-ordered 250 expecting to get it next year, but got super lucky, it's being delivered this Tuesday! Probably got 50 reloads out of the brass I have and haven't lost one yet due to cracking. I'm sure annealing has its place in some hotter rounds, but not with a 45-70...

[gandydancer]

How about older 45/70 brass"new"but old. purchased in 1985 remington 500 rounds in box. will it get brittle after sitting around for years? anneal? or trim and use?

[dtknowles]

How about older 45/70 brass"new"but old. purchased in 1985 remington 500 rounds in box. will it get brittle after sitting around for years? anneal? or trim and use?

New old brass should be fine. It was not so much that my brass got brittle in storage as that the brass was already at the edge of splitting and the thermal cycling of the loaded rounds pushed it over the edge. Fifteen years with brass that was already set to fail, some might have already, just don't remember.

Tim