Annealing with BC 1000

[Lief]

I am hoping someone has a 357 (#18 I think) wheel for the BC 1000 they are willing to let go or can tell me where to find one. I have that annealer and I like it. I am in a .38 project and my old brass is splitting at the necks and I'm not hot-rodding it either. I have tossed all my nickel because they were the worst but I am getting some problems with my old brass too. I gave been careful with my load to be consistent but I am still getting swings in the speeds. I am thinking the brass is work-hardened and so I am not getting a consistent crimp, hence the desire to anneal. Any help, thoughts or advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.

Lief

[BattleRife]

The metallurgy of straight walled pistol cases is not exactly like that of bottlenecked rifle cases. I admit I haven't studied it in detail but the microstructure of most cases I have looked at, which includes .38 special, all along the case is like the microstructure of a rifle case close to the head. It consists of very large crystals with heavy cold work. Hardness is quite elevated, right around HV 200. I'm not saying annealing won't work to solve your issue, it well might, I just want to point out that you probably shouldn't base your process on assumptions extrapolated from working with rifle brass.

My own experience is that erratic velocities in .38 Special is due to inconsistent case neck tension. I once had a batch of brass that simply would not resize properly, they always sprang back and often you could spin the seated bullet with your fingers. I ended up with a few squibs and the heaviest crimp in the world didn't improve ignition. If I had the resources then I do now I would have tried some annealing experiments. but I simply scrapped the brass and got some new stuff.