Organizing multiply-annealed brass?

[huntinlever]

Just annealed my first 100 or so 45-70 used Starlines. Never done it before, thanks to all the members who contributed. Previously I'd just thought to re-load the brass until it failed to pass muster by inspection.

Question: how do you guys maintain a protocol for brass that has been through several annealings? I.e., for this brass, I'm only estimating it all was close to 10X used. So, now I annealed them. Would I simply call these "annealed" and essentially they could be treated as any other fired and annealed brass, irrespective of how many annealing cycles they've gone through?

I.e.: one "lot" of brass has been loaded 4X. It is cleaned and annealed. Thus it has seen one cycle.
Another lot has been loaded 4X, then annealed, then loaded again 4X, then annealed again. It has seen two annealing cycles. For all intents and purposes, could you consider these equivalent and you don't keep them in separate containers, or do you basically have a container marked "4X fired, 1X annealed," another might say "8X fired, 2X annealed," another might have brass that has seen 15 firings and 3 annealings, and it has its own container marked accordingly? If you get 20 total cycles, 400 total cases, you clean and anneal lots of 150 at a time, you might have, well, let's say - a lot of sorted containers to manage correctly?

Trying to cut down on stacks and stacks of containers with separate labels, unless that's just a bad idea and...label and sort everything. Thanks.

[FergusonTO35]

I wish you luck. I can usually get at least 15 shots out of a rifle round before the mouth starts to split. Even more if I don't overly flare or crimp. I once had a batch of 9mm brass that I reloaded at least 30 times before the rims became too misshapen to cycle anymore.

[BLAHUT]

For me, with my 45/70, I load light, 500 gr, 1200 FPS, don't anneal, very gentil bell / flare, do not crimp, indexed to chamber, run all brass through the reload stream, when primer pockets get loose, then start culling, when enough need to be replaced, scrap the hole lot and get new. Have a new case of 45/70 brass sitting on the shelf, don't Rember the last time I scrapped the hole lot. Before covide, I shot these at least 100 rounds a week in practice, most every week. For my hunting guns in 45/70, shot one time, then trashed... Now haven't gotten out to the range much lately....

[huntinlever]

For me, with my 45/70, I load light, 500 gr, 1200 FPS, don't anneal, very gentil bell / flare, do not crimp, indexed to chamber, run all brass through the reload stream, when primer pockets get loose, then start culling, when enough need to be replaced, scrap the hole lot and get new. Have a new case of 45/70 brass sitting on the shelf, don't Rember the last time I scrapped the hole lot. Before covide, I shot these at least 100 rounds a week in practice, most every week. For my hunting guns in 45/70, shot one time, then trashed... Now haven't gotten out to the range much lately....

There's definitely a single-shot in my future. I'd love to cast those big boys. For my lever, I have to crimp so the annealing makes sense, now that I learned more. Would you say just anneal every X times, and just do what I did before - watch for loose primer pockets (I see maybe a blown hole every few hundred cases. Well, one or two, ever) or split mouth, etc., and let that determine?

Really what I'm wondering is whether all annealed brass can be tossed together regardless of how many cycles any one case case or cases have been through? Or should I really keep all these different cases sorted by no. of cycles?

[freakonaleash]

I don't know what to tell you about annealing. I had a split case neck today on a Winchester .45LC that has been shot uncountable times. I must have bought this brass back in 2007 or so. It's been mostly shot with black powder and low-end cowboy loads. So, I have thought about annealing but I get so many shots from my brass now I figure it doesn't owe me anything and just buy some new brass. I never throw out brass until I get a split case.

[huntinlever]

I feel pretty wealthy at the moment. I just bought a lot of new Starline, so much so, actually, I realized I don't need it all and was glad to be able to sell a couple hundred at cost to a couple of fellow members.

Now, pretty excited to see...whether I'll ever actually tap the new brass. Hoping it will outlast me!

[RSAPD]

Paul, just my 2 cents that you don't need to keep track of annealed 45-70 brass. Now you can keep track of how many times you have fired that brass but I don't think many people even do that. They just toss when it fails inspection because 45-70 brass lasts a long time. I do keep track of my 30-06 and 30 WCF brass. Because I FL resize and crimp a lot of it and the M1 Garand is hard on cases. The case from a Garand looks like it has been in knife fight compared to a bolt action case. - Tom

[Snakeoil]

If you shoot BP there is no need to resize or crimp the case. That pretty much means the cases will last indefinitely. I competed in BPCR for years and used the same 60 cases. Not sure if I still have them. May have given them to the guy who bought the Shiloh. I don't believe I've ever split a .45-70 case.

I shoot my 03 Springfield at least twice a month in matches, sometime 3 times if there is a 5th Sunday. I know that I have fired at least 5000 rounds of reduced load cast bullet loads using the same 60 cases and have maybe replace 2 or 3, not including several that got crushed when my Lee collet sizer jammed shut. I neck size and use an M-die. I never flare a case and never crimp a case. 0.002 neck tension is all you need. I think I've annealed my cases 3 times, maybe 4. I built an automated annealer to make it a snap. I can anneal 60 cases in about 5 minutes.

[country gent]

I dont actually keep track of times annealed. But I anneal every 3rd loading and do keep track of the number of times the cases are loaded.

You will still want to inspect for primer pockets and head separations.

[RSAPD]

If you shoot BP there is no need to resize or crimp the case. That pretty much means the cases will last indefinitely. I competed in BPCR for years and used the same 60 cases. Not sure if I still have them. May have given them to the guy who bought the Shiloh. I don't believe I've ever split a .45-70 case.

I shoot my 03 Springfield at least twice a month in matches, sometime 3 times if there is a 5th Sunday. I know that I have fired at least 5000 rounds of reduced load cast bullet loads using the same 60 cases and have maybe replace 2 or 3, not including several that got crushed when my Lee collet sizer jammed shut. I neck size and use an M-die. I never flare a case and never crimp a case. 0.002 neck tension is all you need. I think I've annealed my cases 3 times, maybe 4. I built an automated annealer to make it a snap. I can anneal 60 cases in about 5 minutes.

Hi Rob, I don't shoot cast in my 30-06s but i do the same as you and only neck size and don't crimp for my M1917. How do you start your cast bullet without flaring? Impressive life span even with reduced loads!

[stubshaft]

I dont actually keep track of times annealed. But I anneal every 3rd loading and do keep track of the number of times the cases are loaded.

You will still want to inspect for primer pockets and head separations.

I follow pretty much the same protocol.