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annealing

I have a 338-378 Weatherby that was developing cracks in the necks after the 2nd firing.
After annealing, I was able shoot and reload more. How many times more? Not sure.
Still waiting for my shoulder to heal :)

I anneal any belted magnum after every firing.
 
Factory chambers tend to be pretty "roomy" and the necks have quite a bit of expansion on each firing - and a lot of "excessive" size reduction when resizing with factory dies which don't use bushings. This combo of large chamber neck and excessive die sizing work-hardens the brass on each firing/resizing cycle. If you use bushing dies and use a bushing that doesn't excessively take your neck down - you can usually get by with at least three to five firings before necks start to split. This also depends on brand of brass. Some will go somewhat longer. Unfortunately, necks will sometimes split after they are loaded, even though no sign of a split was present after sizing. To have a few do that after you have charged your cases sucks. So best to be proactive and anneal every third round. If you have time to kill - it doesn't hurt to increase frequency. I think "optimum life" without annealing would come using quality brass and a bushing die which is sized about .004" smaller than the neck of your loaded brass. You really don't want much smaller than this as you will again find yourself overworking the brass. Any larger, and you may experience bullet slippage on those rounds in your magazine when a round is fired due to the somewhat significant recoil.
 
Whisky Tahoe Foxtrot said:
I have a 338-378 Weatherby that was developing cracks in the necks after the 2nd firing.
After annealing, I was able shoot and reload more. How many times more? Not sure.
Still waiting for my shoulder to heal :)

I anneal any belted magnum after every firing.
Click to expand...
Would you mind sharing your load for your 338-378 thanks
 
power55316 said:
Would you mind sharing your load for your 338-378 thanks
Click to expand...
I would (with caution) if I could find my notes.
Hodgdon has loads for H1000, Retumbo, and H4831.
Both H1000 and Retumbo are "brewed" with "unobtanium".

Hodgdon lists the max charge for H4831 at 101 gr pushing a 250gr bullet at 2951 measured in their rifle with a pressure of 53800. Max SAAMI pressure is listed as 63,817 psi so there is a little head room to gradually work up from Hodgdon's data after confirming a less than max load is safe in your rifle. Anytime you touch off over 100 grains of powder, some caution is warranted.

Nosler provides data for IMR7828.
https://load-data.nosler.com/load-data/338-378-weatherby-magnum/

When I sit down to start again with 338-378, I plan to chronograph my loads and look for a balance with velocity and accuracy between 300 and 600 yards. Paying for Weatherby ammo is what largely got me into reloading.
 
rebs said:
does annealing just extend case life or does it affect accuracy as well ?
Click to expand...
For most cartridges, annealing will extend case life.
Considerably more where there's a large headspace gap.
Though like everything, your mileage may vary.
Those who don't feel the need to anneal have their reasons.

Accuracy can be improved by annealing which can make it possible to have more consistent neck tension.
Annealing is one step in that journey.
If you aren't doing more than just annealing, may or may not see improvement.

The metallurgy research provided by AMP is pretty good and is focused on the science not just their product.
https://www.ampannealing.com/index/ then click on the research tab to get more info.
 
Case life is more often limited by primer pocket expansion, and annealing does nothing to improve that. Neck splits are the secondary concern for those who can get great case life, dozens of reloads, but annealing is mostly about neck tension and seating pressure issues that have everything to do with starting pressure and group consistency.

I'm not seeing any significant changes in neck tension after 3 or 4 firings in 338LM and Lapua brass, but I'll probably anneal before loading the 5th cycle. One thing I've noticed with cases this large after annealing is if the neck is clean, seating a bullet may collapse the case, so I don't SS pin tumble them anymore.
 
ebb said:
Has it ever been proven that annealing helps with case life or accuracy? I would like to believe.
Click to expand...

Hmmm??? If you haven't already. . . you might want to read all these articles:

www.ampannealing.com

Induction Annealer | The Latest Research | AMP

View the latest articles from AMP Annealing. Get tips and tricks from our R&D. Here we upload articles to provide your the best possible information on innovations in the annealing process.
www.ampannealing.com www.ampannealing.com
 
So annealing depends on how the rifle was built in my opinion.

Brass in rifles with custom spec chambers matched to custom built dies and quality brass like Lapua or ADG will remain consistent with headspace and neck tension while almost never requiring annealing.

Factory chambers and off the shelf dies will work the brass extremely hard and I feel annealing is almost a requirement to keep the brass healthy.
 
ebb said:
Has it ever been proven that annealing helps with case life or accuracy? I would like to believe.
Click to expand...

The following targets were shot out of my 223 that I built for shooting Prairie Dogs this year.
Same rifle (obviously), exact same load.
The only difference was annealed or not annealed.
And yes these were both 10 shot groups at 200 yards and shot on the same day.

So for this rifle, yes annealing helps accuracy.

My gun I built for 2019 PD hunting didn't give a damn about annealing and shot one hole groups.

So the bottom line is......It all depends...LOL
 

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