Annealed too much :/
- Thread starter vmaxpro
- Start date
After firing did they work harden any?
Not nearly enough lol. Funny thing is ive done it before with my 223 and it actually shot a little better past 300. And when I say flier I mean 3 touching and 1 or 2 6" off group! It would do it with no pattern either. Actually now that I think about it I bet straightening some of them on the hornady gage did it. Usually Ill hold less than 2 thou of runout and some of them were out 10 or more.
It’s not hard to anneal just to soften the case a little so that the necks don’t split. A person could do this with the old drill/socket/torch. Just got to be careful not to over anneal the neck and shoulders and not soften the head.
However, annealing for increase accuracy is a completely different animal. Here you are trying to anneal so that your neck and shoulders have the same degree of softness but yet not too soft so that they are mush and you lose your neck tension or to have different degrees of softness. Remember annealing is analog which means the more you anneal, the softer the brass gets. Your really only want to anneal to normalize the softness back to the state when the brass was new and to remove that work harden effect from firing. To do this, you have to:
1) Set your torch so that the amount of heat it gives out is unchanging (this is the easiest).
2) Consistently anneal the same location i.e. point the torch at the same location.
3) Locate your torch so that the distance between the flame and your brass is always the same.
4) Distribute the heat evenly over the surface of the neck and shoulder which means the brass has to rotate.
5) Anneal all your brass for the same amount of time.
If you do all of the above correctly, you will have brass that is annealed to the correct degree and in the same correct location. If you don’t your neck tension will be affected. The only way I have found to do the above is with a machine. People think that annealing machines are needed to anneal large amount of brass. This is true but it is also true that they allow you to accurately and precisely anneal your brass in a way that you cannot achieve using a manual method.
However, annealing for increase accuracy is a completely different animal. Here you are trying to anneal so that your neck and shoulders have the same degree of softness but yet not too soft so that they are mush and you lose your neck tension or to have different degrees of softness. Remember annealing is analog which means the more you anneal, the softer the brass gets. Your really only want to anneal to normalize the softness back to the state when the brass was new and to remove that work harden effect from firing. To do this, you have to:
1) Set your torch so that the amount of heat it gives out is unchanging (this is the easiest).
2) Consistently anneal the same location i.e. point the torch at the same location.
3) Locate your torch so that the distance between the flame and your brass is always the same.
4) Distribute the heat evenly over the surface of the neck and shoulder which means the brass has to rotate.
5) Anneal all your brass for the same amount of time.
If you do all of the above correctly, you will have brass that is annealed to the correct degree and in the same correct location. If you don’t your neck tension will be affected. The only way I have found to do the above is with a machine. People think that annealing machines are needed to anneal large amount of brass. This is true but it is also true that they allow you to accurately and precisely anneal your brass in a way that you cannot achieve using a manual method.
alf
Silver $$ Contributor
vmaxpro said:
Are you sure you think they're too soft?
I anneal everything every time, and on some guns that I use the regular full length die on, I've been known to polish the expander ball down another thou or so to give a little more neck tension. Or drop down another bushing size.
I think you need to explore a little more tension......
BenchSource recommends 650 and 400 degree F Templaq and this is what I use. If you are not using these or watching carefully in a dark room to make sure the brass does not heat to a red glow, you are just winging it like the guys who think heating it until it is bright red or orange is OK. ???DennisH said:
It seems to me that the flaw in the annealing process is torch adjustment. I built my own annealer with a fixed burner temperature. I can't see why this can't be done with any of them. I'm sure that a hose with a regulator can be set up with a on off valve so the torches can be set and left set. Mike
i anneal using a hand held torch with the case spinning in a b&d variable speed drill mounted upside down in a vise...one at the time and look for the color change. mine look just like lapua's! now, DON'T DO THIS!!! yesterday i was torching a 6 br case and it HAD A PRIMER IN IT!! yes, it went bang. the flash went to my left and the primer was just out of the case. we can hurt ourselves or others. i checked the rest of the cases and, yes, two more had primers!! thanks for the temp requirements to anneal. i'll share this with a friend who BAKES his brass in his wife's oven and believes he is doing something to the brass. he won't believe it and will keep on doing as he has always done...he thinks the earth is flat.
Look at ballistics edge,I have one and it works perfectly and very affordable.
What is a KB?
Sray53TXTN
Silver $$ Contributor
Speculation:
KB = kaboom?
CoverDog got me by a minute ;D
KB = kaboom?
CoverDog got me by a minute ;D
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