Annealing Last

[erich greer]

I think I'm going to stop annealing all together. I made a batch of 6.5 Creedmoor handloads comparing my annealed brass vs. Federal premium unannealed brass. I Uniformed all flasholes and trimmed the cases to 1.91. I loaded 42 grains of H4350 with a .01 Jump. At 100 yards it was hard to say wich was better. At 300 yards the federal cases were more consistent. At 600 yards I found myself dialing up and down over and over with my annealed brass. Rather than waste more time and money trying to perfect the annealing process I found some Alpha brass that is supposedly as hard as Lapua brass.

Does anyone have experience with Alpha Brass?

 

[Webster]

I’ve decided to modify my reloading procedure in order to place annealing at the end of the process, after ultrasonic cleaning, and prior to reconstructing a loaded round with primer, powder, and bullet. My logic for doing this is as follows: According to information available on the AMP website, the actual firing of a cartridge does not affect the hardness of the brass significantly. That would seem to indicate that if the cases were annealed prior to firing, after firing they would be in essentially the same condition and would not be damaged by the reloading process without first annealing. Granted, we all do things a little differently but in general, returning an empty case to the point that it is ready for reloading usually involves full length sizing, case trimming, neck sizing, neck expansion ...etc, with varying degrees of cleaning in between. Again according to AMP’s website, these operations will add approximately 30 HV in work hardening to the neck/shoulder area of the brass case. In order to achieve the most uniform neck grip, this work hardening should be removed by annealing prior to seating the bullet.

Early results of this change look promising. Time will tell if annealing at the end of the process is better than after initial cleaning – as I was doing before. Others may have already come to this conclusion and it seems to make sense to me.

Ken

Firing the round doesn't add much hardness but sizing 2 thou does? 30 HV is a small hardness change. I performed hardness testing my entire 45 year career. I don't worry about small details, if I cannot see a difference on the target I keep it simple. I have a very nice varmint rifle, I think I got lucky and got a barrel that deserves to be on a better rifle. On a good day I can shoot .250” - .350" round groups and I know the rifle can do better but I will never archive it because of the stock, support and my lack of skill. Any improvement in group will not come from the loading bench but from improving my personal skills. I shoot a few groups in the 1s every year with my 6BR. No matter what your procedure if you do it the same way you get similar results (hardness, grip or whatever). Annealing doesn't eliminate grip it just reduces it. A smaller bushing should adjust the grip to whatever you want. I never pull an expander ball thru the neck.

 

[Webster]

Hi shoot4fun,

When I say distortion, I'm referring to any changes in dimension. Annealing of cartridge brass occurs rapidly at approximately 800°F ± 25°F. This temperature is not hot enough to change any dimension of the neck/shoulder area of the cartridge case. What annealing will affect is the spring-back inherent in the neck of work hardened brass versus annealed brass. By annealing as a last step, I'm willing to accept a small amount of potential spring-back in exchange for the most uniform hardness in the neck area I can get. I might mention that none of my reloading sizings are extreme. By that I mean that most of the time, I barely can tell I'm doing anything at all to the cartridge.

Ken

Annealing first or last doesn't affect uniformity. Do it the same way you get the same result.