Good idea to anneal virgin brass b4 1st firing?

[PJ1]

I ask this question since I saw it suggested on another forum. Justification being that annealing is somewhat hit or miss at the manufacturer and that that can affect seating pressure. I have noticed that on my Lapua 6.5 CM virgin brass, that seating pressure can vary considerably ( by feel ). Gotten to the point where I can tell by the es numbers and the grouping which had the higher seating pressure. Lighter seating with lower es's giving me 0.5 or less moa.

I normally don't anneal virgin brass, but mandrel and set tension for about 0.002" Moly the insides of necks b4 and after mandrel, then prime, powder, and seat bullet.

 

[drop_point]

I was under the impression the brass was annealed at the factory? Perhaps that's not the case.

 

[DiffEQ]

Lapua and Peterson brass that I have are both annealed at the factory. I don't bother annealing them, but I also do not have a force gauge on my seater. What I do note is the force required is consistent.
RP & Win? Ha!
I convert Lapua 300 PRC brass to 7LRM, but have to anneal it first because it's too darned tough.

 

[fkimble@charter.net]

You need to inside chamfer new brass before you do anything else to it!

EDIT: mandrel first to insure round neck before chamfering.

Frank

 

[PopCharlie]

Interesting thread. I was working on new Lapua 6br brass yesterday. Thinking about annealing after the initial sizing and neck turning. I open the necks up to .242 to turn them from .013 to .011, then for. 011 to .009. I'm thinking about annealing after this step. Then uniform the primer pocket, then final f/l sizing with a .257 bushing and .240 mandrel.
Just a thought. It might make seating easier. I'm going to be shooting 95gr Bib flat base bullets. I use an AMP annealer after each firing.

PopCharlie

 

[DocBII]

PJ1,

I've reached the point where I anneal all new brass, unless it came with a primer. Doesn't appear to hurt anything if not needed, makes seating more consistent.

PopCharlie,

Anneal before neck turning, it will ease and improve neck turning.

YMMV,
DocBII

 

[Ned Ludd]

I can't see where it would actually hurt you to anneal virgin brass. Having said that, in light of all the other dimensional changes that are going to happen as the brass is fire-formed, do you think an extra annealing step really going to do very much?

 

[SKWERLZ]

Chamfer and set proper tension with a mandrel, a lot of brass including the good stuff is stupid tight when new.

 

[Triple BB]

My Lapua and ADG brass comes annealed, so I anneal all my other new brass…

 

[PatMiles]

Question is, how many forming processes did the brass go through after it was annealed last at the factory. Don't know... anneal it.

 

[JMayo]

I never have. Prep it then shoot it.

 

[Dave M.]

I ask this question since I saw it suggested on another forum. Justification being that annealing is somewhat hit or miss at the manufacturer and that that can affect seating pressure. I have noticed that on my Lapua 6.5 CM virgin brass, that seating pressure can vary considerably ( by feel ). Gotten to the point where I can tell by the es numbers and the grouping which had the higher seating pressure. Lighter seating with lower es's giving me 0.5 or less moa.

I normally don't anneal virgin brass, but mandrel and set tension for about 0.002" Moly the insides of necks b4 and after mandrel, then prime, powder, and seat bullet.

I never anneal new brass, but I also don’t put much stock in the group size on new brass until it has been fired and annealed twice

 

[Sandstorm]

I fireform my Lapua 284 Brass in Competitions and it usually shoots cleans....so whats the point.
Dont need any extra processes and heck its competitive.

 

[Metal God]

This is an interesting question because although brass IS annealed when being made , in fact it's my understanding it's annealed several times as it's drawn out . The thing that makes this interesting is that I'm not sure if a new fully formed cases gets a final annealing before it's shipped . So I'm posting to follow , thanks for the question .

 

[chop house]

Justification being that annealing is somewhat hit or miss at the manufacturer

i am not an expert.... BUT... from what i have read on this forum from people that are.... your chances of doing a more consistent job of annealing than the factory does are very, shall we say, slim.

so, knowing that virgin brass tune is usually different than fireformed anyway, i am not convinced absolute seating consistency is that important on the first loading. round up the necks, chamfer and go.

 

[PJ1]

I'm all for minimizing unnecessary steps in brass prep and that's a large part of why I asked the question. KISS is my motto, but the ammo manufacturer that suggested this caught my attention. Let's face it..............You think I'm smart enough to come up with something like this? Most of the time, I just mandrel the new brass as I figure that the fire-forming is going to iron out issues after 2-3 times.

Still, it might be an interesting experiment for say 30-40 rounds and see what happens.

 

[piie]

I'm all for minimizing unnecessary steps in brass prep and that's a large part of why I asked the question. KISS is my motto, but the ammo manufacturer that suggested this caught my attention. Let's face it..............You think I'm smart enough to come up with something like this? Most of the time, I just mandrel the new brass as I figure that the fire-forming is going to iron out issues after 2-3 times.

Still, it might be an interesting experiment for say 30-40 rounds and see what happens.

This is where an AMP really shines IMHO - if in doubt just anneal again with same, proven settings.

 

[PopCharlie]

PJ1,

I've reached the point where I anneal all new brass, unless it came with a primer. Doesn't appear to hurt anything if not needed, makes seating more consistent.

PopCharlie,

Anneal before neck turning, it will ease and improve neck turning.

YMMV,
DocBII

I'll give it a try...

 

[Ironman308]

This is from FAQ on the AMP site.

Our target annealed hardness for all brass is 100 Hv. Provided the necks are harder than this to start with, that is what our programs are calibrated to deliver. If the same case is then re-annealed after cooling down, the neck hardness will drop slightly by approx. 4 Hv. The brass will still be fine, and when shot and resized it will come back to regular hardness. For absolute consistency we wouldn't recommend including that case in your match ammo, but it will be fine next time around. If the same brass is re-annealed when still hot, it will probably be ruined.

 

[6BRA]

Your shoulder bump is probably inconsistent on virgin brass. I know Lapua is... why bother? Fireform anneal fireform again and then worry about the little things.