Good idea to anneal virgin brass b4 1st firing?

[piie]

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.

This is interesting - and shame on me - I'm pretty sure I have given "advice" in the past that re-annealing would not cause any damage and probably thereby insinuated that it would make no difference if you re-anneal a piece of brass multiple times - as long as the temperature and time does not exceed the "normal" annealing temp and time.
It would be interesting to see what the effect on seating pressure is, and whether that 4Hv would become 8 and then 12 if you kept annealing - and if it is something you just see with induction annealers (which would hint at a conductivity change in the brass with each subsequent annealing?)

 

[tsyarnall]

Lapua brass without doing anything but loading, probably not. However, if I fire form or do any other type of working of the brass beyond loading, I do. To me, it’s always better to be safe than using brass that isn’t going to give me even, consistent neck tension. Like everything else, this is my practice. That I know of, it doesn’t hurt your brass to anneal it one more time before reloading it for the first time.

 

[NorCalMikie]

And, if you're into making Wildcats and you anneal "too much", you'll end up pushing the necks/shoulders down inside the case body. Better to have a little harder brass to avoid that issue. It's a learning thang!!

 

[farmerjohn]

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

"Proven" being the key word that caught my eye in your statement. Certainly not looking to disagree, but looking for informed ideas. I would be interested in knowing what you are using for proof of a given setting on your AMP. I've been reloading and anealing for over 50yrs and always concidered the process something kin to vudoo. What do you go by to tell if your setting is "just right" for your brass, are all the AMP machines close enough in manufacturing to give the same results at the same settings? The only way I could ever determine the proper amount of anealing is by feel in the resizing of a case and by the consistency of seating pressure... just looking for your thoughts here, John

 

[piie]

"Proven" being the key word that caught my eye in your statement. Certainly not looking to disagree, but looking for informed ideas. I would be interested in knowing what you are using for proof of a given setting on your AMP. I've been reloading and anealing for over 50yrs and always concidered the process something kin to vudoo. What do you go by to tell if your setting is "just right" for your brass, are all the AMP machines close enough in manufacturing to give the same results at the same settings? The only way I could ever determine the proper amount of anealing is by feel in the resizing of a case and by the consistency of seating pressure... just looking for your thoughts here, John

Yes, so in a subsequent post I admitted that this "advice" was not correct - given the "official" response from the manufacturers of AMP. However, to answer your question - by "proven" I meant the setting you get when you sacrifice one of your representative samples of brass so that the machine can determine the setting for you ( you could of course also go by standard lookup values that AMP have determined over time for various brass manufacturers and batched, but I would guess that the Aztec method is going to be a better match for your specific set of brass.

 

[D-4297]

Not long ago ; I got four boxes of new Lapua SRP .308 , and sought the advice of some very highly ranked shooters for Their process with new brass . One ; A highly ranked and well known Sling Shooter told me He had just shot a World Record at Lodi , and he only had time to do a light de-burr on the inside , run the Expander , Deburr the inside and out fully . Load and Go. A very well known TR shooter said He doesn't anneal until after the second firing on Lapua . And a very noted shooter , and researcher said that all his testing showed the third reload with Lapua SRP was the most accurate , before annealing . Pick your poison , Gentlemen . And Ladies . Three different answers ,from three very respected shooters and reloaders .

 

[1shot]

Ever since I lost 10% of Lapua brass fire-forming 6BRX, I anneal everything every time. In regards to uniforming primer pockets, I don't do that until after the first firing. There is a small amount of movement in the brass in the first firing I only want to this stem once.
I hope this helps,
Lloyd