Hardened case necks

[mtang45]

After reading some posts on here about work hardened case necks and the annealing process I had an epiphany. I was going through and FL sizing a batch of rifle brass that had been accumulating and noticed that the expander ball was sometimes much more difficult to remove from the neck on some cases (same brand). Is this likely due to the neck on those difficult cases already being somewhat work hardened?

If thats the situation then I need to figure out how to get into annealing much quicker than I thought I would.

 

[people]

Here is what I noticed.

 

[BoydAllen]

Another way to see inconsistency in the annealing/work hardening within a given lot of brass is to look at shoulder bump inconsistency. Friends who have annealed cases, have seen more consistent bullet seating force, and shoulder bump, which contributed to better accuracy. I would add, that there is a lot of bad advice out there on annealing, both on the internet, and in print. Even though one may avoid softening case heads following this bad advice, the over softening of case necks and shoulders that results will reduce neck tension below that needed for best accuracy. My advice to those who decide to anneal is to go slow and do a lot of research, and then small batch testing.

 

[SmokinJoe]

One thing I will add to Boyd's post is to accumulate some "junk" brass of the same type you are going to anneal for set-up & practice. Don't ruin your good batches of brass in the learning process.

 

[superlight93]

To add to SmokinJoe reply I even use junk brass for my neck turner adjustments.

 

[mtang45]

Thanks for all the great info folks. I will certainly follow the advice!