Neck turning and Annealing

[Kramerica]

Disclaimer Once again, I’m still new to reloading and long range shooting so forgive my ignorance. I just read an article on here that essentially said you neck turn if your brass is to tight but also so you have consistent neck tension. I was thinking about the responses I received from my question on annealing brass a few days back and I gathered that a good benefit of annealing is consistent neck tension. So assuming (you know what they say about assuming)I’m tracking on all that correctly do you really need to do both? Couldn’t you just pick one or the other?

 

[spife7980]

Annealing relieves the stress in the brass, variable thickness will still impart variable pressure. Turning actually removes the differences for even pressure. Turned brass can still get stressed.

 

[Prose]

Annealing relieves the stress in the brass, variable thickness will still impart variable pressure. Turning actually removes the differences for even pressure. Turned brass can still get stressed.

If you only do one, anneal. Neck turning on anything but the very best and most precise equipment is probably less precise than the factory brass.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

If you only do one, anneal. Neck turning on anything but the very best and most precise equipment is probably less precise than the factory brass.

but sometimes you have to neck turn to even chamber the round in which case you must turn instead of anneal if you only had one choice.

 

[4xforfun]

You only need to neck turn once and you're good for life with that case .....unless you get a donut. If you want that life to be long ... Anneal!!

 

[Kramerica]

You only need to neck turn once and you're good for life with that case .....unless you get a donut. If you want that life to be long ... Anneal!!

What do you mean by donut? And when exactly do you neck turn (Virgin brass or 1x fired)?

 

[4xforfun]

What do you mean by donut? And when exactly do you neck turn (Virgin brass or 1x fired)?

If you have a tight neck chamber you will need to turn before you fire. if you are simply neck turning to clean up the necks to make things more concentric, i would fire them once first. That is just my opinion and NOT a hard fact. A "donut" is what you get after repeaded firings when your brass flows forward (making you case lengths grow). If you turn the necks thinner than the shoulder, and the thicker shoulder in turn moves forward into your neck, you will get a thick ring...or DONUT.... at the neck-shoulder juncture. This becomes a problem for those with tight neck chambers who run tight tollerences.

Now..the whole "donut" thing can mostly be avoided by CORRECTLY setting up your FL or body die so as to only bump the shoulder .001 - .002....just enough to chamber a loaded round without any undo force in closing the bolt. In my opinion you can throw away the instructions that come with the FL or body die and learn the correct way to set things up. Once your die is set up properly, you can (and should) lock it up and throw away the key....you should be set for the life of that tube and never need to adjust it.

Good luck and welcome,
Tod

 

[CT10ring]

Annealing returns your fired brass neck back to the/a more pliant state. When you load your bullet, it will take less force to grip- pressure needed to seat and the bullet seating will be consistent from case to case. And it increases the usable life of your brass.
Although I do not compete, I anneal brass for consistency, which equals accuracy. It's a very easy process, altho some safety precautions must be understood and followed. using a purpose built machine is very fast, adjustable and consistent. You can easily feel the improvement if you
use an arbor type press- seating bullet "by hand".

 

[Nomad47]

The annealing machines are nice but not necessary. For those getting into reloading, there is a lot of (expense) stuff to buy. A propane torch, battery powered screwdriver, & deep well socket work well enough.

 

[SteveOak]

It might be helpful to start at the beginning.

The neck of the chamber of a precision rifle such as those used for benchrest, will usually have a neck smaller in diameter than that of a rifle with a SAMMI spec neck. This is done for two purposes. First, with a thinner neck you can have better control of neck tension and second, brass is not manufactured with high precision, it is drawn and stamped rather than machined and turning the neck can resolve inconsistencies in thickness.

As brass is expanded when fired and then sized smaller to be able to hold a bullet, it becomes less resilient in a process know as work hardening. Annealing will undo the work hardening and restore the brass to its original 'springiness'. Now, after you resize the neck it will have a diameter that is more repeatable, thus imparting a more consistent tension on the bullet. Otherwise the brass would have progressively less resilience and the same amount of sizing on the neck would have less effect.

All of this is to have more consistency. How much neck tension is best for you is a matter of experimentation.

 

[SteveOak]

Annealing relieves the stress in the brass, variable thickness will still impart variable pressure. Turning actually removes the differences for even pressure. Turned brass can still get stressed.

Stress Relieving is a heat treating process that consists of heating the steel to a temperature below the critical range to relieve the residual stresses resulting from hot rolling, welding, shearing, or gas cutting. Stress relieving does not change the material properties as does annealing.

Annealing is a heat treatment that alters the physical and sometimes chemical properties of a material to increase its ductility and reduce its hardness.

It is this increase in ductility that we seek when we anneal. It allows us to size the neck more repeatably.