New Starline 5.56 brass ?

[Retired shooter]

Hello All

Short and sweet. New Starline 5.56 brass.

Anneal, or not.

Thank you.!

 

[jpjulian]

I've never bothered annealing .223 brass. Then again, up until the most recent ammo shortage .223 brass was cheap and plentiful. Now not so much. My opinion, others will surely chime in with their opinion, is unless you are loading for long range or .223 Palma where hot loads rule, go ahead and anneal. Otherwise I would think your primer pockets are going to open up before the brass splits around the neck and shoulder and annealing is a wasted effort for .223. But that's me and my $0.02.

 

[Rob01]

Hello All

Short and sweet. New Starline 5.56 brass.

Anneal, or not.

Thank you.!

You mean new brass? No need to anneal as it was done at the factory. I have 600 of those Starline 5.56 and just load them up.

 

[RegionRat]

Agree with Rob01, have not needed to anneal virgin Starline 556 brass.
I have sized the necks and chamfered, but their as received hardness was in spec.

 

[ggshoots]

I anneal everything but I am blowing it out to 223AI. Wont hurt it and I guess I have the time.

 

[Walt Krafft]

First loading, no aneal, mandrel to uniform neck id, trim, and chamfer.

 

[quest450]

First loading, no aneal, mandrel to uniform neck id, trim, and chamfer.

what size mandrel are you using ?

would .222 work on brand new brass, I recently picked up 1K of some inexpensive VLC brass and the seating stem leaves a mark on the bullet
I did anneal, chamfer and deburr brass but I think I need to expand too
I'm new to reloading .556

sorry for hijacking but it's kinda on topic

 

[Retired shooter]

Thank you guys for the reply !
Otherwise I would think your primer pockets are going to open up before the brass splits around the neck and shoulder and annealing is a wasted effort for .223. But that's me and my $0.02.

No need to anneal as it was done at the factory

Per Starline the 5.56 brass uses a different metallurgy than the .223 to "harden the base". ( should save primer pockets) Reason for is to allow 62000 pressure with the 5.56 X45 Nato. If indeed Starline did anneal the neck of the case, I also see no need to anneal, however watching some videos of ammo being produced at the rate of one million rounds a day the new brass got very little annealing time.

I will do all the other standard case prep for virgin brass, was just thinking about annealing.

Thank you all.

 

[Rob01]

All factory brass is annealed in their production. Don't try and compare ammo production to anneal time.

 

[Walt Krafft]

what size mandrel are you using ?

Depends on what rifle and what it will be used for and how the brass springs back. .001 to .003 neck tension depending.

 

[arlaunch]

I have found their brass will split up the middle after a few firings. Also, some of them will have have a light colored ring around the bottom from pre-case head separation after a few firings. This is not from oversizing. I think it is from the brass hardness.

Be careful

 

[Retired shooter]

All factory brass is annealed in their production. Don't try and compare ammo production to anneal time.

You can bet some time study clowns walking around with clip boards have figured in annealing time to make rate production, and wherever time , or steps can be eliminated or shortened to make rate, it I'll be done. So yes ammo production and anneal time have to be compared.

Been in production world before seen it happen.

Thanks guys.!

 

[Retired shooter]

I have found their brass will split up the middle after a few firings. Also, some of them will have have a light colored ring around the bottom from pre-case head separation after a few firings. This is not from oversizing. I think it is from the brass hardness.

Be careful

Sounds like some annealing just below the shoulder maybe of some benefit.

Thank you.!

 

[DocBII]

RS,

Anneal it. I bought 1k, to my regret I didn't anneal the first two hundred I prepped. Wouldn't neck turn consistently, wouldn't size consistently, and very inconsistent bullet seating. Once annealed, good stuff.

YMMV,
DocBII

 

[Rob01]

You can bet some time study clowns walking around with clip boards have figured in annealing time to make rate production, and wherever time , or steps can be eliminated or shortened to make rate, it I'll be done. So yes ammo production and anneal time have to be compared.

Been in production world before seen it happen.

Thanks guys.!

But the time to anneal is not shortened from proper time to match production so no it doesn’t have anything to do with production rate in that it’s adjusted to keep the rate. Also the brass is not being made right before ammo is made. It comes in ready to be loaded.

 

[Retired shooter]

But the time to anneal is not shortened from proper time to match production so no it doesn’t have anything to do with production rate in that it’s adjusted to keep the rate. Also the brass is not being made right before ammo is made. It comes in ready to be loaded.

Depending on what company and what country. Some form the brass, make their own primers, purchase the powder, make their own bullets and load the rounds.

 

[Rob01]

Depending on what company and what country. Some form the brass, make their own primers, purchase the powder, make their own bullets and load the rounds.

But not in one production line. Some of those processes would not react well to others or even be safe in the same facility.

And your question was about Starline who makes only brass and yes they anneal it before it goes out to customers so no need to anneal when you get it.

 

[Bottom Fodder]

Well if you have an annealer and the time, nothing to lose and maybe something to gain
you could probably had it annealed by the time you read all the repleys

 

[jepp2]

Anneal, or not.

These are only my opinions, observations, and what I have learned from my experiences, so I am NOT saying anyone else is wrong in what they offered.

1. Folks seem to think that new bottleneck brass cartridges they receive that do not show the color change (like Lapua, Peterson and others) were not annealed before they left the production area. They all are and multiple times. It just means the ones that don't show the color change were polished AFTER they had the case neck/mouth annealed.

2. If you read 30 different descriptions about how to anneal rifle brass, you will probably see 30 or more different methods recommended. Some are only stress relieving (750 degrees F) some are annealing (over 1000 degrees F). So if you decide to anneal, you might be doing damage vs what the factory did. Or in the best case, doing something that means no value added.

3. I frequently read about short case life of 223 brass. Especially if it is fired in DI gas guns. I "read" where folks discard their brass after something like 4 firings. So I decided to run my own case life test with 20 pieces of once fired LC brass I picked up at the range. I wanted to find out how long they would last, and how they would fail - enlarged primer pockets, split necks, body cracks, incipient case head separations, etc.
- After every firing I full length sized (setting the shoulder back 0.003" from the fired length), trimmed, checked with a bent paper clip for separations, and visually inspected. Every 5 firings I stress relieved at 750 degrees F
- I found after 10 firings, I never removed any metal during case trimming.
- My load was near but not above the SAAMI max of 55K PSI for 223
- I had to retire the first case after 24 firings, and the last case made it to 37 firings. 18 of the 20 cases were retired due to the fact I could see light through a gouge in the case neck. The gouges were caused as the mouth of the case contacted the lugs on the barrel extension during ejection. This was a new barrel and the points were very sharp.
- Not one case showed any sign of incipient case head separation - my biggest concern with the amount I was working the case by setting the shoulder back the 0.003" per firing.

Here are the gouges I am talking about, magnified. I now blunt the tip on those two lugs with a ceramic stone before I put a new barrel in service.

 

[Retired shooter]

But not in one production line. Some of those processes would not react well to others or even be safe in the same facility.

And your question was about Starline who makes only brass and yes they anneal it before it goes out to customers so no need to anneal when you get it.

No one said anything about one production line. All the components would be manufactured, and fed into a staging area to feed the final assembly process.

But we are off the original topic.

Thanks to all who responded, Nothing lost by annealing, I have both the time and the equipment.

Everyone have a great day!