When to anneal Lapua brass?

[gunsmoke77802]

I shoot a tight necked 6mm PPC and am about to get a new bbl for it. I have learned alot and am wondering how many times should you fire your cases before you anneal the necks and bump the shoulder.

thanks

Jay

 

[Forum Boss]

Two different questions. Many PPC shooters bump the shoulder .001-.002 with every reloading. Set your die up correctly and its no big deal.

As to annealing. On former score shooter of the year annealed his brass every other firing... and he won a championship with brass that had been fired over 50 times each. That's one extreme.

Other guys will anneal when the neck tension starts to get noticeably different from case to case. That might be after 5 firings, or 7, or 10. Neckwall thickness and your chamber fit can factor into those numbers.

Personally if I had a nice Ken Light or Benchsource machine I would probably anneal brass every third or fourth firing. That way you stay AHEAD of the game, and don't drop a point because you should have annealed.

Other smart folks would say that is overkill. I will say one thing -- AND LISTEN CAREFULLY GRASSHOPPER -- it is better NOT to anneal than to anneal badly. Overcook the case and you've ruined it, and potentially created a serious safety issue. That's why I cringe when I hear about guys hand-annealing in a closet, trying to eyeball the temps based on color alone.

One last tip -- water quenching can help cool the case quickly. However, it does not improve the beneficial effects of proper annealing. Brass is not like steel.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Well, speaking of overkill, I anneal everytime! But since my neck tension is very consistent then I won't change a thing. With my benchsource annealer it only takes about 15 minutes to do 100 cases so that's why I do it everytime.

As far as bumping the shoulder back, I also do that everytime. I bump it back 0.001" and that seems to work.

 

[Travelor]

I do have the Ken Light annealing machine and anneal every third firing. It has worked very well for me and I NEVER have a piece of brass split.

(FWIW, I use the Redding Competition Collet dies and size for .001" tension.)

George

 

[rcw3]

Redding "collet" dies? Is that a typo? I don't believe they make collet dies although Lee does.

Robert Whitley

 

[Travelor]

OK, my mistake. It should have been stated as bushing dies.

http://www.redding-reloading.com/images/stories/PDFfiles/b-nkquickstart.pdf

George

 

[Steve Blair]

Like George, I also anneal every third firing. After four to six firings there is a noticeable neck tension change. As our moderator suggested, that allows me to stay ahead of the problem. I use a Ken Light machine but several other automated systems would work as well.

 

[dantiff2]

Well, speaking of overkill, I anneal everytime! But since my neck tension is very consistent then I won't change a thing.
As far as bumping the shoulder back, I also do that everytime. I bump it back 0.001" and that seems to work.

I do the same and don't have to worry about finding out the hard way (match day) that my brass should have been annealed. Bullet seating is very inconsistent if I go two or more firings without.


Dan

 

[mikeymike]

Hi Guys,
Do you HAVE to clean your brass (sonic, tumble) before you anneal every time??? Thanks, Mike

 

[Erik Cortina]

Hi Guys,
Do you HAVE to clean your brass (sonic, tumble) before you anneal every time??? Thanks, Mike

No.

 

[dantiff2]

When to anneal Lapua brass?

Never.

6BR - shoot it until the barrel's gone then into the scrap bucket (about 40 firings each for 40 cases). The brass will change as will seating force for a few firings then will be steady as a rock until it hits the bucket.

30BR anneal after expanding then shoot it until you feel embarassed because it's so old. Like 80-100 times on mine. Randy Robinette says he shot his first batch of 30BR brass until the barrel was retired at 7,000+ rounds. He figured over 200 firings on each. Never annealed any of them. Calls it Voo-Doo.

I agree Dave, This may be the case in some circumstances. After 7 or 8th firing my 6 BR brass got so "springy" that consistent shoulder bump was impossible and bolt closure got very hard! Trying to achieve one to two thousandths bump ended in some were one thou. and some were four or more. I can bump the shoulder .001" after anneal consistently. Neck tension got very smooth and consistent also.

 

[260Ravage]

A+ on annealing. After I started annealing a couple years ago, I noticed how nice my brass became in terms of resizing and consistant. It becomes 'lively'. Consistant neck tension was the greatest improvement and my groups became smaller. I do not own an annealer,I do it by hand. I started out using a temp stick crayon and in no time I got so I can ''see'' when it's right. I think the key is the flame,,,,small pencil shaped flame. My brass, after annealing, takes on that new, beautiful lapua look.

 

[liv2shoot]

if any one is looking for new and once fired 6mm PPC brass. I just lised some for sale in the marketplace under tools and reloading components

Thank you
Liv2shoot

 

[VooDooMagic]

Uh, if we were looking to buy something we would be over there. Instead were trying to discuss case annealing here...

 

[RDavies]

Another question about annealing. I am about to start annealing but was wondering, if I work up a load on freshly annealed brass, the nice clean neck will have a certain neck tension. If I do my load developement with the freshly annealed brass, once it has been fired once and has the carbon coating back on the inside of the neck, the bullet pull will be different.
Have those with very accurate rifles found the tune/bullet pull changed after its first shot with its normal carbon fouling on the inside of the necks?
No worries for those who anneal every shot, but things will be inconsistant for those who anneal every 3-5 shots like I was thinking of doing. Have you found this???

 

[Steve Blair]

After annealing, I brush the necks with a little graphite and have not noticed pressure or accuracy changes through subsequent firings.