So with all the great and not so great info on the net. When do you anneal in your process. Primal rights vid shows to anneal before any other process. Right after you fire them. Other's do it after they deprime and clean. i don't get turning the brass red hot and burning the carbon on or into the brass. Same for Keith Glasscock.
When to anneal
- Thread starter wywindsor
- Start date
Anneal is the first step in my process after firing. The only brass cleaning I do is wipe each case off with alcohol after sizing to clean off the sizing wax. Some powder/carbon residue cleans off the neck during this step.
drop_point
Silver $$ Contributor
Anneal before you do anything else. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of annealing.
Well I do decap my brass 1st, then anneal
Shooter13
Gold $$ Contributor
Does it really matter? I annealing first then deprime, size clean sizing lube off with Sprayway glass cleaner like Paul (@boltfluter) said, BTW it does great! Then trim and load!
when i get back home from shooting brass may or may not get put into wet tumble. when not its go's in to dry cob tumble to remove dirt that may have been picked up . after it wet tumbling its put into dry cob tumbler ,its the best way i have found to remove moisture . then it may or may not be annealed ,then resized and back into dry cob tumbler to remove lube.i'm not worried about getting shinny brass ,just want it clean
I anneal with an AMP Mark II after depriming and cleaning in rice. Then straight to lube and sizing. AMP has several posts on their website that showed in their research that annealing before or after cleaning didn't make a difference on target, nor did it impact their annealing machine / process in any way. YMMV
Here's why I decap 1st.
Say you were out doing some testing and you had 1 or more rounds that needed to be pulled down for whatever reason, by decapping 1st its safe insurance that no live primer will be subject to go off unexpectedly.
I've also received brass second hand that had live primers on more than 1 occasion.
Whenever you do the annealing, the annealing process is going to leave an abrasive oxidation layer on the surface of the brass the should be cleaned off before being put through a sizing die (unless one just doesn't care about that layer working on the interior of the sizing die).
Since I'm going to have to clean that oxidation layer off after annealing one way or the other, I just go ahead and anneal before I do anything else to the case as the next step is to clean the case, getting it ready for sizing. If I clean the case before annealing, it is a little easier to clean the oxidation layer off, but then I'm adding an additional cleaning step to my brass prep procedure.
ExPiney
Gold $$ Contributor
What do you use to lubricate the cases? Do you not clean it off somehow?
Ethanol 2.5-10 %
2-Butoxyethanol 2.5-10 %
Propane 1.0-2.5 %
Butane 1.0-2.5 %
Yeah, that'll get that lube off. Change the name to Lube-Away and resell....
Fast14riot
Gold $$ Contributor
I decap, clean and uniform primer pockets, anneal, brush inside necks, wipe outside of necks with scotch-brite pad, lube and size.
topclass2017
Gold $$ Contributor
Lately I've been wiping my brass clean and decapping at the range after every 5 rounds. Gives me something constructive to do while while barrel cools - it gets a little toasty in Central Texas in the summer...Then when I get home I'm ready to do whatever needs to be done. If annealing, I do it before sizing or any other brass prep.
One Eye Pete
Gold $$ Contributor
I wipe the carbon off the neck and shoulder with alcohol on a paper towel then I anneal. I flame anneal and I just don’t like the idea of baking the carbon onto the case. Then I minimally lube with either imperial or Ballistol and into the sizing die. After sizing I remove any lube by vibratory tumbling in corn cob with a little Flitz media additive in it for 15 - 20 min.
Do any other processing but anneal before resizing. It results in more uniform results of the sizing. This is especially true when you need a specific shoulder set back.
It seems the main point of Primal Right's video was that regardless of your order of operations, oxidation from annealing must be addressed before seating or else it results in uneven seating force from the rough oxidation.
Annealing, then using a nylon brush to smooth the oxidation, then seating, was a vast improvement compared to bare oxidation. This is what Erik Cortina does on his videos.
Tumbling after annealing, smoothed the oxidation inside necks and also added tumbling dust as a lubricant. This proved marginally better seating forces than just a nylon brush but most shooters can't outshoot the difference between the two methods.
What Greg did NOT test, was annealing, then adding lube (Neo, graphite, One Shot) directly to the rough oxidation, and then seating.
He also did not test the effect of annealing, and then just using a sizing mandrel (or expander ball) to smooth out the oxidation (no tumbling, no brush, no lube).
He also did NOT test annealing, wet tumbling, adding NeoLube, then seating.
Summary: Oxidation from annealing must be either brushed or tumbled or otherwise smoothed before seating.
Annealing, then using a nylon brush to smooth the oxidation, then seating, was a vast improvement compared to bare oxidation. This is what Erik Cortina does on his videos.
Tumbling after annealing, smoothed the oxidation inside necks and also added tumbling dust as a lubricant. This proved marginally better seating forces than just a nylon brush but most shooters can't outshoot the difference between the two methods.
What Greg did NOT test, was annealing, then adding lube (Neo, graphite, One Shot) directly to the rough oxidation, and then seating.
He also did not test the effect of annealing, and then just using a sizing mandrel (or expander ball) to smooth out the oxidation (no tumbling, no brush, no lube).
He also did NOT test annealing, wet tumbling, adding NeoLube, then seating.
Summary: Oxidation from annealing must be either brushed or tumbled or otherwise smoothed before seating.
Last edited:
LVLAaron
Gold $$ Contributor
That spray glass cleaner stuff works great on all kinds of things.
I've set off a live primer when annealing a 223 once. It didn't pop like I expected, just burned with a little orange flame for about a half second.
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