Annealing case necks
I am a new member to this forum, it sure is interesting! I have a question about annealing
case necks. Does anybody do it? I pretty much only neck size, and keep shells separated
by rifle. I only size down to a little beyond where the bullet will seat, esp, on Hornets, and
the brass seems to last a long time, 7 or 8 reloadings at least w/o splitting or getting thin (I check carefully when cleaning the necks of carbon). I've read about annealing but never tried it and would like to hear what others think about it.
Kari Prager
case necks. Does anybody do it? I pretty much only neck size, and keep shells separated
by rifle. I only size down to a little beyond where the bullet will seat, esp, on Hornets, and
the brass seems to last a long time, 7 or 8 reloadings at least w/o splitting or getting thin (I check carefully when cleaning the necks of carbon). I've read about annealing but never tried it and would like to hear what others think about it.
Kari Prager
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If your into keeping your nicely tuned brass for as long as possible, then you definitely need to look into annealing your brass.
Your accuracy will be better for it among other things......
I never let them go longer than 4 times, and some folks do them every time.
I finally broke down and bought a Ken Light Annealer after years of doing them one at a time with a spinner and a propane torch, and dropping them into a bucket of cold water...
Do a search on annealing and you'll find lots to read up on.
6br.com has a section on annealing that you will find interesting, check it out.....
You might also want to check out the section on cleaning your brass in a Ultra Sonic
after they have been annealed........0 -
Kari Pager,
Welcome to the forum... you seem like exactly the kind of people we need to keep coming here.
Annealing will definitely help the life your brass. You already have seemed to have grasped that minimal movement of your brass will extend the life of it as well. Not loading to the max will help even more. A tight brass/chamber fit helps much too. Generally unless you get a round with a tight neck the only thing 'tight' is the body and headspace of the case.
Necks are still generally loose in the chamber after sizing. Unless you are getting an undersized neck reamed in your barrel and reloading with a neck bushing you won't get incredibly tight fitting necks in your chamber. This is something to consider when you get your next barrel.0 -
Thanks, gentlemen, for the good advice. That site 6br is very complete and I have a good
understanding now. I think I'll try the "spin & dunk" method on one lot of older cases
and see how I do. There are many opportunities to mess this up than I realized. That issue
of the fit of the neck is one of the reasons I have been resizing only the top part of the neck.
I was hoping the lower part, still expanded, would help center the case in the chamber. I don't actually know if this theory holds water.
These are not precision rifles, these are K 31's and Enfields, and a Ross, but I try to get them to do their best at 100 yards.
That Ken LIght annealer is sure nice! Maybe next year...
Kar0 -
I am with mrbruce. Ken Light's system is the ONLY way to go. The other forms of annealing are not even close as far as quality and uniformity. 0 -
And remember you don't want or need the brass to turn red in color. I do mine just past the blue color before quenching and it seems to work great. Emery 0 -
Thanks, guys!
I went to Ken Light's website and that $350.00 annealer is sure appealing! I think I am going
to have to recharge the financial batteries a little (Christmas, et al.) and in the meantime I will try doing a few small lots by hand just to starting getting a sense of color, heat, and so forth, not necessarily to do large lots. From your comments and from what I've read on the web this is a fairly arcane art, and the Ken Light tool would take the randomness out of it. Also I just finally broke down and bought into our local range club and now I can shoot ANY day of the week instead of just on Sundays. (We motorcycle dealers always work on Saturdays). We're still blessed with good shooting weather here in California, at least until the rains start.
Speaking of color, does anyone besides me still use real candles on the tree Christmas eve?
60 years and haven't burnt the house down yet! (Like everything else, there's a procedure to follow for safety...) Happy New Year!
Kari0 -
I use this. Works for me.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=3609020 -
Dear Steve 4012,
Thanks very much! I thought I knew that damned catalog by heart, and I never noticed that.
Looks like a great compromise between high tech and low tech, and I don't need to worry
about softening the bases.
Much obliged,
Kari0 -
Kari Prager ,Your question about " annealing " cases got me to thinking . I never did it , didn't know why you would want / need to ,
and sure as heck didn't know how to . [:o)] Soooo I started doing a little reserch on the " Hows & Whys " of annealing [8)]
Here is a link to ( what I thought ) was a good read on the subject . It anwsered a few things that always made me think ,now why did that do that ? [:0] now I know [^]
Anyway hope its a good read for you also .
http://www.lasc.us/CartridgeCaseAnnealing.htm#column top
Keep em in the X0 -
Dear 375H&H, Thanks, that was a great article, there is another interesting one if you google "annealing:"
6br.com has a section on annealing that you will find interesting, check it out..... they came up first or second when I googled "annealing, and it written similarly to Ken Wright's article, very, very complete.
it scared the hell out of me when I found out how complex it is. Nevertheless I am going to try it. I'll practice on my berdan-primed shells, since I don't reload them, and I am going to use the Hornady kit in midway recommended by a previous poster. I think if I were reloading a 375H&H I;d look into it, given the cost of the shells. Plus it's just another step forward in the arcane black arts of reloadingl It's very gratifying to see how much first-hand help is available. Let us know of your results.
Happy New Year!
Kari0
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