Annealing: When during case prep process?

[ronas]

I have Lapua 308 brass. Case prep includes tumbling to clean, only case neck resize so far (only 2x fired). I also want to turn the outside of the case necks. Will at some point bump back the sholder too.

Not sure at which point annealing falls in the case prep process?


I was thinking it might be best to anneal after tumbling. Then full length resize, trim if necessary, and turn outside of case necks.

Any thoughts?

[kurac]

Well, they have already been annealed. Maybe after reloading them 10 times, they may need another treatment but I think you would do more harm than good trying to anneal them during each cycle.

[ronas]

they may need another treatment but I think you would do more harm than good trying to anneal them during each cycle.

I know they were annealed when new.

My question is not if or whether or at what point it may or may not be wise to anneal again.

Question is "...at which point annealing falls in the case prep process?"

[killshot44]

Most size after annealing so neck tension is uniform.
I anneal first after the 4th firing and then after every 2nd firing.
Caveat: use a machine, doing cases by hand won't be consistent from case to case and the risk of overannealing is minimized.

[EBR Works]

For BMG/DTC brass we tumble first, then anneal, then size/decap/trim. I have found that annealing about every 5th loading works well, but I'm not trying to attain ultimate accuracy for our blasting rounds. Just trying to prevent splits at the mouth. Some of my DTC brass has lasted up to 20 reloads with no splits.

[noylj]

Strictly my opinion:
I don't have a single case so valuable that it would be worth annealing to get another couple of loadings. Never have seen any decrease in neck tension.
Even my military .223 cases that I have expanded to 7mm TCU have all been shot at least 5 times and I haven't lost a single case and have never annealed them.
If you are firing a cartridge where the case alone costs more than $2.00, annealing might be worth while.

[ronas]

Caveat: use a machine, doing cases by hand won't be consistent from case to case and the risk of overannealing is minimized

.
Definately agree, I plan to get Benchsource machine.
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we tumble first, then anneal, then size/decap/trim.

[John Browning]

If you are firing a cartridge where the case alone costs more than $2.00, annealing might be worth while.

This is the answer. Unless you have .510 DTC or something impossible to find, you're financially much better off just buying new cases when they split.

[killshot44]

This is the answer. Unless you have .510 DTC or something impossible to find, you're financially much better off just buying new cases when they split.

Thousands of benchrest shooters disagree. It's not just about preventing split necks.

Good choice on the Bench-Source unit. Definitely trim after fireforming and sizing.

One question, why are you neck-turning for a factory chamber? Usually unneccessary work with no gain in accuracy.

[wooger]

This is the answer. Unless you have .510 DTC or something impossible to find, you're financially much better off just buying new cases when they split.

Not necessarily true if you have lots of hand prep invested in your cases. Some BR based cases can be fired 25 times and annealing ensures consistency.

[ronas]

One question, why are you neck-turning for a factory chamber? Usually unnecessary work with no gain in accuracy.

I do not agree with your statement.

To uniform the wall thickness to achieve consistent neck tension on the bullet and to achieve even expansion of the case neck. You can tell when the neck tension is not right as the bullet will seat to easily or be to a little harder to seat. If the above process is done it should help with consistency. Plus I'm sure I can not always feel whether the bullet going in has the same neck tension as every other bullet.

At longer ranges little things can and do make a slight to big difference. For instance my rifle is much more accurate with my bullet of choice seated .075" off the lands. Go more or less and the group size opens up. Another example is with 44gr of varget the 100 yard moa is .301" but with that load at 600 and 800 yards the group sizes are over 1 1/2" moa. Then with 47gr of varget the 100 yard group size opens up to about 1/2" to slightly more than 1/2" moa. But at 600 and 800 yards it's back down to 1 moa. So little things can make a difference and it's sure would giving them a shot.

[huckberry668]

I've never found the need to anneal but then again I never needed the extra 0.05MOA to win anything. Everyone talks about consistant neck tension but what about case head separation? Most of the cases' heads would've stretched a bit after 3 or 4 firings (my experience with 308win, 223Rem, 6.5x55 & 30-06 etc). Even on moderate loads you can 'see' the stretch marks on the outside of the cases after 4th or 5th firing.

For regular/common calibers I found case prep work including turning the necks contribute to accuracy gains. Annealing 'may' help in extreme accuracy and extend the 'case neck' life. But case head separation is a much bigger concern. Annealing is expensive, time consuming and for most of us unnecessary (if you can live with 1/2MOA accuracy). I'd say toss them after 5 to 7 firings (or whenever you can detect the stretch) to be on the safe side.