Annealing brass and die question

DBateman · Feb 14, 2015

I did a search and couldn't find a lot on annealing on here.

Are any of you guys annealing your brass in particular the NE rounds ?

If so what are you using, machine or hand ?

Also what dies are good or are there any dies one should avoid ?
I have always had a good run out of Redding and RCBS, I was looking at buying a set of RCBS 450/400ne
Safari series dies.

bluey · Feb 14, 2015

The only time ive seen cases get annealed , they were 30.06 rounds that were fired from another firearm
They were stood up in a baking dish which had water in the bottom
Maybe 1/4 way up from the base
Each case was held down with a screw driver and a heating tip from a oxy /sedaline
Was used for approx ten seconds to re- anneal the brass

JHN · Feb 15, 2015

I can not comment on the annealing of brass for NE cartridge cases, but can comment on annealing of cases in general. The case mouths are ussually annealed when one reloads and has reloaded a case a number of times, roughly about four to five reloads. At this point you will start to experience that the case will not resize to original specs and that bullets seat very loosely in the case necks. Cracks can also start to develop in some due to case hardening. Whether you use anneal by hand or use machines is up to you, what is important is to anneal the case mouth only and not go beyond the case shoulders. You can use a product like tempilaq (475°F) to regulate the annealing temperature to which the case mouth gets heated to. I use a butane gas mini torch as heat source. The idea is to place a drop of tempilaq at about 5mm/1/4 inch below the shoulder rim. When the tempilac color of the tempilac turns from white to clear, the ideal temperature has been reached and the heat source is removed. Many people will drop the cases in water immediately, I don't. In order to apply the heat more evenly, I use a case holder with a stem in a battery operated drill. The case is slowly rotated while the point of the flame is directed at the case mouth.
I personally anneal a case after every fourth reloads and get about 15 to 20 reloads per case.

DBateman · Feb 15, 2015

Thanks guys, I'm looking at getting an annealing machine because I shoot a fair amount of 308.

I'm thinking of seeing if I can get one that does up to say 470ne then I could do them all.

JHN · Feb 15, 2015

What type of machine do you have in mind?

Nicholas Barcomb · Feb 15, 2015

I ground down an extra 3/8" ratchet extension to be able to chuck down into a 1/2" drill. I then use whatever long sockets will hold the base of the cases that I am annealing. To anneal cases I just set the speed of the drill to medium and let it rotate through a torch flame until it gets just cherry on the neck. The heat will travel down the case, but not far enough to affect the pressure ring area. Once it gets cherry I dump it into a no. 10 can half filled with water. I do bottle neck cases every 3-5 reloads and straight wall cases, probably every 5-10 reloads. The straight wall cases just don't expand like the bottlenecks do even if trying to hotrod them a bit.

DBateman · Feb 15, 2015

JHN said:
What type of machine do you have in mind?

I think the Bench Source machine would work pretty well for what I want.
It can handle cases with a rim diameter up to 50bmg (.804") so it should work for the NE rounds as well.

http://www.bench-source.com/id81.html

JHN · Feb 16, 2015

It seems pretty neat, let us know how it works.

nztimb · Feb 16, 2015

I anneal all my cases the keep them fresh and to add to the post above, (C&P from a post I did on another forum) where you have a multiplicity of case dia to anneal there is another way to get the case holders. An unused socket set extension was cut and put in the drill press so I could file the end down to fit in the 3/8 battery drill chuck. A selection of sockets dose the rest with the 19mm being for the 577-450, 14mm for the 404 and 303, 12mm for the 7x57 etc, the 11mm for 6.5 Grendel-Max, and the 10mm for 20 VT.
What I have found is that with my gas torch heat it seems to work out at a second per mm of case neck dia. so the 20 VT needs 5 sec, the 6.5 about 6, the 7x57 needs 7, the 303 for 8, the 404 runs for about 11 and the 577-450 requires about 14seconds to go from bright brass to blue. A number of others have found the same timing works for them.

This is a short video of me doing some 303 cases. I always do this in good light as thebrass changes from the bright brass going through a straw colour and as it starts to turn blue that is the right time to drop them into an air cooling bowl. There is no need to have water anywhere near the process.

drew416 · Feb 17, 2015

Wow Von Gruff, very impressive. Way more technical than what I do.

I Shoot a Ruger No.1 rebarrelled to 500X3". I shoot full black powder loads in it as well as Nitro.
With the full black powder loads I use cast lead 650Gn projectiles. To seat these projectiles correctly I have to slightly bell the case mouth open to start the lead projectile into the case mouth, then slightly crimp it over again once seating depth is obtained.

This work hardens my brass and cracks appear after a about 8-10 reloads. To minimize this i anneal.
But I don't want to make my brass too soft as then the case mouth/ neck won't have such as good a grip on the projectile. I learnt this the hard way with 30/30 cases that I annealed too soft. Just seating the projectile would crush in the case at the shoulder!

What I do is get a bucket and half fill with water and place it at my feet.
My Grandpa left in his tool box an old kerosene fired paint stripping blowgun. I fill her up with Kero, pump it up and set the nozzle to a small flame and light it.

Now this is the hard part. I pick up the case at the base and rotate it by hand covering the case mouth with the flame. When the case is too hot for me to hold by hand anymore- I drop it into the water filled bucket.

I find this gives me a case that is soft enough to be malleable to work without stress cracking, but still hard enough to have a reasonable grip on the seated projectile.

This method has worked for me from 32/20 right through to 500X3" size cases.

JTEX · Feb 17, 2015

Hmmm...... Looks neat but I have never annealed anything I load for........

.

buffybr · Feb 18, 2015

I only anneal bottleneck rifle cases and after about every 3rd or 4th firing.

I de-prime the cases and stand them in a pan with about 1" of water. I then use a propane torch and apply heat (one case at a time) only the case neck until it is bright orange, then I quickly knock it over into the water.

Annealing brass and die question

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