Post by Bob338 on Apr 19, 2016 13:45:59 GMT -5
I have some cleaned and prepped Lake City brass in .30-06 so I decided to give annealing a try on them. I sorted the brass by headstamp date and annealed half of them using a torch and a shallow pan of water. After the first couple I got the hang of managing the torch to heat the neck and shoulder to that cherry glow before knocking them over in the water. All in all, a pretty easy process.
I will load the annealed and un-annealed cases identically and see what the target has to say about it. I hope to see an improvement, but may continue to anneal even if I don't because of what y'all have said about case life.
Life just keeps finding a way to interfere with my bench and range time!
Not sure if I've ever posted it before but my method of annealing I picked up from some old Handloading books the NRA published back about 1959, and a few years after. Still have all those. I use a propane torch, blue cone reduced to about half inch. I take a bucket of water and put it under the torch where I drop the cases when they get too hot for my fingers. In a darkened room is best. I take a case between thumb and index finger, put it into the flame right at the blue cone, then twirl the case so that the heat gets both sides of the neck. When the heat starts traveling down the case, which is in about 6 to 8 seconds, it gets too hot to hold anyway and you drop it. You can't hold the case when the heat rises to about 120-130F. It takes plus 400 degrees to affect the brass in any way so there is no way you can overheat the base of the case. If you start with a polished case you can see the brass get dull as the heat is applied and the blue ring from annealing travels down to just below the shoulder. You might ruin the first 4 or 5 cases in experimenting but after a dozen or so, you're and expert. Smaller cases are a bit trickier because the heat travels down them so fast. I anneal down to 223 though I don't shoots those much. Only have one barrel in a Contender for that small a case, but no problems for 22-250. I worry about those who use case holders in electric screwdrivers, and other methods that might let the base of the case soften. Besides, with the fingers i can go through many cases in about 15 minutes. It's fast and safe.
The brass needs to get up to well over 400 degrees for heat to have any effect. Don't remember off the top of my head the ideal annealing temp, but it's about 780 degrees F. Over 900 you'll ruin the case irreversibly. If the necks are just a bit over annealed you can run the case through a neck sizer a couple of times and they work harden enough to salvage. It's really easy and very worthwhile. I still have one set of '06 brass that has been fired over 40 times. In the belted magnums I could get about 20 reloads before I started getting head separation but over a dozen reloads was commonplace for me even though I tend to load a bit on the hot side. Unbelted cases can go a long time. I've had some brass for over 20 years and still going strong when I was shooting several days a weeks. Annealing is damned sure worthwhile.