Annealing new brass

[TexasMac]

"Many BPCR shooters reload with some neck tension and annealing is recommended on a regular basis. Some experienced shooters anneal after each firing as a normal part of their reloading process. Annealing is also recommended when initially using Starline brass, which has the reputation of being harder than Remington or Winchester brass. Another sign that annealing is needed is when cases come out of the chamber with dirty necks indicating the brass did not expand sufficiently or fast enough to seal out gas and fouling blow-by or blow-back. Finally, if accuracy falls off for no apparent reason after firing the cases a few times than annealing may be in order."

I have a question that I've been going ask along these lines. Suppose you anneal the brass and question whether or not the brass actually reached temperature to anneal. But, assume that it actually did. Does it hurt to re-anneal, being more careful the 2nd time, even if the brass is already properly annealed? Or is there a way to test the brass to be sure. I try gently squeezing the neck to see if it springs back (to make sure its not over annealed), but it is still possible to deform perfectly annealed brass if I press too hard.
Doug

Doug,

By far the best way to test if the brass has been properly annealed and not over-annealed is to use temperature sensing paint on the inside of the case neck. Here's a few comments from an article on annealing I posted on my website some time ago.

"To ensure the necks reached the correct temperature and were not overheated, Tempilaq, a temperature indicating fluid was used. 750° Tempilaq was applied inside the case necks of a few cases to determine the amount of time to hold the rotating case necks in the torch flame. Once applied it quickly dries. When the Tempilaq temperature is reached it liquefies and typically changes color. When 750° Tempilaq liquefies it changes from a light or medium blue to a dark grayish blue. If it gets very dark or black than you’ve overheated the brass. Once the correct heating duration was determined, Tempilaq was not used with the rest of the cases. By the way, applying 750° Tempilaq to the inside of the case necks was found to be more accurate than applying 650° Tempilaq to the outside of the case just below the necks."

There's a lot more info in the article if you care to read it. The link is http://www.texas-mac.com/Annealing_BPCR_Case_Necks.html

I have not experimented with brass cases to determine if annealing over and over at the correct temp has a negative effect. I would think not but that's only speculation on my part.

Wayne

[dougf]

Wayne,

Thanks for the tips and the link to the article. I'll order some tempilaq and do some fine tuning on my technique.

Doug

[SFogler]

I use the Tempilaq on my cases and it works great. I also only anneal like Jackrabbit does - just a 1/4 or so down the neck. I used to think annealing was something people did when they had too much time on their hands but I found out different.

[Jim Kidwell]

I have had good luck using salt bath annealing. After trying other methods such as flame and induction, I find this to be a more consistent end result.....

[Dennis Armistead]

I have had good luck using salt bath annealing. After trying other methods such as flame and induction, I find this to be a more consistent end result.....

Salt bath annealing is the exact way I anneal. It's cheap, repeatable and very precise. You can also regulate the length of anneal from just the tip to half the length of a long cartridge. (not recommended)
Dennis

[Coltwcf44]

Thanks again for all of the additional replies. What a wealth of info is on this forum.