Annealing new brass

[Coltwcf44]

Should new brass be annealed, or fired one time and then annealed? This is all new to me, so let me know what you guys do. Thanks.

[TexasMac]

Following are a few sentences from a much longer article I wrote some time ago. The full article can be accessed on my website at
http://www.texas-mac.com/Annealing_BPCR_Case_Necks.html

"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."

Wayne

[BFD]

Shoot it until you have some reason to believe that it actually needs annealing.

[SFogler]

I had a bad experience a couple of years ago when I was load testing for my 45-100. At first I was using previously fired cases from a different 45-100 rifle I had. Things went well. I bought some new Starline cases and loaded and shot them. The groups were three times what the fired cases had given me. So I loaded those same newly fired cases and fired them again - groups were still too big but were smaller than the unfired groups - then I decided to get serious and anneal my cases. My groups from previously fired, form fitted, annealed cases started yielding close to or MOA groups (all else being equal). So when I go to a match all my cases are previously fired in that rifle, tumbled clean, and annealed prior to loading. Since I saw a lot of blow back on the non-annealed cases, I would not use them to shoot across a chrony either... that data would be suspect I think. Unfired annealed cases get shot at the chickens. I don't shoot unfired cases anymore without first annealing them.

[mdeland]

Starline brass does come to you quite hard. I had to anneal 45-90 cases to make 38-70 brass successfully.

[Coltwcf44]

Thanks for all of the replies. I will keep it all in mind and give it a try.

[Clarence]

My experience with a .45-90 mirrors Steve's and Mike's. That rifle wouldn't shoot until the Starline brass was annealed. Since then, I anneal all Starline before shooting it the first time. I also formed a bunch of Starline .45-70 into .40-65. Tried a couple without annealing; they were very difficult, much more so than after a good annealing.

Clarence

[kwilliams]

I have 200 new Starline 45-90 cases that I just resized to 40-82 shil. Yes they came quite hard, so annealed first, sized them and then re-annealed. After I get them all fire formed may have to do it again once the slight wrinkles get blown out.

[lrb]

I too have 20 new Starline cases, 45-70, how near the case head should I anneal them, please.

[BFD]

I too have 20 new Starline cases, 45-70, how near the case head should I anneal them, please.

Shoot'em first. Anneal IF they need it.

[jackrabbit]

I do 1/3 to 1/4 of the length of the case on BPCR straight wall shells. I think Starlines are awfully hard when new and anneal them before I shoot, and then about every 3rd firing. I have never had to anneal Winchester cases and have not used Remington much. I found the Starline so hard I could not get my cast bullet seated with deforming it. Annealing fixed that problem. Good luck!

[dougf]

"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

[Distant Thunder]

With my Starlinne straight cases, .45-70 & .45-90, I have never annealed.
With my various .44-77 brass it is a different animal and all cases are being annealed for the initial fire forming. I'll keep an eye on them after that and only anneal them again if needed.
So I only anneal new brass if there is some serious case forming or fire forming to do. It looks like I might be the odd man here, but I see no reason to change.
YMMV

[Distant Thunder]

I should have probably mentioned that I do NOT size my brass after fire forming. My bullets are finger seated in the cases with NO neck tension. Because my bullets are only seated .090" or less in the case I will apply a very slight taper crimp for handling purposes. The bullets can still be pulled by hand and carefully reseated so the crimp is very light.

[gunlaker]

I have never noticed much difference in my .45-70's regardless of brass brand. When I got my Shiloh in .45-2.4" it just wouldn't shoot at all until I annealed the brass. I had to run it for 6 seconds in a propane torch flame to get it where I needed it to be. Before annealing the rifle shot 6" groups at 200m. After annealing it's shot a few 10 shot MOA groups at 300. I had read this sort of thing here once before and wrote it off as nonsense .

With my paper patched rifles it didn't make any difference in short range accuracy. When shooting grease grooved bullets with neck tension in my .45-90 it was the single biggest factor in getting match grade accuracy.

Chris.