Thread: Annealing after sizing?

Originally Posted by mopheadrob

Thanks @Jhon, that's the answer I was looking for!

And yes @zimmer, I agree with the charge + seat each projectile individually. I still wash though (ultrasonic) because I find the clean cases help with the visual inspection.

Given I don't have decapping dies and am not in a position to go out and buy them right now, I de-prime and size in one hit. In that case, should my process be:

1. Anneal
2. De-prime & size
3. Clean
4. Inspect
5. Trim, de-burr, uniform pockets
6. Prime
7. Charge + seat

Yep, all good. No problem depriming and sizing at the same time. I'm guessing 95% of handloaders do that and if using a progressive press that's what happens and the primer pockets most likely get no attention at all. (There's another long standing argument akin to the FLSing versus Neck sizing one ie do primer pockets need cleaning.)

Step 3 before step 2. This is when you may first pick up defects eg a split neck which would render the case for a trip to the bin rather than decap and size and further process it. That's not to say defects won't be picked up once resized or all the way thru the process.
I also clean my brass before it goes thru my dies. A wipe down with Krazy Kloth mainly to remove powder stains up around the neck (used to use white spirits), and a heavy brush inside the necks. That suits my style of shooting but if you're picking up your fired brass from the ground you may need to clean differently. I avoid at all costs any shit going into my dies.

I'm at an age now when I can afford all the gear so I have decapping dies and a hand held Harvey decapper. I have also bought some useless equipment in recent years.

Primer pockets only really need uniforming when the brass is new. I used to uniform the depth of all my new brass' pockets once. Now I don't bother as generally quality brass is quite uniform. But when new I do debur the flash hole inside the case. Only need to do this once. Poorer quality brass where they punch the flash holes has burrs poking out which can affect uniform ignition. You could argue that for hunting ammo this is an uneccessary step but as I said you only need to do it once.