Thread: Annealing brass

Try new or annealed brass first to see if your looking in the right direction

Then check for carbon ring

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Try new or annealed brass first to see if your looking in the right direction

Then check for carbon ring

You may or may not havd thought of this but could copper fouling be an issue ?

How long have you not thoroughly cleaned the barrel of your rifle?
But before cleaning ... anneal about 5 pods. Reload and test. The candle method is very simple. Take the case in the middle of the case body, with your thumb and forefinger, and roll it back and forth while heating the neck of the case with the flame of a candle. When you can no longer hold the case due to its temperature, throw it on a damp cloth. Clean the neck of the case and you're done.

Originally Posted by JLF

Not a smart way to do it, use a gas torch.

Fred Barker, the man who devised the candle method, discovered that the heat supplied by the candle is sufficient to warm the neck of the pod. The advantage of using a torch is that it does not smoke the neck of the holster and that the desired temperature is reached more quickly. In my opinion, they are not serious drawbacks, the neck of the case is cleaned with the damp cloth, and apart I wash the case before placing the primer.

I have an AMP and have freely annealed brass for a number of forum members. It isn't an essential part of reloading (don't worry too much if you don't anneal!).

It does however do everything @dannyb and others say and can be thought of as one of the extras a reloader can do to lift the quality of their reloads beyond basic sizing, priming, powder charge, and seating. Sorting brass and projectiles by weight, adjusting concentricity of loaded rounds, cleaning the primer pocket, neck turning, cleaning brass before reloading are all in the same category (some of these stop being optional, eg untrimmed brass will FTL or split).

The fundamental rule of reloading is consistency...as little variation as possible from one round to the next to the 100th later. Annealing is one of many actions the reloader can take to eliminate inconsistency. So, not essential but satisfying for the reloader to know that is one less doubt to have when looking at their groups, and their limited supply of brass!

And I am still happy to anneal for free for members per the terms in that thread some time ago

Some times we forget it is practical reloading not perfect reloading we want. Funny when you hear criticisim of simple methods until you dig deeper to find why the shots are not grouping. Suddenly the the old enemy appears... recoil.LOL.

Sorry, for most of the shooting I do I strive towards achieving perfect reloading. May not get there but I'm giving it my best.

Originally Posted by zimmer

Sorry, for most of the shooting I do I strive towards achieving perfect reloading. May not get there but I'm giving it my best.

When the drill annealing method enables the old Vixen to head shoot plovers at a distance practical annealing is good enough.This is in 2 Vixens. I load both.I dont shoot them and both hunters are in their 70's.

for my 708 i used a salt annealing method .had it hot around 900F with a 15 count i then resized and used a mandrel 283 and it took about 150 psi to seat bullets . may seem a tad high but thats what the new brass was taking . i sized a brass with out annealing ,took a good deal more psi to seat that bullet

Originally Posted by misser

for my 708 i used a salt annealing method .had it hot around 900F with a 15 count i then resized and used a mandrel 283 and it took about 150 psi to seat bullets . may seem a tad high but thats what the new brass was taking . i sized a brass with out annealing ,took a good deal more psi to seat that bullet

I'm doing my salt bath considerably hotter at 550c and about 7 seconds, but using an aftermarket controller on my lee lead pot the standard pot controller is trash

Originally Posted by misser

for my 708 i used a salt annealing method .had it hot around 900F with a 15 count i then resized and used a mandrel 283 and it took about 150 psi to seat bullets . may seem a tad high but thats what the new brass was taking . i sized a brass with out annealing ,took a good deal more psi to seat that bullet

to recap i am not happy with the salt annealing .in my opinion it just not getting hot enough .tried a hand held induction unit it did not work anything like it does on the youtube vid.
i now have some thing different coming

Originally Posted by misser

to recap i am not happy with the salt annealing .in my opinion it just not getting hot enough .tried a hand held induction unit it did not work anything like it does on the youtube vid.
i now have some thing different coming

what you got coming ?

I used the drill method for years and frankly didn't get any real advantage. Consistency is where it's at and that's very hard to achieve. Enter the AMP Mk II (stands for annealing made perfect) which uses software that analyses a sacrificial case and gives you a number to use for that particular brass. You record that number and use it whenever you anneal that batch of brass again. I realise it's a machine that a lot of people can't afford. Pretty impressive though and well worth it if you want perfectly consistent annealing which in turn gives the foundation for consistent neck tension.