Thread: Projectile annealing

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

Like this @Puffin

Using the same reasoning, no-one would anneal case necks without similar equipment ? The benefits can still be enjoyed without the precise quantifying you are proposing. Visually the tips of Berger bullets have not been annealed as a final treatment so annealing by the end user will soften the copper to some degree, the amount and resulting benefit that can be determined by observing any improved end performance on game. The end result is all that is important. Anneal just the tips with the bullets held upright to retain any lead that melts; problem solved.

Have shot a few Tahr with 150gn SST out of a .270, and they were NOT annealed bullets, the Tahr shot all died, am I doing something wrong? be a bugger if they come back to life afterward just cause you didn't anneal your bullets, imagine all those zombie Tahr wandering around the hills.......

Is this a piss take?

Originally Posted by 257weatherby

Have shot a few Tahr with 150gn SST out of a .270, and they were NOT annealed bullets, the Tahr shot all died, am I doing something wrong? be a bugger if they come back to life afterward just cause you didn't anneal your bullets, imagine all those zombie Tahr wandering around the hills.......

How far did you shoot your thar?

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

Is this a piss take?

Projectile annealing "info" aside -there is a far better on game performance gain with J4 jacketed projectiles in keeping the meplat diameter above 24 thou for reliable expansion, any smaller and "pencilling through" can occur with enough regularity to cause concern.

Use a whidden trimmer and pointer to improve BC and you will have very unreliable expansion on game with J4 jacketed projectiles.











Most if not all hunting projectiles have a decent meplat dia and when kept above 24 thou will give reliable terminal performance on game more so than annealing the projectiles nose forward of the ogive.

Earlier Berger projectiles often had meplat diameters smaller than 10 thou, their 180g 7mm projectiles occasionally surprised with their lack of terminal performance on game and that encouraged experimentation.

Plenty of SST/amax projectiles and bic biro pens lost their roller tips in the quest to have a large meplat hidden by a high BC tip, which worked but the early Berger projectiles are tedious to modify.

Kevin Cram from Montour County Rifles designed and marketed a set of tools to modify meplats on the earlier Berger type projectiles


This uniformed and trimmed not only the outside of the projectile tip but inside the meplat hole as well, restoring the on game performance to be as reliable as possible. So we can see the modification has been around and tested plenty.

There is a risk with annealing projectiles, -the negative effect of bonding the lead core with the jacket in an unreliable way, a spin stabilised projectile subjected to many rpm detests in flight yaw and wobble, major decayers of practical BC

Just how far did you shoot your tahr
was it near or was it far
was it right up close
or way way over thar.
Did it fall down dead
from a shot to the head
or stagger a bit from to hard of lead
Did you should you apply some heat
to allow the bullet to destroy more meat
or did you should you just go a hunt
and leave warming bullets to some other ..... see you next tuesday

Originally Posted by Puffin

Using the same reasoning, no-one would anneal case necks without similar equipment ? The benefits can still be enjoyed without the precise quantifying you are proposing. Visually the tips of Berger bullets have not been annealed as a final treatment so annealing by the end user will soften the copper to some degree, the amount and resulting benefit that can be determined by observing any improved end performance on game. The end result is all that is important. Anneal just the tips with the bullets held upright to retain any lead that melts; problem solved.

I am reminded of @R93 signature

Do what you want ya will anyway!

Yep I have chomped the tips off a few FMJs and cross cut a couple of .22s

I can prefer to leave bullet modification to the manufacturers these days.

Good discussions
Keep it running, it's all new to me,
Nice poem Sneeze
I don't get the dislike of Nathan Foster. Seem like some of you guys know him personally.
I have his reloading book and it's pretty good. Sure the annealing things a bit different but he seems like he knows what he's up to and certainly has experience.

Thanks 7mmSAUM for your post. I wasn't aware of any of that. I didn't realise you could play around so much with a projectile.
I was hoping someone might be able to explain the physics behind annealing and what exactly it's purpose is to improve it over the base projectile . I'm a chemical engineer so understand a lot of the chemistry and metal grain structure with annealing, but can't see how it relates to hunting performance. Or much about bullet construction at all really. Maybe I should go and read Nathan Fosters articles.
Anyway good work.
Cheers
Dan

1. Stop over thinking it. It's a bullet. If it doesn't work for you, try another one.
2. Go hunting. Talking hunting and doing hunting are different things.