Annealing new cases?

[mardanlin]

Some of you guys may remember I was having trouble with some Remington brass for my 300 Weatherby. I bought 25 pieces of Norma brass and I'm just curious if it would help case life to anneal them now or whether that is unnecessary.

 

[mehavey]

"Probably" don't have to for initial firing(s) w/ Norma brass (good stuff)

But...

It can't hurt and may help longer-term case life considerably in that high intensity cartridge.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

No need to anneal brand new Norma brass, or do anything else to them for that matter. Norma is top of the line brass, best there is, it is ready to load out of the box.

I won't hurt anything to anneal it (correctly) but it will be a waste of time. It's annealed at the factory. It doesn't look like it because they polish after annealing. Some companies (Lapua) leave the annealing stains.

 

[mardanlin]

Thanks guys I knew Norma was good stuff but I wasn't sure if they annealed at the factory or not because as you said, they look untouched.

I will anneal after 3 firings or so like I did with the Remington brass and see how case life compares between the two.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

I've been annealing mine after 4 or so but it depends on the amount the brass is worked. One of my guns has such a tight neck that I can't even feel it size when it goes in the die, another is very obvious and I can actually feel when that brass needs annealing just by how much force it takes to size the neck.

 

[4runnerman]

I am with Brian. I anneal every 4th load also. You will know if you did it right when you go to Chamfer the case mouth. You just get a nice feeling when you do it. Just the opposite when it's time. You will twist Chamfer tool and it will feel like you are grinding steel. Good annealing it will feel like twisting butter in a way. Soft and smooth.

 

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Unnecessary when new unfired.

 

[Snyper]

Unnecessary when new unfired.

I agree.
I mostly use new Remington brass, and looking at the coloration, it appears it's already annealed

 

[RC20]

The problem is that no one agrees on the right temperature or procedure for annealing.

I would like to see something scientific on the subject.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

The problem is that no one agrees on the right temperature or procedure for annealing.

Procedure, I'll give you... Temperature, I've never seen any argument at all. The temperature at which brass anneals is well known and unquestioned.

Even the procedure, there are many methods but there are methods that are absolutely known to work and unquestionable.

 

[RC20]

Brian,

I saw temperatures listed in a previous discussion as I recall from 450 to 750.

Also note to be extremely careful as the chart is in Deg C, not F so a conversion is needed (or whatever method is used be in C)

And as noted, when doing by eye you can have a huge difference unless you use the exact same lighting conditions.

So I continue to wonder if there really is anything scientific about it in the sense of both correct temp (or range) and confirming you have actually achieved that.

 

[mehavey]

So I continue to wonder if there really is anything scientific about it in the sense
of both correct temp (or range) and confirming you have actually achieved that.

Brass anneals at 750° within a few seconds, That's the science.

750 Tempilaq inside the the neck itself tells you exactly when you've reached that stage.

As noted before, 450-475° Tempilaq painted a ¼" below the shoulder matches
(indirectly by brass heat conduction rate) pretty well to the neck hitting 750 when
the neck sloped-shoulder portion is heated directly by a "standard" Benzomatic propane torch.

Condition 1: 750 inside the neck is exact.
Condition 2: 450-475 below the shoulder is an engineering extrapolation of achieving condition 1.