Annealing opinion.

[bullgator]

One wonders how we ever annealed our brass before machines made to take our money were invented..

Actually, it never crossed my mind. Thanks for giving me something else to ponder.

 

[Jester896]

sometimes it is worth spending the money on machines to get the better outcome. accuracy has come a long way since they invented spark plug sockets.

 

[mallardsx2]

My opinion:

Annealing is a joke and honestly a waste of money for 99% of guys.

If you think guys like Erik Cortina are firing rounds that he has annealed, you’ve lost your mind. Lol

Ans yes. I do realize he has an annealing machine…

Unless you have a wildcat that has brass that is EXTREMELY hard to find, it isn’t worth messing with.

 

[Jester896]

 

[bullgator]

My opinion:

Annealing is a joke and honestly a waste of money for 99% of guys.

If you think guys like Erik Cortina are firing rounds that he has annealed, you’ve lost your mind. Lol

Ans yes. I do realize he has an annealing machine…

Unless you have a wildcat that has brass that is EXTREMELY hard to find, it isn’t worth messing with.

6 Dasher…..no factory ammo, $1.30 per piece of brass

6 PPC-USA…. no factory ammo for 20+years, brass may be unavailable as well now.

222 Remington
8mm REM Mag

Plus about 20 other bottleneck cartridges from 22 hornet on up that are getting more expensive as I type this.

 

[Dub]

My opinion:

Annealing is a joke and honestly a waste of money for 99% of guys.

If you think guys like Erik Cortina are firing rounds that he has annealed, you’ve lost your mind. Lol

Ans yes. I do realize he has an annealing machine…

Unless you have a wildcat that has brass that is EXTREMELY hard to find, it isn’t worth messing with.

 

[rosewood]

Opinion ....those in the first photo got pretty warm ... But there is no sign that it went toward the head in any fashion ... I bet they are dead soft ...

Second from left in bottom photo is my choice of versions ...

^^this^^

 

[bullgator]

Update:

I loaded the 40 from my OP bottom photo. I then tried pushing a few against my bench to see if I could move the bullet…..nope, all good.
Today I loaded the 20 from the top photo that seemed truly questionable. Well, they apparently were overcooked. I seated 5 bullets in 5 of them and decided to try the push test. The bullets slid into the neck fairly easily. I disassembled them and threw the brass away. I will error on the side of under annealing them in the future.

 

[Stevie Ray]

Yep, they do get ‘rubbery’ after being overcooked a little, don’t they!

 

[rosewood]

I think you can work them and get them to harden. Run maybe a larger expander ball in neck, then use correct sizing die. A couple of iterations should work harden the brass again.

 

[Darkhorse]

Annealing your case neck is a vital step in making accurate rounds. BriarPatch gave you the reason some posts back. "Work harden" don't sounk like much does it? Now think what it actually means to your cases. Every time that case is shot the brass workhardens just a bit until it starts to release the bullet a little later each shot due to the hardness holding the bullet a little longer.
When you anneal your brass do a number of them at a time and try to keep them separate from your other cases. Done right each case will release the bullet at the same time, removing one more variable from the accuracy chase. After a few shots an attentive loader will detect some cases a little tougher to size than others. These are the ones that need annealing.

The first 4 are all overheated and the properties of the brass has been changed. 2 in the second photo are almost as bad.
I do all my annealing by hand, never needed a machine.