anneal question

[Steve]

Hey guys,
With unfired cases is it best to anneal the shoulder/neck after the first firing? Or before loading them.
Thanks, Steve

[mr surveyor]

why would you need to anneal "unworked" brass?

just asking.

JD

[Steve]

why would you need to anneal "unworked" brass?

just asking.

JD

This stuff was manufactured in 1943. I had 1500 of them, pulled the bullets and saved components, pitched the corrosive primers. I haven't fired about 1/2 of them yet but they are primed. If annealing will help that old brass I can pitch the primers. I definately plan on annealing after they are fired.

I have fired a lot of them for their first time, only 1 has split, that was in the side not the neck. After reading Ranch Dog's success with annealing I have started annealing those that I have fired once, and cases from other manufactures that have been fired multiple times.

[beekeeper]

Steve,
On brass that old you will ahead of the game by annealing the brass before reloading them.

Reason:
It is very old brass and over the years it has hardened due to age.
At the time the brass was made very little brass was annealed before loading.
It was not expected to be used more than once.
Brass in those days was manufactured by a different process than it is today.

Hope this helps you make your decision.

By the way it is excellent brass once cleaned and prepped.
I have some that has about 20 reloads on it and still looks like new.


beekeeper

[RBHarter]

In your case I would ,in fact that's what I did w/my LC42 and 43 . It was war production and most of the brass produced was short cutted and the neck anneal was dropped favoring the net loss of 5% to the 10% gross gain in production for skipping that step. There is also age hardening to add to the hardness. dependin on where it's been for the 70 yrs your unfired brass may as well be on its 4th or 5th firing w/o ever being chambered. The bunker storage I'm familar w/out west only changes 4-6 degrees/day and in truely extreme yrs about 80 degrees but usually 55 or so. I've walked into a typical bunker after 6 weeks of daily average temps of +5 to find it 35 degrees in side and 82-85 after 2 months of 95-105 days and 70-75 degree nights. So if it is recently released ammo or stored indoors its not so bad but if its been in the garage since 1957.........well you get the picture. 30 degree daily swings (common for me) will add a firing cycle hardening to the loaded brass about every 10 yr (which is like dog years reversed it takes 15-18 for the first but by 60 its down to 7-8) . Based on my time spent w/asst GI Brass in 308 and 06' from 42-08' . The 90 stuff may as well have been store bought 1x ,while the 6? split at 4x even though it showed a production neck annealing ,that was in 02'-03'.

[Steve]

Very interesting fellows, thanks. I'm going to nock the primers out of them and anneal them.

Point of interest.: After pulling the bullets I neck sized the cases then trimmed them. On those that I fired, I resized some. On those when I case gauged them their OAL was the length of the gauge. Tells me they all grew .010" with that first fire and size. Luckily I have not resized many of those that were fired, so they will be annealed before resizing.

[akuser47]

Keep us posted to your findings I agree with the hive the annealing will help in life of your brass

[larryw]

I also agree 100% with the tribe, anneal away..

[mr surveyor]

Makes sense now. I wasn't thinking "ancient" brass.

[Steve]

Makes sense now. I wasn't thinking "ancient" brass.

That 1943 brass is young compared to this 10 round carier. I loaded those rounds with lead (A Lee mold.) to shoot in compitition in my Sears Model 53 in the 1980s. Had quite a few of them, they were splitting so I loaded and saved these 10. The case loaded with the Ball round was one from a couple boxes I bought with the rifle, early 70s.

Old1.jpg

Now this is an ancient round. FA 17 and not so old Sears 30-06.

Old2.jpg

I had a fellow at the range tell me he thought he has some 30-06 dated 06. I hope he does, I would sure like to have one to set with my 30-06.