Annealing straight walled rifle cases.....

[waco]

I have read on other sites the is not a good practice. I really don't remember the reasons stated why. Is there any truth to this? I have a big batch of 45-70 and some are starting to show small splits at the mouth. I thought if I annealed them I might prolong some case wear and tear. Your opinions please.
Walter

 

[RicinYakima]

When I was shooting the Trapdoor in matches, I would "stress relieve" the cases. Hold the case mouth in the center of a candle until the base was warm, and then wiped the soot off with a damp paper towel. I did that about once every five reloads, and reloaded the cases probably 50 times. The real solution is to get a Lyman 45 short neck sizing die and hone it out so that your cases are only sized down to 0.456" ID. FWIW, Ric

 

[Brad]

I believe the BPCR guys anneal pretty much every load. I know I have annealed 45-70 cases in the past and wouldn't hesitate to do so again.

My suggestion is to anneal away.

 

[RicinYakima]

Sorry, I shoot smokeless in CBA benchrest matches. I have no experience with the black powder in 45/70's, a different animal.

 

[waco]

FWIW I'm shooting smokeless.

 

[Brad]

Either way I would anneal. Gonna be hard to convince me it is a bad idea.

 

[Rick]

Annealing is an art form. The trick is to get uniform neck tension because if it's not uniform it will show in the groups. Annealing does work quite well but you ne to use a system that will anneal all the cases exactly the same.

 

[Ian]

A saucepan full of extremely fine sand, a casting thermometer, and gas burner works great, tried it the other day. Stir and heat the sand slowly until it's a uniform temperature (I put a Skil saw blade across the top to keep heat in and drilled a small hole through it for the thermometer). Poke your cases into the sand through the hole in the middle and hold until the base just starts to feel warm. Count each dunk, then toss in a bucket of water to stop the heat from reaching the case head. Very repeatable and the temperature is very controllable with this method. If you just want to do a faint "draw" rather than a full anneal, this is the way to go. Lots cheaper and slower than that super-neat and very spendy rig Rick uses.

Lead Pot is the one I got the idea from, he uses a small dipper furnace to heat his sand, which would be much more convenient for controlling the temperature than a saucepan, but I used what I had.

 

[Brad]

I bet a hot plate, a deep enough pan, sand, and a thermocouple attached to a PID would work very well. Decide on a temp and time and repeat at will.

 

[KHornet]

Never had a problem annealing 45-70 brass. Hold mouth of case down about a half inch in flame till just almost red & drop in water. About every 3-5 loadings IMO.

 

[bpsmoke]

I anneal after every firing in 45-70.

 

[fiver]

I just put it in the machine and turn the dial to @ 4 [seconds] and keep dropping new cases in the slots.
they drop out the other side into a bucket full of water/soap/citric acid mix.
then I just dump the bucket into the pin tumbler on the other end of the bench and turn it on and go do something else.

I know, I know it seems like waay too much thought and effort [no need to thank me] but someone has to do the thinking around here.

 

[Hummer]

I relieve case mouths, all rifle calibers in a rotating holder and use a propane torch with inner blue flame turned down to about 1/2" long. In the Arsenals they are run down lines through gas flames and they stay in flames about 6 seconds. Then then went into a hopper.

When I worked at Picatinny Arsenal I had a ammo engineer buddy named Marty Tyska who was also a highpower shooter and he taught me how to do it like the arsenals. Basically he said if you are doing it right you should never lose a case to a split neck, only from a worn out primer pocket.

He used a jewelers alcohol lamp and I did at first but if you are doing lots of cases this is very slow. I have one set of 500 30.06 cases that are now on their third barrel on my course rifle and I have been using these cases since 81 and have not lost one yet.

I run tight chambers and tight necks as well. Basically I call it the 222 principle. You don't want anything on your case moving over .002 on firing/resizing and your case life will go way up.

 

[Brad]

I love the 222 principle concept.

 

[Ian]

I run tight chambers and tight necks as well. Basically I call it the 222 principle. You don't want anything on your case moving over .002 on firing/resizing and your case life will go way up.

Absolutely spot-on.

 

[waco]

This is what I'm shooting for with that 338 Lapua brass. It's too damn expensive to only get a few loads out of...

This is my first split neck in my Starline 45-70 brass

I bought it in 2005 when I bought the rifle.

I have not annealed any of this brass yet, just thought now would be a good time to start.

 

[Hummer]

Another thing you can do is minimally resize. If you mate your case neck right the neck will spring back and you don't even need to resize to get it to take and hold a new bullet. I have some chambers I shoot, dump cases in stainless steel media, remove and seat primer, dump propellant and seat bullet and ready to go again.

I no longer use neck expanders. I have some dies I have ground out necks on so they will size enough to hold bullet but not need expander.

On others I used expander mandrells and open necks from the mouth down, not from the shoulder up. that helps as well.

I ran a test about ten years back, loaded a 30.06 LC Match case 157 times and relieved neck with candle every three shots. Case is sitting there waiting to go some more.

 

[Rick]

I had a 6br in an XP with Shilen Match barrel and match chamber. Had to turn necks to be able to seat brass with a bullet seated. Never sized this brass, as Hummer said pop primer & seat a new one, dump powder & seat bullet. Wore the barrel out and never lost a case. Never annealed either.
.

 

[Hummer]

I named the concept. I call it the anvil principle. Based on the question why does a 100 lb anvil last forever? Nothing ever moves on most of them. Least ways the good ones. If it doesn't move its hard to wear out.

 

[fiver]

Hummer.
good to see you here.
AIRC you were/are on Gun and Game also.