Annealing, when to do ?

Hales Smut

Well-Known Member
In a previous post I spoke about splitting Norma brass in 243 ( Norma Jaktmatch ammo) . After about 3 reloads ( 4 times fired) about 30 out of 100 cases are split. I plan to anneal the remaining 70 next week.

I also have some new ( once fired factory ammo) cases by Federal, Hornady, Winchester and S&B . Should I also anneal them straight away ? This to prevent them splitting or should I wait until I see the first signs od splitting?
 
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Normally after 4/5 firings. However, going by your other post it may be you have an excessive headspace problem, this will wear out cases faster than normal and can result in splitting.

Before you do anything I'd get a competent gunsmith to check your rifles chamber, a set of Go/NoGo gauges will do a simple check.

Again, going by your other post, if you're full length sizing lube and size a fired case and see if it chambers OK, do the same with another case but this time try unscrewing your die 1/16 of a turn, keep doing this until you get a case that won't easily chamber then screw your die back in 1/16 turn. A properly sized case should chamber with almost no pressure on the bolt handle. The best way of doing this is with the firing pin removed.
 
A friend om mine is reloading for me and I help him to learn the tricks of the trade.
We always resize full lenght. He reloads for more than 25 years, but strictly along the book. Dimensions mostly come from the vihtavouri catalogue. The necks of my cases split lenghtwise. It was by explaining this to the gunshopowner, that he told me using a shim. Not to prevent the splitting, but to extend case life as there would be less stretch. He explained me that if a case splits/breaks in front of the bottom, this is a far more serious and difficult problem.
 
A friend om mine is reloading for me and I help him to learn the tricks of the trade.
We always resize full lenght. He reloads for more than 25 years, but strictly along the book. Dimensions mostly come from the vihtavouri catalogue. The necks of my cases split lenghtwise. It was by explaining this to the gunshopowner, that he told me using a shim. Not to prevent the splitting, but to extend case life as there would be less stretch. He explained me that if a case splits/breaks in front of the bottom, this is a far more serious and difficult problem.

Hales Smut, I'm not at all sure your friends technique is extending your case life,how many times do you reload a piece of brass,what calibre (s). I very seldom have cases splitting or coming apart. john
 
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In a previous post I spoke about splitting Norma brass in 243 ( Norma Jaktmatch ammo) . After about 3 reloads ( 4 times fired) about 30 out of 100 cases are split. I plan to anneal the remaining 70 next week.

I also have some new ( once fired factory ammo) cases by Federal, Hornady, Winchester and S&B . Should I also anneal them straight away ? This to prevent them splitting or should I wait until I see the first signs od splitting?

Depends on how old the brass is. Brass hardens with age.

I anneal all of my old brass and the in use stuff every other firing.
 
When it comes to neck splits, there are two other issues apart from the original factory brass annealing quality. First is case-neck to chamber fit. Most sporting rifles have pretty generously dimensioned neck sections in the chamber. A lot of clearance = a lot of neck expansion on firing and then more resizing used, both increasing stress on the brass and accelerating work hardening. Thin-neck brass increases case to chamber clearances aggravating this problem, and Norma has on occasions produced case-lots with very thin brass indeed that was fine in 'minimum SAAMI' match chambers, but soon produced neck splits on reloading for slacker sporting rifles. Back in the 1980s I bought nearly 1,000 Norma 150gn PSP 308 Win cartridges at a ludicrously low price from my local gunshop whose proprietor had a very close relationship with Roger Hale MD of Parker-Hale, the then Norma UK distributor. The reason for the 'sale price' was 0.012-0.013" thick necks some two to three thou' undersize. In an ordinary sporter, they were fine for a single firing, but soon split if reloaded and Norma customers of those times expected several firings from their brass or the ability to sell them to people willing to pay a good price for once fired examples. The cartridges were sold as being 'unsuitable for reloading' and had been sold as a clearance nearly scrap price by Parker-Hale to the dealer.

I still have many of these 160gn weight cases (~35gn lighter than Lapua) and in tightly chambered FTR competition rifles, their life is good even without annealing.

The other factor - which also applies to my old 160gn Norma brass life - is the sizer die type used. A standard factory FL or NS dies deliberately sizes necks down far more than needed and then re-expands them back up to a dimension which produces a high neck tension value. Match shooters mostly use bushing dies nowadays with bushing sizes sizing necks down a great deal less and also resulting in much reduced tension on the bullet. Both factors reduce work hardening / stress and neck splits are rare as a result. Using a 308 Win FN Special Police Rifle as an example, I once measured how much neck-wall movement Lapua brass went through on a single firing / resizing / bullet seating cycle. With a standard Lee FLS die, it totalled 44 thou'; with a bushing die that was reduced by more than half. In a 'minimum SAAMI' match chamber allied to bushing dies and light neck tensions, it reduced to just under 10 thou'. I always exceeded half a dozen firings from my thin, cheap Norma cases without splits or annealing, and if / when scrapped it was as a result of heavy loads expanding the case-head / primer pockets.

Some long-range F-Class and BR competitors now anneal their cases after every firing before reloading them. In good brass fired in tight chambers, I do it on every fourth or so reload and that seems to work well for me.
 
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Rifle is a standard Rem 700 ADL in 243 win, wich I dropped in a PSE stock and tansformed it into a BDL.

I bought the Norma Jaktmatch ammo in between 1 and 2 years ago. No idea how long they have been on the shelf with the Belgian importer.

Thanks for the info. It looks more complicated then I thought.
 
Phaedra has it about right. Your .243 brass should do much better if resized correctly to 'fired case headspace' dimension.
If you have a Hornady headspace guage you can measure a number of fired cases then take an average dimension to use as your die setting. If you don't have a guage, Paedra's method should work.

I anneal every three firings.
 
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