As with any part of reloading there are reasons to do something that some people take seriously, some are meh about it, and some simply aren't aware of. Annealing is no different, and as with any other part of reloading, you'll get 100 different opinions (and arguments) on how and why to do it. I'll talk about what I've done, and what I do. Your mileage may vary.
Annealing is something the average reloader might want to consider with the current situation of components being hard to find. It just makes sense to get as much use out of your stuff as you can, and annealing does infact add life to your brass far beyond what you get if you ignore it. I think gone is the day someone would just let it go and pitch a batch of brass because a few necks started to split. Replacing it is either hard to do, or non existent.
For the uninitiated let's talk a minute about one reason to anneal your brass. If you need a good example go to Lowe's and look at the copper pipe. You have soft copper and you have rigid copper. Copper and brass are similar in that they work harden. The soft copper pipe is in a much more annealed state and can be bent and twisted to pretty much any shape you need. Rigid copper pipe has been run through die after die until it work hardens enough to maintain a rigid state. If you try to bend it it will kink and break easily. Running your brass through reloading dies and firing it repeatedly adds "work" to the brass with every change in size. Pressure during firing also adds "work" to the brass, it's not just the change of size in the chamber.
Now all that work without annealing makes the brass harder and more brittle. Where this shows up first is the thin necks and shoulders, and cracks appear making the brass useless. The correction is prevention. Don't let it become brittle and the brass will last much longer. Infact, I experience loose primer pockets long before the necks or shoulders go bad.
A lot of the internet argument over annealing comes from temperature. Some will insist there is only one exact temperature that will anneal their brass, and many will say that the only way to achieve that temperature is with tempilaq or some other similar measure of temp. They're not exactly wrong, but they are over complicating it.
When you research this, and you should if you're interested, you'll find a range of temperatures that annealing occurs with brass. Below that minimum temp nothing changes and the brass remains brittle, above that maximum temp and you've over annealed making it too soft and won't hold proper neck tension. You must still maintain a certain level of hardness that gives the case neck some spring back, that is the exact thing that provides neck tension. Too soft and the bullet simply resizes the case neck and provides little to no neck tension.
Do your research from the metallurgical view point not the reloading perspective. You'll grasp a cleaner degree of knowledge about what is happening to the brass during annealing that isn't polluted with bias opinions.
I'm not going to state my numbers here, because my process may not work for you. You need to develop your own methods that give you what you need. All I'll say is I'm within the parameters of temperature that do the job and when setting up my machine I look for a certain physical change that occurs when my annealing has reached its finish.
One pro tip I'll give you right now is to tumble your brass just as shiny clean as you can get it. Any oxidation, carbon, or dirt on the brass WILL skew your judgment of a correct anneal whether you're doing it by eye or with tempilaq.
The easiest way to anneal is buy a commercial machine. Even the cheapest machine on the market though is above the pay grade of most and that alone keeps most from doing it. The more ambitious will grab a drill, chuck up a socket, and light a torch. If you're good at paying attention to detail, and don't get distracted, that method will work to add longevity to your brass, but, it's not as precise as a machine. Not even close.
The other critical part of annealing is time. When you develop your process you need to blend and balance time and temperature to achieve the correct results. A proper anneal at a suitable heat only takes a few seconds. It happens fast, and it's easy to mess up either not hot enough or too hot. A machine really is the only way to precisely control time and temperature if a precise level of anneal is your goal, meaning a consistent level of physical change in the brass.
Think of it this way. A cooked steak is edible regardless of time and temperature, but what degree of cooked suits you? Personally I like my steak precisely medium rare and nothing else. I want my annealing to be at a precise level as well, somewhere precisely between too hot and too cold.
Why would you care about a precise anneal if a wide margin of error gives you case longevity? Because if it matters to you, a precise anneal will ALSO give you better control of neck tension, runout, and shoulder set back for the sake of consistency. We all know consistency is the key to accuracy. Every case must be conditioned exactly the same to achieve a degree of predictability from shot to shot, ie, accuracy.
Case longevity becomes just a side benefit when you unlock the key to achieving a consistent anneal.
If you're annealing for precision you'll discover after you gain experience that things make a difference to your process, which is why I won't give you any numbers to go by. Neck thickness makes a difference. Thick/thin necks make a difference. The metallurgy of one brass brand is different from another and that makes a difference. Even the level of propane in your torch tank and the pressure of it burning make a difference to your time/temp. Like I said you have to develope your own process. Start with case longevity first, that's the easy part. Then if precision is what you want start playing with time/and temp to get the right neck tension and so on. I anneal after every firing to maintain that level of precision.
I want the magic of precise annealing but I don't want to pay for it, so I built a solid machine for very little money. So the point of my post here is to bring you to a video of that annealing machine I built for about $100 worth of parts off Amazon. Ebay also has what you need. This machine is the design of 'elfster" on youtube and he gives detailed instructions on how to build one and where to find parts.
If you can manage a tape measure, a drill, a hacksaw, and maybe a soldering tool, you can have a very legit annealing machine yourself to step up your game. If nothing else the home built machine will pay for itself in short order and save you a lot of money in the long run.
Hope this helps someone, it sure helped me.
I annealed with a drill and socket for years and years and years, and saved a lot of brass, but this simple machine took me to a whole nother level of precision that I'm very content with.
Annealing is something the average reloader might want to consider with the current situation of components being hard to find. It just makes sense to get as much use out of your stuff as you can, and annealing does infact add life to your brass far beyond what you get if you ignore it. I think gone is the day someone would just let it go and pitch a batch of brass because a few necks started to split. Replacing it is either hard to do, or non existent.
For the uninitiated let's talk a minute about one reason to anneal your brass. If you need a good example go to Lowe's and look at the copper pipe. You have soft copper and you have rigid copper. Copper and brass are similar in that they work harden. The soft copper pipe is in a much more annealed state and can be bent and twisted to pretty much any shape you need. Rigid copper pipe has been run through die after die until it work hardens enough to maintain a rigid state. If you try to bend it it will kink and break easily. Running your brass through reloading dies and firing it repeatedly adds "work" to the brass with every change in size. Pressure during firing also adds "work" to the brass, it's not just the change of size in the chamber.
Now all that work without annealing makes the brass harder and more brittle. Where this shows up first is the thin necks and shoulders, and cracks appear making the brass useless. The correction is prevention. Don't let it become brittle and the brass will last much longer. Infact, I experience loose primer pockets long before the necks or shoulders go bad.
A lot of the internet argument over annealing comes from temperature. Some will insist there is only one exact temperature that will anneal their brass, and many will say that the only way to achieve that temperature is with tempilaq or some other similar measure of temp. They're not exactly wrong, but they are over complicating it.
When you research this, and you should if you're interested, you'll find a range of temperatures that annealing occurs with brass. Below that minimum temp nothing changes and the brass remains brittle, above that maximum temp and you've over annealed making it too soft and won't hold proper neck tension. You must still maintain a certain level of hardness that gives the case neck some spring back, that is the exact thing that provides neck tension. Too soft and the bullet simply resizes the case neck and provides little to no neck tension.
Do your research from the metallurgical view point not the reloading perspective. You'll grasp a cleaner degree of knowledge about what is happening to the brass during annealing that isn't polluted with bias opinions.
I'm not going to state my numbers here, because my process may not work for you. You need to develop your own methods that give you what you need. All I'll say is I'm within the parameters of temperature that do the job and when setting up my machine I look for a certain physical change that occurs when my annealing has reached its finish.
One pro tip I'll give you right now is to tumble your brass just as shiny clean as you can get it. Any oxidation, carbon, or dirt on the brass WILL skew your judgment of a correct anneal whether you're doing it by eye or with tempilaq.
The easiest way to anneal is buy a commercial machine. Even the cheapest machine on the market though is above the pay grade of most and that alone keeps most from doing it. The more ambitious will grab a drill, chuck up a socket, and light a torch. If you're good at paying attention to detail, and don't get distracted, that method will work to add longevity to your brass, but, it's not as precise as a machine. Not even close.
The other critical part of annealing is time. When you develop your process you need to blend and balance time and temperature to achieve the correct results. A proper anneal at a suitable heat only takes a few seconds. It happens fast, and it's easy to mess up either not hot enough or too hot. A machine really is the only way to precisely control time and temperature if a precise level of anneal is your goal, meaning a consistent level of physical change in the brass.
Think of it this way. A cooked steak is edible regardless of time and temperature, but what degree of cooked suits you? Personally I like my steak precisely medium rare and nothing else. I want my annealing to be at a precise level as well, somewhere precisely between too hot and too cold.
Why would you care about a precise anneal if a wide margin of error gives you case longevity? Because if it matters to you, a precise anneal will ALSO give you better control of neck tension, runout, and shoulder set back for the sake of consistency. We all know consistency is the key to accuracy. Every case must be conditioned exactly the same to achieve a degree of predictability from shot to shot, ie, accuracy.
Case longevity becomes just a side benefit when you unlock the key to achieving a consistent anneal.
If you're annealing for precision you'll discover after you gain experience that things make a difference to your process, which is why I won't give you any numbers to go by. Neck thickness makes a difference. Thick/thin necks make a difference. The metallurgy of one brass brand is different from another and that makes a difference. Even the level of propane in your torch tank and the pressure of it burning make a difference to your time/temp. Like I said you have to develope your own process. Start with case longevity first, that's the easy part. Then if precision is what you want start playing with time/and temp to get the right neck tension and so on. I anneal after every firing to maintain that level of precision.
I want the magic of precise annealing but I don't want to pay for it, so I built a solid machine for very little money. So the point of my post here is to bring you to a video of that annealing machine I built for about $100 worth of parts off Amazon. Ebay also has what you need. This machine is the design of 'elfster" on youtube and he gives detailed instructions on how to build one and where to find parts.
If you can manage a tape measure, a drill, a hacksaw, and maybe a soldering tool, you can have a very legit annealing machine yourself to step up your game. If nothing else the home built machine will pay for itself in short order and save you a lot of money in the long run.
Hope this helps someone, it sure helped me.
I annealed with a drill and socket for years and years and years, and saved a lot of brass, but this simple machine took me to a whole nother level of precision that I'm very content with.
