Annealing...case life expectations?

[Anonymous]

While I've loaded ammo off and on for 20+ years, I've yet to anneal my first case or see more than 4 or 5 firings.

With magnum rifle cartridges and low volume reloading for hunting practice, I just never had the need as most of my cases never saw more than a few firings before being lost or the rifle getting sold.

With my Creedmoor fixation of the last couple years, I now have a batch of brass that has 7 firings on it and most sources would indicate it's time to anneal them. Fewer sources would indicate it's time to pitch them.

I'm open to doing either, especially in the interest of safety, since I've FL resized these and trimmed them at least a couple of times each. Thoughts?

 

[Thebear_78]

I’ve been hearing that even more than just car life expectancy there are accuracy Benefits. Neck tension consistency is improved leading to better SDs and long range accuracy. That combined with a few wildcats that require brass conversion promoted me to get the salt bath annealing setup.

I just annealed 50 brand new 6mm creedmoor brass, and keeping second bag non annealed. It will be interesting if I see any noticeable difference in performance out of my 22 creedmoor.


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[Tjay]

I would say if the primer pockets are good and they are do not have the thinning separation ring I would anneal them and keep shooting.

I have some 300 SAUM cases at 10+ loadings that are still an use. I annealed them after 5 loadings.

 

[TackDriver284]

I have 14 firings on my .308 Lapua brass, primer pockets are still moderately tight, annealed every two firings.

300 Magnum brass ( Norma ) have 6 firings on them, and I have pushed it pretty hard pushing the 180 grain bullet to 3200 fps, annealed every two firings as well, primer pockets are between loose and tight now. I assume maybe two more firings on this batch and toss all 50 pieces and get the other unfired 50 piece batch out.

6.5 Creedmoor brass ( Nosler ) has 5 firings on them, still tight pockets and annealed every 2 firings as well.

All my other rifle brass are annealed every two firings as well.

Not only annealing makes brass last longer, it helps reduce my flyers, more accurate at long range by keeping the necks soft and seating pressure is almost the same after annealing compared when not annealing at all.

 

[ShadeTree]

So many things come into play on case life versus just taking annealing by itself, such as quality and hardness/softness of brass, sizing to minimum headspace between each firing, how hot of loads, etc.

So hard to say you can just anneal at this point and go forwards. If the case is already thinned, annealing wont do much good. That being said if the first 2 things listed above are optimum carry on. I anneal every 3-4 firings and have several guns that 10+ and up to as much as 15+ has been no problem. And that's with primarily plain ole Remington brass.