Necking Down and Annealing

[RiverRider]

You have not lived until you've sat down and turned necks on 500 cases at a time. If someone had just shot me, I may have appreciated it.

A couple of years ago when components started to get scarce, I decided I would take advantage of a good deal on some once-fired 7.62 NATO brass to be necked down for .243 Winchester. Necking down was easy enough, but the necks were a bit on this thick side so I turned them. What a chore. I thought I'd never finish. But I did.

So now I plan to anneal them. I am thinking I could fire them one time and then anneal them or I could just anneal them now and call it good. I've thought about it some and I'm leaning toward annealing them now before fireforming, but I'd like to know what you guys think. Surely there may be some things I have not considered.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[rick smith]

I would anneal first. The brass has been fired and the neck down sized. Might as well start out working on loads during the fire forming. On your second firing only thing that will be different is the case not the case and neck.Rick.

 

[30-338]

Depending on how much you had to take off the necks also if you had to make one or two cuts. I would shoot the cases measure neck thickness from the neck/shoulder up to just below the top of the neck in about 5/6 spots make sure nothing changed. You may also have to inside neck ream at some point.

I did about 100cases 20 yrs ago and that cure me. If I remember right those case had less capacity so had problems with upper loads finally threw them away.

When the orginal Sako 220 Russian brass became scarce for the 6ppc we made case from 7.62x39. I still have acouple hundred.

 

[DannoBoone]

I would anneal first. The brass has been fired and the neck down sized. Might as well start out working on loads during the fire forming. On your second firing only thing that will be different is the case not the case and neck.Rick.

+1

After all, they have been work hardened, having been once fired and then
necked down to a much smaller caliber.

I've had no trouble with .30-06 brass being necked down to .25, but
the necks have split on only one firing, so I now anneal them prior to
loading them up.

Were you able to neck down in just one operation with a .243 die? Did
you use a neck or full length die? (My interest comes from just getting
a .243 last year.)

 

[rick smith]

If you have a standard 243 seating die, run the cases into it first. Then FL or neck size in a 243 die.Rick.

 

[RiverRider]

I had no trouble just running them into a FL .243 die---all done in one operation. I used Hornady "Unique" case lube and there was never a moment of difficulty.

Rick, is the suggestion to use a seating die first just to make the operation a bit more of a two-step transformation?

I'll go ahead and anneal before the first loading. Now that I think about it, I can see how I might get neck splits just seating bullets, if not from firing the cases in a work-hardened condition.

 

[rick smith]

Not just trying to make an additional step, sometimes, to prevent case folds during sizing, it is better to use an additional step. If you get the sizing in one step just do that. If you were having problems just nice to know this simple step.Rick.

 

[Ridge_Runner]

shoot them first, they should be annealed before being resized.
RR

 

[RiverRider]

shoot them first, they should be annealed before being resized.
RR

Okay...there must be some reason you suggest this. Care to share?