Should you anneal brass every time?

Anealing brass. When and how often?

When I first learned to aneal I would do it once every 4 loadings. It worked well and my brass lasted a very long time. I don't run high preasure so my primer pockets rarely open up. As my skills improved I started chasing the acuracey rabbit. Picked up a concentricity gage. First lot I checked was a freshly anealed lot and my worst ones where a ." out. I thought well that was a waste of money! But I continued to check them after sizing. 2nd loading I averaged .002-.003 still good but I wondered what I did differently. 3rd loading .002-.005 Hmmm. Fourth loading .003-.007". Now I was resizing some brass twice to straighten the bad ones. Then I check case length. Hmmm all different ranging .01". I anealed resized and trimmed and checked again. ." extreme spred on concentricity. I kept up this cycle for few weeks trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. It finially dawned on me after reading an article about brass work hardening and spring back. I decided to do like some of the nut jobs online that preached about anealing every loading :yikes:

What happened? Well my brass stayed in the .001-.002 area for concentric, all my brass grew at the same rate with in .002". Resizing was easier, seating was easier, trimming was easier. Grouping improved at distance, Es/sd went down and most importantly confidence went up.
Now I'm one of those whack jobs online preaching about annealing every loading!

I used to anneal with a drill going super slow and a bit I made to hold the cases and then drop them in water to stop the heat from going down too far on the case. Now I anneal by hand. Holding the brass by the head and turning it by hand. Then I set it on a tin plate to cool. No water mess or waiting for brass to dry, heat dosent go past the shoulders but maybe .1-.15" still getting the same results but faster and less fuss. Typically when I finish the last peace I'm able to just start picking them up and place them in my loading block. They cool quickly.

Jmo based off my exp.

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before

every 

Annealing should always be doneresizing. This eliminates spring back, and ensures repeatable and accurate shoulder bumping and neck sizing. Annealing should be donereload.

We find that the best results are obtained with this sequence:

• De-prime

  -

  (optional depending on your cleaning sequence)

• Clean

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  -

   tumble or ultrasonic etc. &#; again optional. Cleaning won&#;t affect annealing

• Anneal 

• Lube

  -

  this is vital even with nitrided dies. (Imperial wax or spray such as Hornady One Shot) &#; note: Dry media graphite tends not to adhere well to annealed cases. We do not recommend its use.

• Resize

  -

  after annealing, THE SIZING DIE MAY NEED TO BE ADJUSTED for both shoulder bump and neck OD to account for zero spring back. See FAQ 3, 5 and 6. De-priming can be done as part of the resizing process. 

For more detail, see our Annealing under the microscope articles

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