Thoughts on Extreme Velocity Spread and Fixing it

[BackofBeyond]

I’ve never annealed brass. It’s such a rabbit hole to go down.

I did however have a good opportunity here. I have 15 cases that are in loads 4-7ish. I just shot them. I annealed them and will re shoot with the same charges and same crimp and see how they stack up. I know it’s not a statistical sampling, but I might be able to glean a little info from it.

I used a torch and cordless drill per Steve at Hammer. I heated until I could see a blue line start to form below the shoulder.

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I ruined some perfectly good ‘06 brass that way one time. Got it too hot and the brass got so soft I lost all neck tension, couldn’t get a bullet to seat at all.

But I do think annealing is worth it… currently have an Annealeeze on my list.

 

[Addicting]

I ruined some perfectly good ‘06 brass that way one time. Got it too hot and the brass got so soft I lost all neck tension, couldn’t get a bullet to seat at all.

But I do think annealing is worth it… currently have an Annealeeze on my list.

Keep 5-6 of your old brass to set it up. Put a detent into the base of the case so you know which are which when you polish them. You will need to reuse them each time you set it up. Then run your good brass thru it.

 

[BackofBeyond]

Keep 5-6 of your old brass to set it up. Put a detent into the base of the case so you know which are which when you polish them. You will need to reuse them each time you set it up. Then run your good brass thru it.

Is that to get the roller speed consistent?

 

[Addicting]

Is that to get the roller speed consistent?

Flame and roller. It varies up to 5-7 setting speeds depending on the day and environmental conditions. I just keep sacrificing the same 5-6 over and over by polishing them in between batches. I only do it every 4-5 months so it’s not a big deal.

 

[BackofBeyond]

Flame and roller. It varies up to 5-7 setting speeds depending on the day and environmental conditions. I just keep sacrificing the same 5-6 over and over by polishing them in between batches. I only do it every 4-5 months so it’s not a big deal.

Is this more consistent that using tempilac (sp???)?

Sorry for the derail Doug!

 

[Addicting]

Is this more consistent that using tempilac (sp???)?

Sorry for the derail Doug!

I’ve never gained anything from the tempilac I have on the bench. I chocked that stuff up to a waste of time. Half the time there is no change in it at all. Other times the brass is cooked to a crisp to see it work.

Just dim the lights and watch for it to just start to turn red on the neck. Time it so the next brass is dropping when that happens. The 1/2 second for it to drop and obstruct the flame gets it about perfect.

@JLS

There is no way by hand you can time each piece of brass when you’re doing batches to come out even. Some will be almost there and others will be fried. This is a task best left to a machine. Once set up it will do a batch of 50 quick and they all got identical treatment. ES and SD a batch with a drill and another with a machine and you will see a difference on the chronograph.

 

[44hunter45]

More money I'm gonna have to blow.

I've had mixed results with annealing. Dimming the lights to watch the color really helps.

 

[elkfanatic]

Annealing machine is pretty simple to build. I've got about $50 in mine. Googled a bunch of diy annealing machines and got ideas from several different ones, combined them into one that works great for me. 4" solid aluminum rod, small 12 volt DC motor, small gear set and toothed belts, speed controller, and a cordless tool battery adapter. Built the stand out of scrap material.

 

[BackofBeyond]

More money I'm gonna have to blow.

I've had mixed results with annealing. Dimming the lights to watch the color really helps.

Now to figure out what comes first, Labradar or Anealeeze.

 

[44hunter45]

LabRadar

I cook up a load and I make 500 of them.

I can buy a lifetime supply of brass for a particular load of the cost of the annealer. I don't shoot enough.

 

[millerkiller77]

Now to figure out what comes first, Labradar or Anealeeze.

Annealing, Hands down imo.
Chrono is for after the load. Annealing is a critical step in consistency of neck tension and resizing when creating the load.
Lmk if you want your brass annealed on a Mark 2 AMP., usps flat rate box is all it will cost you as long as I have the appropriate pilot for your caliber.

 

[BackofBeyond]

LabRadar

I cook up a load and I make 500 of them.

I can buy a lifetime supply of brass for a particular load of the cost of the annealer. I don't shoot enough.

Hard part for me is I don’t have 500 brass in any caliber. 500 ADG .300 RUM would cost more than my first truck. Not to mention having enough powder to fill them.

Better to have 100, and anneal I think.

 

[44hunter45]

Hard part for me is I don’t have 500 brass in any caliber. 500 ADG .300 RUM would cost more than my first truck. Not to mention having enough powder to fill them.

Better to have 100, and anneal I think.

That's why you are the boss, boss.

 

[Addicting]

Same offer here, if someone wants theirs done just mail them to me with the funds to mail them back.

 

[Jbotto]

Same offer here, if someone wants theirs done just mail them to me with the funds to mail them back.

This is a great offer. When I get set back up to do .338-06 I might be contacting you.

 

[manitou1]

I let the barrel cool between three shot groups. Never got even close to hot and velocity jumps were random, not getting faster as the group was fired. I use Big Game for my hunting load, so I'm guessing that's not it.

Good point on the necks. I hadn't thought about that, though I did measure the brass before this load and it was on the short side of acceptable. Hmmm... I do appreciate all of your thoughts here. I'm kinda leaning towards trying a different powder for this load. Wish I could find H 4895. I use that for some other rifles. Maybe I'll go back to Varget, but I like the idea of using fewer powders and buying them in larger quantities...

Yeah, I found it hard to beat Varget in the 7mm-08... like they were made for each other.

 

[ImBillT]

The only time I’ve had really wild SD/ES was from a 6mm Remington with sketchy brass. I prepped the brass well, but weights were all over the map. I’m not sure if that was the cause as I just took a different rifle on that hunt, and haven’t had time to fool with the 6mm Rem since.

 

[ImBillT]

It’s a start but very easy to ruin brass that way. That is how I started and quickly quit messing with it. Consistently is key and you just can’t get it with a drill. I Spent the 200 on a Annealzee set up. Best money on reloading I’ve spent.

No more hard necks, every stroke of the press feels the same. ES and SD single digits / low teens over long strings.

Worth every penny.

The drill is all I’ve ever done and I’ve never had a problem. I do it in a dark room and get the necks to just barely give me color.

If I ever knock the torch over, my wife we be very upset. Or perhaps pleased with the excuse to buy new carpet. Probably upset, but perhaps I could dig myself out with an offer for new carpet.

 

[winmag]

Someone needs to buy the annealer that @AlaskaHunter is selling.