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Posted: 7/26/2008 11:07:45 AM EDT
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I have never annealed any cases in the past but I am ready to do a batch of twice fired 243 cases. I know they need to be polished well first, but should I anneal before or after resizing them, or does it even matter? I have some old 308 cases that I intend to practice on first. 
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Ahhh WeedHopper, the age old question, 'tis it better to anneal before sizing, or after? Some feel the heat may possibly WARP the already sized and concentric necks/mouths and prefer to size after annealing, but this adds one more cycle to the 'work hardening' process. Others feel consequently, that's sizing after annealing wastes a 'free pass' by doing so and that it doesn't warp the necks/mouths. I've annealed a lot of crap lately, 308, 338LM, and 22-250 and I anneal AFTER I size them and having spent literally hours and hours and cans and cans of beer, staring at those case mouths, in all shades of light, I can't see any warpage. Do what makes you happy, bro. Chris |
| The way I understand it, annealing softens the brass and relieves work-hardening. This happens during the resizing process. To me it just makes more sense to anneal the brass first, then size it, because the brass will be softer and less apt to crack/do other funkiness while working it in the die. It extends the life of your brass. |
You're more apt to split a neck upon firing though, than in sizing. Plus, unless you're using really brittle/hard brass, sizing them back down probably isn't a big issue, I mean, how many times have you FL or neck sized a case and gotten a split as a result? For me, never, but I have had more than a few come out of the chamber with split necks. Anyhow, I guess the point of my reply is is to go ahead and do it either way. I try not to let my brass get rock hard, not that I can test it, before annealing, so I'm not worried about blowing up that balloon with one more puff and having it burst, but everybody's different. When I go to firing them the first time, I know the brass is as soft as it can be. Chris |
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