stevenc23
02-21-2017, 22:05
Posted this over on the Hide as well. Would love to hear others thoughts on annealing.
Kind of long winded but bare with me. I am relatively new to long range precision shooting and have definitely been bitten by the bug. Started with factory ammunition and now have taken up reloading. Annealing was the next step in my progression. As is my nature I read everything I could and picked the brains of accomplished shooters and reloaders.
Like most topics it isn’t always easy to separate fact from fiction. And with annealing I found lots of opinion based on personal experiences but very little science. With my science background and a degree in Chemistry I knew much of what was being said simply was not true.
For those interested in some light reading here are a few good articles and discussions to read to come to you own conclusions
https://vacaero.com/information-reso...dge-brass.html (https://vacaero.com/information-resources/metallography-with-george-vander-voort/1440-deformation-and-annealing-of-cartridge-brass.html)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160131...ssertation.pdf (https://web.archive.org/web/20160131030702/http://nlrc.org/index_htm_files/Ryan%20Stevenson%20-%20Dissertation.pdf)
http://forum.accurateshooter.com/thr...brass.3868113/ (http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/annealing-brass.3868113/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4cmxWaMpOw
FWIW these are the conclusions I have come to based on scientific evidence.
1)The biggest myth is that you can easily over anneal cartridge brass. As per the above studies, you can heat brass to 1300 degrees F for an hour and you will NOT ruin the brass. Directly from George Vander Voort, an expert in the field of Metallurgy “"It recrystallizes the grain structure, removes the cold deformation and returns it to the initial annealed condition with full ductility.”" So if one hour at 1300 degrees F does not damage cartridge brass I think it would be pretty difficult to “over anneal” brass in a few seconds. Caveat –- you obviously to not want to anneal the case head or close to the head.
2)You do not burn the zinc out of the brass when it turns red.
3)You can anneal cases many (many) times, without harming them.
4)By properly annealing (and repeated annealing), cases life will be increased (unless overloaded).
5)Like most aspects of reloading consistency is the key. It is easy to anneal brass but more difficult to get all brass annealed to the same grain structure/hardness
6)Water does nothing for the process
Just my opinion based on my research.
Kind of long winded but bare with me. I am relatively new to long range precision shooting and have definitely been bitten by the bug. Started with factory ammunition and now have taken up reloading. Annealing was the next step in my progression. As is my nature I read everything I could and picked the brains of accomplished shooters and reloaders.
Like most topics it isn’t always easy to separate fact from fiction. And with annealing I found lots of opinion based on personal experiences but very little science. With my science background and a degree in Chemistry I knew much of what was being said simply was not true.
For those interested in some light reading here are a few good articles and discussions to read to come to you own conclusions
https://vacaero.com/information-reso...dge-brass.html (https://vacaero.com/information-resources/metallography-with-george-vander-voort/1440-deformation-and-annealing-of-cartridge-brass.html)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160131...ssertation.pdf (https://web.archive.org/web/20160131030702/http://nlrc.org/index_htm_files/Ryan%20Stevenson%20-%20Dissertation.pdf)
http://forum.accurateshooter.com/thr...brass.3868113/ (http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/annealing-brass.3868113/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4cmxWaMpOw
FWIW these are the conclusions I have come to based on scientific evidence.
1)The biggest myth is that you can easily over anneal cartridge brass. As per the above studies, you can heat brass to 1300 degrees F for an hour and you will NOT ruin the brass. Directly from George Vander Voort, an expert in the field of Metallurgy “"It recrystallizes the grain structure, removes the cold deformation and returns it to the initial annealed condition with full ductility.”" So if one hour at 1300 degrees F does not damage cartridge brass I think it would be pretty difficult to “over anneal” brass in a few seconds. Caveat –- you obviously to not want to anneal the case head or close to the head.
2)You do not burn the zinc out of the brass when it turns red.
3)You can anneal cases many (many) times, without harming them.
4)By properly annealing (and repeated annealing), cases life will be increased (unless overloaded).
5)Like most aspects of reloading consistency is the key. It is easy to anneal brass but more difficult to get all brass annealed to the same grain structure/hardness
6)Water does nothing for the process
Just my opinion based on my research.