how to anneal case necks?

[smith85619]

reading another post, I thought I would bring this up for discussion.  How exactly do you do this?  If I understand, you only want the necks done.  Someone educate me, I have never done it but am interested.  Please excuse my uneducatedness.

[torpedoman]

 If you have a lead pot you can leave the primer in the cases (keeps the lead out of the cases) hold the case by the bottom and stick the neck into the lead until your fingers start to get hot then drop the case into a bucket of water. this anneals the necks evenly. Keep the water bucket on the floor and the lead pot on your bench.

[LaOtto222]

I do not cast bullets, so I do not have a lead pot. I also do not have a well vented place to heat a lead pot up, except out doors. I went a different route. I bought a Hornady Annealing Kit. It has 3 different "spinners" depending on the case size which one you use and a bottle of heat sensitive paste. It will melt at the appropriate temperature. You daub a little paste on the shoulder of the case. You then put it in to the appropriate spinner going around about 200 RPM, then apply heat (a propane torch) to the case mouth. When the paste melts, you then turn the spinner upside down and dump the case into water. I bought a cheap cordless screw driver to run the spinner with. Both the spinners and the cordless driver are a hex configuration. It turns at 180 RPM (close enough). A little paste goes a long way. After you do enough, you can tell by the color change at the case mouth with out using the paste. The spinner helps keep the heat away from the case body, yet the case slides out in to the water easily. You want to anneal the case shoulder as well as the mouth. If you have noticed, new cases are annealed (discolored) down to just past the shoulder. I run mine through a tumbler after annealing to clean up the discoloration and paste residue (if you use it). It sounds a lot harder than it actually is. I lay out a batch in a loading block, so they are easy to put on the paste (I do not use it now), pick one up, put it in to the spinner, put it over the torch for a few seconds, and then dump it into a bucket of water at my feet. Repeat. It does not take very long to to do 100 cases. Good Luck and Good Shooting

[smith85619]

thanks for the replies guys.  now another question.  do you anneal all your brass, or just brass that has been fired a couple of times to keep from overworking it during resizing?

[LaOtto222]

I usually anneal after a big resizing job, like moving the shoulder back on a 223 to 221 Fireball or necking down 375 Winchester to 30-30. As far as regular cases go, I watch the necks and when I get a couple of split necks, I anneal the rest in both straight cases and bottle necked cases. With bottle necked cases you have to watch the web area for thinning. If it is a high intensity round they grow and you have to trim every few firings. If you only neck size or full length size, you will still have to trim every few rounds and it thins the web area to the point of failure before the necks become work hardened. If you keep the pressure down or a lower intensity round, the neck can become work hardened before the web stretches to the point of rupture or the primer pocket loosing up. I have yet to have a straight walled case thin to the point of rupture before the case is no good, even after annealing. Remember pressure is the enemy of a case. The higher the pressure the shorter the case life. Just one more thing, a sloping shoulder will grow more than a case with a sharp shoulder, with the same pressure levels. 22 Hornet cases are notorious for this. Good Luck and Good Shooting

[smith85619]

OK it's making more sense now.  I found some info and videos on this and I feel like I may have some brass that is ready for it.  Thanks for all the info.