Now that I finished my 500 rounds into Match brass over the past week, fired 50 virgin Win. .223 cases & noticed every single case absolutely clean and without the usual blackening, whereas same load with 3X fired Lapua all have typical black. Is this to say that by reducing case wall thickness, the neck expands to form a more perfect seal? That is the question.......r in s.

Your new brass is still soft from the factory annealing. When it gets hard from the cold working of resizing you may see the soot.

quote:

Originally posted by ireload2:
Your new brass is still soft from the factory annealing. When it gets hard from the cold working of resizing you may see the soot.

When you get soot on the neck you at least want it to appear uniform rather than heavy on one side and down on the shoulder.

Do you know that new bulk factory Winchester or even Remington is annealed? There is no case color signs present.....thought only Lapua, Norma et all would perform this custom feature. r in s.

Ray, I started aneling my brand new WW brass before first loading or at least after 1 load.

I was getting cracked necks on new WW brass after 1 reload.

Aneling cured that problem.

I don't get cracked necks on my Rem brass til around 15 loadings so I don't want to spend any time annealing brass. When it wears out just toss and start new again.

Aneling is my fastest , funnest step of brass prep and reloading

quote:

Originally posted by ray in seattle:
Do you know that new bulk factory Winchester or even Remington is annealed? There is no case color signs present.....thought only Lapua, Norma et all would perform this custom feature. r in s.

Ray -

It definitly IS annealed. In fact, it is annealed several times in the process of making cases. Otherwise the wastage by neck, body, and even head cracking would be so high there would be no profit in manufacturing it. The final anneal does not include the head portion of the case and the degree of annealing varies in the body portion.

In the U.S. made brass which does not have the "pretty" anneal colours at the neck and shoulder areas, their absence is reportedly because of the final polishing process which the companies at least believe American shooters like....rightly or wrongly. In that polishing, the colours disappear.

quote:

Originally posted by ray in seattle:
Do you know that new bulk factory Winchester or even Remington is annealed? There is no case color signs present.....thought only Lapua, Norma et all would perform this custom feature. r in s.

The only American made brass that was left with the annealing colors was used for the .458 Win. This was a practical matter to prove the loaded ammo was suitable for it's intended purpose. It was expected the .458 Win used knew the purpose.

I have gotten Remington 338 RUM brass which had a pinkish cast to the necks that I thought was secondary to annealing.

quote:

Originally posted by jtinidaho:
I have gotten Remington 338 RUM brass which had a pinkish cast to the necks that I thought was secondary to annealing.

jtinidaho-

I believe your are spot on the money with that surmise. I have seen some of that on brass and recognize the colour you are speaking of. I have been able to create the same colour on brass which I have annealed after 6 or 8 hot loadings. Then, if I did not tumble it exceeding long, it came out of the tumbler with the same pink cast to the neck end of it.

I anneal my brass frequently because it is quick, easy, inexpensive and has three main benefits for me.

1. no problems with split necks or shoulders

2. better neck seal with light loads

3. annealing loosens the fouling in the neck



Varmint Al's instructions are probably the best

http://www.varmintal.com/arelo.htm

and while I do not mean to disagree with Mr. Al, I find annealing to be even easier than the way he does it.

Hot Core has suggested that new annnealers practice with a few pieces of range brass to get the hang of it and I agree 100% from my experience.

I typically anneal and load 100 round batches of .375 H&H. It takes me about 20 minutes to:

-secure torch to an upright support near something that I can rest my left forearm on

-fill a bucket with water

-open the MTM 100 box of fired cases and ensure that all primers are punched

-don safety glasses, light torch and adjust flame

-while resting my left forearm on the support, hold a case with my left hand so that the neck/shoulder junction is in the tip of the blue flame and rotate the case with fingers and thumb of right hand

-as soon as the color wash appears, carefully rotate the case at the "correct" rpm so that the flame chases the color wash around until it meets itself, then drop the case in the water bucket


I do this bare handed because fingers serve as temp sticks. I can feel the heat migrate down the case walls and be sure not to let the case head get warm. Fouling inside the case necks comes right out when the brass is cleaned.

I don't find it necessary to anneal in a dark room to see the color wash.

r. in s. learned something today gents, thanks a lot......46 yrs. reloading experience & still learning. Will try that Varmint Al method on some range pickup brass first....

Another factor that may come into play is soot on the necks is often the result of a slow powder flowing back into the neck as the neck did not expand quickly enough, a faster powder will sometimes cure this effect.

Personally I have never had neck splitting problems with any brass, guess I just live right. I don't bother with annealing, I shoot my varmint brass about 15 times or maybe a little less and toss it..Its pretty cheap and I also get a lot of .223 fired brass from some of the local government agency agencys. They use Federal brass and when they qualify they leave about 2000 to 3000 or more rounds on the ground at the range, and I'm on it like a duck on a Junebug..I use .223 brass for my .223 and my 6x45..