I have some 06 cases left over and want to resize to 35 Whelen improved. Do I need to anneal before fire forming?
If so, how far down on the case?
OR ???

quote:

Do I need to anneal before fire forming?
If so, how far down on the case?

I would anneal the neck.

Thanks Paul. That was my thought but have never done this before so I am looking for best way to keep from messing up the cases.

Use a candle and hold the case head in your
fingers. When the head feels hot dip the case neck in cold water. If you own a propane torch
be careful because things go quickly.

Try a dozen without annealing and see what happens. The road of learning often fallows the path of doing. roger

I'm leaning towards Bartche's method. What happens when you anneal dead soft is you lose your neck tension, which is important, and you have to work the brass hard again by shooting and resizing. What I do is I just "draw" the case, or in your instance the neck. That's where I just warm case or neck a little, not where it's hot enough to anneal or you have to quench in water. By the way you don't have to quench in water to anneal, you can just let them air cool. Like I said though you don't want the necks dead soft.

Don't lube the necks except the inside.

I hate that I've been wasting my time out shooting when I could have been in the shop dicking around. But I've resized brass up and down and I've never annealed a single case. Perhaps if I were using or making some exotic round it might be plausible but I put annealing right up there with primer pocket uniforming and case weighing.
I opened up a bunch of 1X .243 cases to 7-08 and after 4 or 5 shootings, I got a few neck splits but I shot the rest of it until 7-08 brass became commonly available.
I agree with bartshe.

I have formed a lot of 30-06 brass up to 8X57 and pushed the shoulder back to make 7.65 Mauser.

The 8X57 is an autoloader that tosses brass all over. Having inexpensive brass was important because some of it will be lost.
The 7.65 was only available from Norma so any brass was a cost saving.
No annealing was required to form the brass.
I annealed all of it to 1/4 below the shoulder after all forming. My process produces good brass and no drama. A good task for a cold rainy day using SL-54 brass that I payed a penny apiece for.