I see people talk about annealing their brass, but never when, why or how. As I am new to reloading, could someone fill me in on this process

Brass "work hardens". It is a particular problem with wildcats, that have had the neck sized up or down, although it can and does show up on ordinary reloads. The idea is to heat the neck/shoulder area -without heating the head- to restore the natural flexiblilty of the brass. Probably the most common method is to stand the cases in a plate of water covered the head area, heating with a propane torch and tipping them over when done. I'm sure there are many other methods.

Bud, Pedestal pretty well covered it but I'll fill in some details. Annealing is not something a beginning reloader is likely to need, but it can be real useful later on.

My method is to use a mild flame on a propane torch in a darkened room. I hold the case head in my fingers and revolve the case mouth in the flame. You can see a color change as the brass heats. When the color line has moved down over the case shoulder, I drop the case in a bucket of water. Because I revolve the case, I heat both sides of the neck evenly. I'll never overheat the head, because I would burn my fingers first.

I have a batch of new Remington brass that needs annealing now. The necks are too hard to expand and give a gas seal with cast bullet pressures. That probably would not be a problem for someone shooting full house loads, but might show up as neck splits in a couple of firings.

I shoot a lot of odd stuff and do a lot of case reforming to do it. It helps and is sometimes essential to anneal first. If neck splits start showing up in brass that has only had a couple of firings, it's time to anneal.

I anneal my brass, depending on the loads I'm using, after every 4th or 5th firing. I don't get split necks and the brass lasts for a long time.

One tip about annealing....before you try it become completely familar with the process as there is a lot of poor information on the internet but basically if you get it to hot the brass is so soft it's dangerous and if you don't heat it enough you don't do any good. There are aids to help you reach the right temperture that aren't dependent unpon you and someone else agreeing on a specific shade of red...do a "google" search and read.

Here are two references for you.

http://www.gun-tests.com/performance/jun96cases.html

http://www.cda.org.uk/megab2/costeff/pub117/sec62.htm

For reference, the 650 F. number mentioned in the Howell article is about 343 C.

The next time I will try to dig out a couple of references that don't contradict each other. Dutch.

I wish I knew 50% of what Dr Ken has forgotten about cases, reloading & rifles in general. If he says it you can take it to the bank.

Do a SEARCH here. There have been quite a few threads on the subject even recently.

I machined a tool out of 3/4" drill rod. Bored one end so that it would accept about half of a case. Turned the other end to chuck in my electric drill.

I mark the cases to be annealed with 675 deg Tempilstik. Just as soon as it melts (turns color) I point my drill toward bucket of water and the case falls into it. Just a few seconds is all it takes.

Wally

I used to anneal...but I don't shoot but one wildcat and I make brass from IMI surplus and I get 6 to 10 loading pretty well out of all my brass...Brass in bulk is so cheap, I just pinch it and toss it when it get old and gets some new stuff.....