Hello, I have experienced problems while shooting my 17 jet (22 jet necked down w/ sharp shoulder, like a rimmed 17 Mach V). Several pieces of brass have shown some degree of separation where the annealed neck/shoulder meet with the non-anealed rear half of the case, this is after several firings.. I am wondering if I should anneal more of the case (but not the head) or perhaps anneal the neck only very lightly. my current batch of cases showed visible marks from annealing for about 40% of their length. I annealed them prior to fireforming but after necking down. thanks
Ian

You should torch the cases before you do any brass re-working.

If you are going to neck down you should anneal first (and you may well need to inside ream the necks as they can become too thick when you neck down). I would also anneal them again after you fireform them.

With respect to "annealing only lightly", if you don't reach the proper temperature you are not annealing them, all you are doing is making them hot. Annealing is not hard to do but you muct do it right....read several references before you try it again and make sure you use a tempstick to tell when that temp is reached. Many will tell you can tell by the change in color but that is a very subjective way to do it and takes some experience.....the objective way is with the tempstick.

You should not be applying heat much below the shulder of the case as all you want to do is anneal the neck area.

Look at the page below for references re: brass annealing. Note that the chart indicates warmer temperatures (500 to 600 C) than the Narramore recommendation of, IIRC, 670 F (400 C). Why? Ask an expert!

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

Tempilstick or Tempilaq are definitively a "must have". The aftermarket torch tips for annealing by "The Varmints Den" or Hornady are also very handy to have. HTH, Dutch.

[ 09-07-2002, 01:53: Message edited by: Dutch ]