Guns & Outdoors Forum

For the re-loaders, do you anneal your brass? If you do, how much of a difference does it make?

Yes, I do. Annealing extends the life of brass with some of the cartridges I load for extended brass life is what I want.

I don’t. But, I have free brass for my primary cartridges. Everything else is low volume. So, not necessary. .

Only time I have done so was to reform 30-30 to 25-35.

Is it conceivable that one can get 3-5 reloads of .223 and .308 without annealing if not loaded off the reservation?

Diver43 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 12:07 am Is it conceivable that one can get 3-5 reloads of .223 and .308 without annealing if not loaded off the reservation?

Yes

Absolutely.

I loosened up the primer pockets on some .223 brass and never annealed. I’ll wager I had 5 plus loadings on them. Too many. But didn’t “need” to anneal. Which is a topic of discussion I suppose. It’s yet another variable. Different neck tension due to differences in brass hardness could theoretically cause a poor standard deviation. But at the distance I assume you shoot, it makes no nevermind.

CPJ 2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 1:15 am I loosened up the primer pockets on some .223 brass and never annealed. I’ll wager I had 5 plus loadings on them. Too many. But didn’t “need” to anneal. Which is a topic of discussion I suppose. It’s yet another variable. Different neck tension due to differences in brass hardness could theoretically cause a poor standard deviation. But at the distance I assume you shoot, it makes no nevermind.

Furthest distance without driving a ways is 300 yards.

Mostly munch paper.

Contemplating. 22 rimfire long range competition if my Savage MK ii will shoot, if not thinking of a Tikka or CZ

I believe some long range target shooters anneal brass, but that's for the consistency CPJ talks about.

Most shooters, I doubt it would matter.

Straight walled rifle cartridges like my 45-60, especially those that you’ll be shooting with BP or moderate pressure charges should be annealed so they seal the chamber better. Otherwise you’ll have a very dirty brass and chamber and very short case life. Handgun brass, and most bottle neck rifle cartridges that I will probably shoot once or twice in my life? Oh, hell no.

My SIL tried shooting his 50-90 Sharps using BP without annealing his cases and after a few rounds extraction was a problem and the cases and that chamber were BLACK with fouling!!! Won’t make that mistake again. Annealing is EASY!!!

Diver43 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 2:09 am

CPJ 2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 1:15 am I loosened up the primer pockets on some .223 brass and never annealed. I’ll wager I had 5 plus loadings on them. Too many. But didn’t “need” to anneal. Which is a topic of discussion I suppose. It’s yet another variable. Different neck tension due to differences in brass hardness could theoretically cause a poor standard deviation. But at the distance I assume you shoot, it makes no nevermind.

Furthest distance without driving a ways is 300 yards.

Mostly munch paper.

Contemplating. 22 rimfire long range competition if my Savage MK ii will shoot, if not thinking of a Tikka or CZ

So for example, at 300 yards my .308 load drops 12.1 inches with a muzzle velocity of 2670 FPS.

At 2700, it drops 11.7. So you could have a .4 inch larger group with just 30 extra FPS.


You have to ask yourself….am I good enough at that range for it to get everything as perfect as possible?

OK seems it really wouldn't be worth while for me.

I actually just started down the rabbit hole of annealing brass this last week. I’ve never done it before now.

I’m doing it for one specific case, for the reason already mentioned, consistency with my 6.5 PRC loads. In my case, not just for consistent neck tension, but for consistent shoulder bump.

Since all my initial loading for this cartridge was using brand new brass, I just recently started working with once fired brass. I measured the shoulder on fired brass with my headspace comparator and got 1.642 - 1.643. I decided to bump the shoulders back to 1.640 to bump them back at least .002 and get them all to a consistent measurement. What I found in setting up my sizing die to get the dimension I wanted was, without annealing, some cases would size to the measurement I wanted and some would spring back and stay too long. They were inconsistent.

I got an inexpensive little tool that chucks up in a drill. Just drop a case in it and spin in in the flame of my MAP gas torch, then drop into a container of water. Dropping into water, as I understand it, isn’t necessary. I simply do it to cool the case so it can be handled immediately after annealing.

Anyway, I found that the brass sized much better and more consistent after annealing. I got all my once fired brass sized to within 1 thou of each other over 81 cases. That level of accuracy is far above my ability as a shooter and I realize I probably won’t truly get the benefit of it. It’s more of a learning process and, because I can.

Being as I’ve been handloading for 25 years and have never annealed a piece of brass before, I have to think the process isn’t necessary for the vast majority of handloading purposes.

Thanks Jay, from a lot of internet searches, I saw things from only noticeable for bench rest over 500 yards and adding on or two more loading to countless reloads and cutting groups in half. At this time I do not think if is of value to me, unless undecided to step into centerfire instead of rimfire competition.

Kinda depends on what you're trying to do.

If you're firing your brass in only one rifle and are neck-sizing only, it's probably not worth doing.

If you're full length sizing bulk rounds for multiple guns, it's definitely worth thinking about. Especially if one of them is a military chamber with generous headspace for the shoulder to blow out into.

Making "improved" cartridges or forming Brass A into Cartridge B, it's often a must.

Bigslug wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 6:15 pm Kinda depends on what you're trying to do.

If you're firing your brass in only one rifle and are neck-sizing only, it's probably not worth doing.

If you're full length sizing bulk rounds for multiple guns, it's definitely wworth thinking about. Especially if one of them is a military chamber with generous headspace for the shoulder to blow out into.

Making "improved" cartridges or forming Brass A into Cartridge B, it's often a must.

Pretty much my situation. I reload .223 for one Rem 700 rifle and .308 for my Bergara.
Only having 1 6.8spc ND 1 300bo, seems im good

Diver43 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 2:09 am

CPJ 2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 1:15 am I loosened up the primer pockets on some .223 brass and never annealed. I’ll wager I had 5 plus loadings on them. Too many. But didn’t “need” to anneal. Which is a topic of discussion I suppose. It’s yet another variable. Different neck tension due to differences in brass hardness could theoretically cause a poor standard deviation. But at the distance I assume you shoot, it makes no nevermind.

Furthest distance without driving a ways is 300 yards.

Mostly munch paper.

Contemplating. 22 rimfire long range competition if my Savage MK ii will shoot, if not thinking of a Tikka or CZ

This is from my Savage MkII with a Nikon Prostaff Rimfire scope at 50 yds. I haven’t tried it at 100 yet.

Diver43 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 7:26 pm

Bigslug wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 6:15 pm Kinda depends on what you're trying to do.

If you're firing your brass in only one rifle and are neck-sizing only, it's probably not worth doing.

If you're full length sizing bulk rounds for multiple guns, it's definitely wworth thinking about. Especially if one of them is a military chamber with generous headspace for the shoulder to blow out into.

Making "improved" cartridges or forming Brass A into Cartridge B, it's often a must.

Pretty much my situation. I reload .223 for one Rem 700 rifle and .308 for my Bergara.
Only having 1 6.8spc ND 1 300bo, seems im good

I have a MK ii that has never been fired. Maybe I need to