To anneal brass or not

I was thinking about getting one by Giraud Cartridge Case Annealer but what y'all's thoughts on getting one I reload for myself and don't shoot competition but I do have a lot of different calibers all the way up to a 50 BMG so some brass is high dollar and hard to come by mainly I load an store more than I shoot an the only other reason for getting one is to have new toy on reloading bench but 550.00 bucks is a lot to drop an if it will benefit me for reloading opinions welcome please

Yes, anneal.

My buddy cooked up an idea for one, and we split the cost of materials for it. I've done a few thousand rounds so far with it, works pretty darn good.



All the parts are linked in the description.


I am also impressed with the auto feed annealer, there are lots of how-to videos on them. Some with a very reasonable budget (under $100), just Google for them.

Yes to annealing...it will provide you much more consistent neck tension, which greatly effects accuracy.

I have a BenchSource...it's an awesome piece of equipment but it is not cheap.

Cool deal order one tomorrow thanks for info

I have the Giraud. It will process lots of brass very quickly. If you are short on time as many of us are, it is the tool for the job. No matter what, anneal. The budget and the mechanics of the machine is up to you.

I got 7 loadings out of .260 Rem brass.

I am on the fifth loading of hot loaded .22-250 loads.

Both cartridges were loaded fairly hot and have been annealed twice throughout their life. I will be annealing every other firing now that I have my own machine.

What he said. Plus if you want to improve it to be a great annealer here are some links on how to upgrade:

http://forum.snipershide.info/snipers-hi...servations.html

http://forum.snipershide.info/showthread.php?t=253652

After about 5 trips thru the rifle without annealing, my 6.8 brass starts to crack and split at the shoulder.
I just finished this machine last week and already have ran 600-700 223/5.56 and 6.8SPC brass thru it.
My total cost was easily under 100.00 as I had quite a bit of the materials.
The only parts I had to buy were the gear motors, digital speed controllers, power supply and the 6" heavy duty cake pan and a dedicated torch.
Took about a month for the motors and speed controllers to come in but I collected the rest of the parts during that time.

Here is a link with the plans and parts list.
$75.00 DIY Annealing Machine

Here is a short video of one of the test runs. Made a few changes since this was taken and it runs 100 percent now.

Hey Vern, would it need changes to run 30-06, or 300 WM?
Would it be quick change, or just build another one changes?

Yes, anneal.

I am simple and do it by hand, but in all reality I only have a couple of rifles that I'll ever anneal for, so it is fairly easy for me to do so.

EDITED VERSION:

I only reload 223/6.8/458 right now so I built it to fit that particular brass range.

Amazingly, I just tested some 30-06 brass and it fed and dropped in the pan just fine.
This would only require repositioning the torch head to hit the right spot.
The drum and feed speed would have to be adjusted for different sized brass but that's done by turning the knobs and observing the digital display.
If you mostly shoot longer brass, I would still make it deeper and use spacers for shorter brass.

Give me a minute - I just shot some video of it running 30-06 - minus the torch being on...
Here you go...

in my opinion anealing is good for consistent neck tension . i havent found my brass to last any longer, my brass always fails at the case head, i never get split necks.
i also only anneal by hand, i dont reload that much stuff to need a machine.

I use the 6.8 in an AR platform and have to push the shoulder back a few thousandths each time or they won't chamber.
If I don't anneal they crack and split right at the shoulder over time.

Ordered Giraud today be couple months for it being put together he is backlog really bad but I think the wait be worth it o ya can you anneal brass you have already sized an not primed just cleaned

You can anneal brass already sized, but I wouldn't. If I annealed brass already sized I would size it again, since annealing changes the structure of the metal. Clean, anneal, partial FL size, trim, prime, load, shoot.

That's my process anyway. If I have virgin brass I will FL size, trim, prime, load, shoot. Next go round is FL size, prime, load, shoot. From then on I will clean, anneal, and trim every other firing. Meaning you still get two firings after each time you anneal. Some guys anneal after every firing, but I won't unless the brass or the ammo tells me I need to.

Cool thanks

Thanks for the new video Vern!

tag

Great looking annealed projects. Thanks for sharing them. Got me to thinking.

great info here guys. One of the main reasons I joined this forum is for all the good first hand knowledge and experiences.

Thanks!