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Annealing Made Perfect

Cody S

Needmoor Creedmoor
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 3, 2017
970
585
Hazard, Kentucky
Anyone using this? Has anyone had them over-heat yet? If so at what round count?
anyone had any problems out of it?
im interested in these, despite the price, because "science"
thanks all
 
I just got mine. I haven't really gotten to use it yet other than running a couple of pieces of brass thru it but I did quite a bit of research before I bought it.

6.5 guys have a decent review on it. AMP claims that you can run it at the highest setting for 200 rounds at a minimum before the temperature cut out kicks in and then it will cool for 30 mins and you can start again. For me this is not a big issue, the most that I would run at one sitting would be 500 rounds of 6.5 cm, so at most the temp cut out would kick in twice but the 6.5 cm only take setting 47 out of the 99 so more than likely it would only kick out once if at all.

After I get a chance to run all my brass thru it I will do a small write up maybe but its probably going to be a couple weeks till I shoot all my ammo and get to run it thru.
 
Unpacked mine two weeks ago.

Packaging is first rate.

Very well build machine.

Have run 500 plus lots of .223 without interuption.

Same experience with smaller lots of .308.

Production time is similar to Giraud power trimmer.

Much prefer the absence of open flame and appreciate the science base.

Have sent two lots of brass for evaluation.

Replies have been thorough and prompt.

Buy once. Cry once.

Highly recommended.
 
Have had mine for several months now and would be pretty hard to go back to my Bench Source. Setup is a snap and have run cases from 6 CM through 338 LM through it without issue. Most of the F Class folks I shoot with are now using it. BTW their CS is excellent.
 
Im going to be doing around 200 6.5x47 cases at a time, sometimes another 100 alpha creedmoor cases. If it has one cool off period during that cycle thats plenty good enough for me.
looks like i will be ordering one very soon. I see creedmoor sports now stocks them as well as grafs, so its spreading around
 
I have run up to 500 .223 cases and 200 .308 non stop and have yet had it shut down to cool.

If you stop annealing for awhile it does go into a power saving mode but push any button and it's back on line.

You do handle every case, but that's not unlike the Giraud power trimmer.

Love mine.

Buy once. Cry once.
 
Hawk, when you sent your brass to them how did you do it. I was going to send some the other day and went to post office and she told me I would have to fill out an customs form. So I got to wondering if it was ok to ship brass out of US and it kind of looked like you weren't really supposed to but you can, I was just wondering if I put brass on the customs form if they would stop my shipment?

Did you have to fill fill out a form and if so what did you put on it?
 
I filled out a customs form and declared "brass cases." Received in New Zealand without a problem.

I am aware of export restrictions on some gun parts and ammunition but am not aware of any restrictions on empty, unprimed brass. I will check this before I ship again.

If it is restricted, we should ask AMP to reinstitute the address in Illinois I think it was those of us in the US could ship to earlier.

Cost was $25 for 24 pieces. Another reason for them to give us a US address for shipping brass.

I will suggest this to Alex.

 
Only time I had the Amp Annealer go to cool cycle was after 250 plus 6.5 x 47 cases , on a 40 degree C ( 100+ fahrenheit ) day .
I was running the cases through as fast as I could go to find the limit . In a cooler environment , running at a slower rate I doubt
the unit would have cycled off . I'm very happy with the units performance .
 
Exchanged emails with Alex. He says no one has had a problem with U.S. or New Zealand customs shipping unprimed brass. Not sure that answers the question. Not really supposed to but you can is not where I want to be. I will check the regs before I ship again.

Alex's view is since the calibration is free, the shipping cost is a bargain. Probably right.
 
Hawk, thanks for the reply. I could be incorrect about the regulations, I did actually read the export reg. that talks about it but I'm not into that sort of thing and honestly those things are hard to read and understand especially when it continually refers back to a previous part of the reg. I can not remember where I found it but the link was on another forum where they were talking about shipping brass.

Honestly ill probably just ship ship mine and put brass cases on it like you did since you didn't have any trouble, for now. It would be good if we could get some clarification on it though.
 
This is great information! Has anyone had issues with the machine not working as advertised? As in just broken or something?
also has anyone verified with their SD/ES numbers to see if annealing or this annealing machine improves their accuracy?
 
This is great information! Has anyone had issues with the machine not working as advertised? As in just broken or something?
also has anyone verified with their SD/ES numbers to see if annealing or this annealing machine improves their accuracy?

The Scout Hide had accounts of reduced SD from annealing. One of the recent Brian Litz books had tests that did not show improvement.
 
Here we go down the rabbit hole. I'll play.

I have not seen compelling evidence that annealing shrinks group size although there is anecdotal evidence. Many of the bench rest guys anneal every loading which is one clue.

I wonder how much of the inconclusive evidence is from improper annealing. The AMP definitely fixes that problem.

What is does seem to do is extend brass life.
 
Had mine for a month now. Other than hand feeding every piece and pressing the start button for every piece I really like it. I think it takes the guesswork out of tuning a flame annealer to the proper temperature. I also did not like having the open flame for the other annealing systems.
 
I've demonstrated my AMP annealer to friends who have torch annealers. They cringe at the $1100.00 price tag but I can see the gears grinding in their heads trying to figure out when they are going to buy one.
One thought to add to the equation of buying an AMP, I can put mine up for sale here and get 90% of my purchase price in a heartbeat. That how it goes with good equipment.
 
Just received mine from Grafs. Perfect condition when it arrived.

Has anyone sent in the new 375 CheyTac brass from Peterson yet? I won't need the data for a while, just seeing if it will be available soon.
 
I've demonstrated my AMP annealer to friends who have torch annealers. They cringe at the $1100.00 price tag but I can see the gears grinding in their heads trying to figure out when they are going to buy one.

25 years ago, friends gave me flack for buying a high end table saw. It still functions perfectly and without fuss. Excellent tools are worth the investment if you are in it for the long haul.

 
Has anyone done any shooting tests, all things being equal on case prep, powder charge, and load. Control group being no annealing with a secondary group using an AMP. Has anyone noticed any differences in group sizes, or FPS, ES or SD?
 
It won't 'decrease' group size. If your load isn't good it won't help it; though, what it does is makes the load do the same thing every time. It helps with consistency. From the first firing on the brass until the last.


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Has anyone done any shooting tests, all things being equal on case prep, powder charge, and load. Control group being no annealing with a secondary group using an AMP. Has anyone noticed any differences in group sizes, or FPS, ES or SD?

Yeah did a quick test a month ago . Annealed brass was ES 8 for 10 shots ,
3 x fired no annealing was 14 , exact same batch of brass , powder , primer
and bullet . Slightly less vertical dispersion at 550 yards , as far as I could
test on that day . Load was 39 of H4350 , 140 Hybrid 0.020 off , BR4's , in
a 6.5 x 47 on 3 x fired brass .

What Im seeing is better consistency in bullet seating : that occasional slightly
increased pressure in bullet seating is gone with the AMP annealed brass .
Every bullet feels the same when getting seated . Sometimes I'd credit an
average shot to my technique when in fact it was probably a slightly tight
case throwing a minor flyer with increased velocity due to variance in neck
tension .

Ive got some x47 brass with 15 loads on it , pockets are good and shoots fine .
Im annealing every cycle now , more work and time but the results are worth it
for me . I did have to go down 0.001 in neck bush size in a Forster bushing
bump die . Was using a .289 bush for .291 loaded ammo , a .288 or .287 is
more appropriate for the annealed brass .
 
I have a Benchsource and it is extremely quick. Instead of 5 per minute u all are saying I can do 12 to 13 per minute. But I have always been concerned about annealing same amount each time. I run lots of 500 or more and sometimes do in partial sessions because still not shot all of them in large lot.

Tell ​​​me if worth changing. Not as concerned about the price but I have tested carefully lots with some annealed and some not and see NO difference. Very particular in loading. I get about 10 or less SD in most loads. After reading Litz book wondering if even worth it at all. I try to do nothing in reloading that doesn't show up on target. Any guidance?
 
Whoever is annealing 5 cases per minute with an AMP is taking a short nap between cases. I can anneal 12-13 per minute with my AMP while watching a movie in my den. Plug and play almost anywhere.
 
I sold my Benchsource and bought an AMP. It's slower but more consistent from batch to batch. I also like the ease of running 15-20 cases at a time and not have all the setup time for the Benchsource.
 
Has anyone tested group size of a torch-based annealer vs amp? I buy that annealing slightly shrinks group sizes by making neck tension uniform and extends brass life, but haven't seen any evidence of the $1400 amp annealer results in smaller groups than my $100 torch and wheel based annealer.
 
Has anyone tested group size of a torch-based annealer vs amp? I buy that annealing slightly shrinks group sizes by making neck tension uniform and extends brass life, but haven't seen any evidence of the $1400 amp annealer results in smaller groups than my $100 torch and wheel based annealer.

I don't think anyone is arguing they anneal 'better' than a flame annealer assuming it's properly setup/timed etc.. That's the benefit of the AMP; there's zero guess work. You *know* it's annealing perfectly, every time.
 
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