Newbie Annealing Question

[Tobyboy22]

So after reading a bunch about annealing brass, I jumped in. I used a deep socket on my cordless drill and Tempilaq 750. I painted the inside of the case necks and applied the torch to the neck/shoulder while slowly turning until the Tempilaq turned dark - usually 6-7 seconds. I then dumped them onto a damp towel. Brass seemed to take on the proper patina. Didn't seem to have any problems, so proceeded to do the next 80 or so pieces painting all of the case necks as I didn't want to take any chances on my expensive brass. Where the problem seemed to creep up is when I resized the brass. The first piece had an obvious split in the shoulder (photo 1) and the next few had what I would describe as wrinkles or the beginning of a split (photos 2 and 3). The next 15 or so pieces seemed to be fine. I haven't resized the rest. My question is did I over-anneal my brass or is this just coincidence. This brass only had about 3-4 loadings on it. Is it safe to shoot the rest of the brass that looks okay? I'm afraid I may have ruined all of it. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[nuclear_shooter]

Whats the headstamp on the brass?

 

[afate45]

First, you can totally disregard color. How you clean your brass, the type of brass, and many other factors influence the discoloration of the brass. For example, if I annealed my brass to the same color as factory lapua brass, it would be totally ruined.

6-7 seconds under a torch for 308/260 or other similar calibers is usually fine. In fact, I'm safe up to 10 seconds. I don't go that long, but I've verified this with 400 degree tempilaq down the side of the case to the base of the brass. Usually 7-8 seconds max is my sweet spot. As nuclear shooter said...what headstamp brass is this? Also, no need to bother using tempilaq on all of your brass. That is a huge pain to remove. Just get a metronome app on your smartphone (several out there for free), and use that for your count. I can get extremely consistent results doing it this way. After you've verified your results with 1-2 pieces of brass, just note the time and use that going forward.

Regarding the cracking of your cases, that is bizarre...I haven't seen anything like that. The headstamp on the brass might help people on this site diagnose your issue. Have you looked in your dies? Are they clean? Any unnecessary tension when resizing?

 

[Tobyboy22]

This is 6.5/284 Norma brass. I'm using a Redding FL sizing die with Imperial wax on the body and graphite on the neck. It's interesting as it only seemed to do it on the first couple. As I mentioned, i haven't gone through the whole batch yet. I'll take a closer look at the die and clean it if necessary. Didn't notice any undue tension or force required. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Blackbrush]

I use the same method as you but have had nothing but stellar results. I do mine in the dark and I focus my flame tip on the body/shoulder junction. My socket covers 75% of the body. Coloration change looks just like the factory job Lapua does. As the mouth is the thinnest, it heats most quickly so you want to avoid directing your flame there. I heat until I can see the neck glow reasonably well in the dark. This is closer to 10 seconds in my set up. Bullets seat like butter with .002' tension. I had a good day at the range yesterday with many 100yd groups in the 1s and 2s. I've had no issues with the brass. It's been fired 10x and annealed 3x.

 

[High Binder]

Those are mechanical marks. You can clearly see where the brass has been 'dinged' and the areas around the 'ding' have bulged if it were a material problem it wouldn't look anything like that, it would be ragged and wouldn't have bulges/perfect arch/etc.. In other words this has nothing to do with your annealing and everything to do with something in the die or your handling of the brass, etc..

 

[Tobyboy22]

Well, I took the die apart and cleaned it will a little Kroil and a Q-tip. There was a good bunch of black material that I'm assuming is the dry lube that I use. I resized a few more with no issue so I'm hoping that has cured the problem. Thanks everyone for your comments.