littlebang556 wrote:I may very well be wrong...and it wont be the first time, but I was under the impression that all brass was annealed from new. Many manufacturers polish evedence of this away unlike Lapua (Lawastedmoney).
The cases when new (once fired of even fireformed)) WILL be soft enough to neck turn and will not result in the premature failure that resulted from doing so following a number of processes to allow case hardening.
Cheers
Rob Alman
Otherwise I will keep using my Wincheaper brass.
Rob, I agree with you, but not everyone (including me) have the time to put in either to do this stuff.
Of course all brass is annealed when it is formed. After loading thousands of both Lapua and WInchester 308 brass, there is no doubt that the Win necks are a lot harder from new. My collet neck die won't move a Win neck after about 3-4 loads. This is just my observation. Based on the price, I don't see the value of putting in many hours of weighing, trimming and annealing etc - I just use Lapuas and get the same thing.
I now FLS my brass every load (as you do Rob), only about 0.001" in length, which seems to give much more consistent results.
When annealing, I use a water bath, but mainly just to stop the heat migration where I want it (2-3mm below the shoulder).