[Buffalobob]

Let us consider four rifles

First

I have a 240 Wby with a 30 inch 1-8 twist barrel that I shoot antelope and small deer with at long range. I load it extremely hot. It is not uncommon for the primer to fall out into the action on extraction on a even a brand new case. Some cases will last a second firing but not many. Obviously my 240 Wby brass never gets work hardened and never needs to be annealed. I seldom shoot this rifle except when hunting so I do not care about the cost of the brass.

Second

I have an elk rifle that is based upon a 338 Lapua case blown out, improved and necked down to 284. The case is two step neck sized down to create a false shoulder, cornmeal fireformed and then fired with a regular charge and bullet. By the time the case is truly chamber dimension it has been seriously work hardened and needs to be annealed. Also when you have invested that much time and effort in building a case you do not wish to lose it from a split neck. Finally, because the cartridge is for long range elk hunting you would like to have consistent and uniform neck tension.

Third

I shoot 1K F-class with a 40X in 308 with a special match chamber cut for the 175 Sierra MK. I use three brands of brass: RWS, Norma and sorted Winchester. RWS brass is hard brass much like Lapua. Norma brass is as always very soft brass and Winchester brass is moderately hard. I use a body bump die for setting the shoulder and a Lee Collet Neck die and a Forster seater. In a given brand, after about four or five firings the necks will get hard enough that I can seat a bullet with just my fingers and/or pull it back out of some of the cases and not others. The necks are not only work hardened but inconsistent. If I was just shooting a deer at 300 yards which is about a 3-4MOA target then this issue of neck tension would not cause me any grief. But at 800 – 1000 yards this will create a lot of vertical dispersion. These cases are the ones in the video being annealed.

Fourth

I have a bone stock Rem 700 in 17 Rem that I have shot for over 30 years. Cases have been reloaded helter skelter with no segregation and no annealing. The ones that split the necks are thrown away and the ones that don’t hold bullets are thrown away. This gun has a chamber that is badly out of alignment with the barrel and a person does not really need to do any kind of precision reloading for it. I could anneal the brass if I wished to, but I can get 8-10 firings from most cases before they are worthless. The gun is not good for shooting much over 300 yards, maybe 400 if there is no wind. The things I shoot at are not really important to hit so there is no big deal if I miss. I have perhaps 500 pieces of brass for it so who cares if I get 8 firings or 18. Even though I am retired and have plenty of time it is not worth my time to anneal this brass because accuracy is not really going to improve with the factory chamber.

Summary

In my mind, if you have a custom rifle with a well made chamber such as minimum SAAMI and a high degree of accuracy is desired such as for long range competition or hunting then it is important to take good care of your brass by watching for signs of neck hardness and inconsistent neck tension and annealing when those signs appear. While not a good scientific test I would say if you can seat or pull bullets with your fingers then your necks are to hard and do not have the correct springiness any more (they are too springy). Also, if you wish to get long life out of your brass it is good to anneal at regular intervals.