Can we Talk About Annealing?

[charlie b]

I anneal every time, but the payback is illusive. Nothing I can put a finger on that I see on the target. I do see improved cbtd consistency, but again not sure that is showing on target. I see more consistent neck tension load to load….which I don’t know if I see on target,

This all does get me a bit interested. But, I will have to up my game a bit. I can see my crosshairs drift when shooting so not sure I could see a 1/4MOA difference. And if you don't see 1/2MOA groups on a regular basis then it might not make a difference.

The problem is errors accumulate. We can control some easier than others, and frequently see 'big' gains. 1/2MOA is what I consider the beginning of the rabbit hole. After that the differences are all small. Sometimes you might have to improve several things to see a difference on the target.

[Ernest T]

This all does get me a bit interested. But, I will have to up my game a bit. I can see my crosshairs drift when shooting so not sure I could see a 1/4MOA difference. And if you don't see 1/2MOA groups on a regular basis then it might not make a difference.

The problem is errors accumulate. We can control some easier than others, and frequently see 'big' gains. 1/2MOA is what I consider the beginning of the rabbit hole. After that the differences are all small. Sometimes you might have to improve several things to see a difference on the target.

I swear I can see my heartbeat on the reticle at a magnification of 25 or higher. I think the main payback for me is extending the life of the brass, the potential improvement in accuracy is a bonus. Like you said, errors compound, I'm trying to minimize them.

[BobT]

I swear I can see my heartbeat on the reticle at a magnification of 25 or higher. I think the main payback for me is extending the life of the brass, the potential improvement in accuracy is a bonus. Like you said, errors compound, I'm trying to minimize them.

Same here, I have had some difficulty with neck splits and the like when forming wildcats or reforming one case into another, for instance making .218 Bee or .25-20 from .32-20.

[charlie b]

Yep, heartbeat is one. Another is just accurately placing the crosshairs. Getting them on the exact spot every time. I am an impatient person, so I sometimes have a shot go off when I am not exactly on. Also, when I dry fire I can see the shift from the firing pin fall (std front rest and rear bag). Not sure how to get rid of that one.

Never had a problem with brass life (except for .223/5.56 primer pockets). I figure 20 reloads is good enough. The ones I use for cast loads are over 30 and the mouth is worked more on those than standard loads (size, flare, seat, remove the flare). Every now and then I'll see a case neck crack, but, it's one or two out of 50 and usually happens early on.

For wildcats I mostly used new brass. The exception was reforming surplus 7.62 NATO brass to something like a 7mm-08. Most of that stuff I didn't reload much but still never had a split.

That was why I liked the one case, 20 shot test. It showed long term effect of both anneal and not. If you are down the rabbit hole then proper annealing would be a good step to follow.