There are many records set with brass that is annealed/not annealed/virgin/once fired etc etc. Best thing to do is decide what you want to get out of it. I’ve tested the annealed vs not and achieved more consistent results by doing it so I do it. Records are constantly being broken in every discipline of shooting. This year I believe the 1,000 yard bench rest record was broken by Mike Wilson. I also know the 1,000 yard fclass record was broke at nationals as well. If you decide what discipline your leaning towards the best thing to do is start shooting it and learn what the other successful competitors are doing. As stated above the annealing isn’t a sure thing when it comes to accuracy. Just another thing you can do to gain little benefits, be it accuracy/case life etc.

In my opinion if your starting out in competition just go shoot and learn from the guys that do it. If your looking to anneal for a hobby to make yourself better (which is how I started) then do your homework and learn as you do it. If you have a factory rifle that shoots 1 MOA then annealing right away is a mute point in my opinion. But if your shooting a reliably accurate gun (holds 1/2 MOA or better) then your ready to start learning annealing. Annealing won’t turn a 1 MOA gun into a 1/2 MOA gun. It will help keep your 1/2 MOA loads shooting 1/2 MOA out of that 1/2 MOA gun tho.

Annealing is an advanced reloading technique as far as I’m concerned. When you do it your not looking to have a gun that shoots 10” of vertical at 1,000 Yards. Your trying to keep the 1 or 2 rounds that stray from the rest into a tighter group. Say 5-7” of vertical and 1 or 2 rounds that open to 10. You correct this because 1 or 2 rounds that high are the difference between winning and watching from 10th place.

Now if your just wanting to extend brass life (338 LM is $3.00 just for a piece of brass, other rifles cost even more) then have at it. Or if you want to do it as a hobby then have at it.

The few matches I’ve competed in for fclass we’ve shot 100 rounds for score, plus sighters. That’s 5- 20 round sets for score. So let’s say you need 120 reliable rounds. That’s a lot of brass to prep for competition. So you take every advantage you can to make sure there the best they can be. Like I said, 1 or 2 bad rounds and you may as well put your rifle away.

A chronograph is a good tool to use while you anneal as well. My results from my 308 went from ES of 38 FPS down to ES of 20 FPS. It cut the vertical on the group in half. Test was done at 300 yards. All 10 pieces of brass were fired the same amount of times. 4 or 5 if I remember correctly.

Keep in mind some people sort every component of there reloaded rounds before loading. The length of surface area of the bullets contacting the lands are measured, the charges aren’t thrown there measured to the tenth or hundredth of a grain and corrected with a pair of tweezers. They buy thousands of bullets, hundreds of brass and powder in 8 lbs jugs (and several at a time). Every component is from the same lot. Some even load ahead of time, then give the bullet a final seat in the case to release the grip from the case neck on the bullet caused by the round sitting over time (if you believe in this). The cases are inspected, sorted, neck turned, sized etc etc and discarded if there are any doubts about its performance. Tons of things done to achieve the best accuracy they can. If you intend to compete with them you will need to do some as well. A blind squirrel can find a nut in a local competition with your buddies. Step up to the big comps and there’s a lot of squirrels and very few that are vision impaired if you catch my drift

If your talking competition then talk to competitors who do well. Many I’ve ran into are more than happy to share there experiences and trial/error processes they’ve done along the way. Like I said, annealing is advanced as long as you do it correctly. If your not doing several of the things in the above paragraph then other factors are likely to hamper the results anyways.

All that said you prolly just want to do it as a hobby which is cool by all means and a great learning experience. Good luck in your annealing quest