Does anyone anneal the tops of large brass cartridges? If you do would you please give me a quick lesson in how to do it.
How hot and how fast a cool down.

I have never annealed a case. Have read about it and looked around a bit. There are different methods a salt water bath among others--this is supposed to be good. The cats meow is supposed to be the Annealeez, it doesn't have the chemicals..

Salt water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwdTaDLz56Q

Annealeez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=623&v=lU2DWMiMeUo

This will make your head spin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0qLPirQfM4

Thanks

The main point is to anneal the neck without annealing the head. If the neck is just heated to the point of annealing (think of it just giving the bluish color to the neck like factory brass has) then air cooling is fine. Some people just hold the case head in their fingertips and rotate the neck in a torch flame in a darkened room until they see a color change and then drop the case in wire basket to cool. Some have a drill attachment that rotates the case in the flame and then they dump them off in water. If you heat the neck to a red heat you have grossly overdone it and may have destroyed the case but this might be hard to do if you are holding the head in your ungloved fingers;-) Watch this video to get some idea of how little heat it takes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhqmnSZKDmE

I do mine pretty much like Halfadouble, except I drop them in a coffe can of water. You can't hold a case in your bare fingers long enough to hurt the cartridge head.
Mike

I make 6.5x58R Sauer brass from 9.3x72R, 222Rem from 223, 22-204/6mm-204/25-204 from 204 Ruger brass. All have to be annealed. Also when I start getting split necks on cartridges like the 22-250 I anneal the whole batch, I keep batches of 50 separated so I can keep tract of them.

I use an appropriate sized deep socket(brass base just fits in easily) and spin them over a propane torch until the start to color, then tip them out onto a damp towel. The damp towel sucks the heat out of them quickly and then I don't have to worry about drying the brass as in a water bath. You can do a bunch quickly and get right to reloading. I believe having the head of the case down in the deep socket somewhat protects it from the heat of the torch also.

If you want to sure you don't heat the base of the cartridge you can stand them up in a pan of water so just a little more than the area you want to anneal is above the water when I used to do this I would use two torches one on each side of the case. I'd set them in rows and just move down the row heating them one at a time.

I think your rotating in the socket would give a much better result than the water bath which would tend to heat the necks unevenly from side to side.

I used to anneal cases by placing a pie tin filled half way with water on a kitchen "Lazy Susan" type arrangement and rotating the cases by placing them one at a time in the middle of the tin and turning the it while heating them with a propane torch. When the proper temperature had been reached, I simply tipped them over in the water with the nozzle of the torch.

Nowadays I heat the cases using an induction coil and holding them in my fingers. I drop them into water and use a case drier to dry them out afterwards.

So, if you were going to neck a .357 case down to .256 Winchester, would you anneal after reforming the case or before?

Thanks.

Rem

Remington40x,
To go from .357 to .256 is a pretty difficult operation. I suggest you buy case forming dies instead of depending on seating and FL dies alone. You are going to crumple a lot of cases( with out forming dies) whether you anneal first or later. I think you can find .256 cases. they will cost more than .357, of course, but form dies are also expensive. An easier solution might be fireforming 22 Rem Jet. It is also hard to find, but if you are careful, and use gentle loads with a filler, you should do pretty well.
Mike

I use a piece of 3/16" rod chucked in my battery drive drill. Sip a case over the rod, turn down the lights, and spin it over the propane torch flame. I don't wait for a color change, as that's too hot even in the dark. Spinning keeps the annealing even, and the drill allows me to point the case down and let it slip into the can of water.
I anneal cases after working them, as if done before they'll usually collapse as you form them. I don't need to anneal again once they've been annealed once, but I shoot smokeless powder. Guys shooting BP anneal their case necks again to keep them soft enough to seal the chamber better. Not sure how often they do them?

Der Ami:

Thanks.

I purchased forming dies, as I own two firearms (TC Contender and a Marlin 62) chambered for this cartridge and am considering a Martini Cadet also so chambered. I'm looking for instructions on annealing so I minimize the case failure rate.

Thanks.

Rem