Annealing today

[NF1E]

Running a few trays of DAG 93 and MEN 94 once fired, sized, trimmed and tumbled cases through the Giraud annealer today. Takes about 10 seconds per case to get where I like it.

[Smokey]

That sure is far easier than the way I have to anneal brass. 7.5x55 Swiss made with .284 WIN brass needs annealing after about 5 reloading cycles.

[NF1E]

No doubt. I saw one of these contraptions at Giraud's booth at Camp Perry a number of years ago and one had to follow me home. One of the best investment ever. I load and shoot between 5 and 10K of .308 per year and it sure helps to have consistent neck tensiion.

[NF1E]

After annealing inspection showed up a few of the corroded cases. This was a batch of about 2000 once fired and these went to file 13.

[Beltfed]

I’m under the opinion that you anneal before resizing, that’s how I do it. There are other forums dealing with accuracy shooting that have articles covering annealing. But hey, it’s your brass, so whatever works for you.
I also noticed your annealer doesn’t seem to have a provision to rotate the brass. This might be the reason for the pin holes near the shoulder.

[NF1E]

This was first loading for this batch which was obviously anneal when it was made. I often anneal before sizing but I was more concerned with neck tension for this batch. Actually the brass is rotated by the angled piece of steel the brass is setting on in the 1st photo. Speed is controlled by a potentiometer on the side. Brass is rolled as that steel is drawn up and to the left where it reaches and end point and the brass is dropped into the receptacle.

I have done 10s of thousands of cases, 30-06, .308, .223 and 6.5 Creedmoor with this machine. What an invention by Dave Giraud. Those Texans are almost as smart as the Japs.

[Beltfed]

I took a closer look at your first pic. What I though was a rod is instead a slot in the machine face. Sorry for my confusion.

[NF1E]

Hey, no problem. I am good at confusing myself too. Interpretation of photos is a developed art. Most of us goof good at imagination going by what we have already seen

[Beltfed]

I’m curious. What do you think is the cause of the pin holes near the neck? I, like you, have been loading 7.62 and .30-06 for many years. I seen many case failures over time but cannot remember see that particular problem.

[NF1E]

The holes were caused by storage corrosion within the plastic battle packs. I did clean some off and sort of expected problems down the road.

[Beltfed]

Interesting to say the least. What if any failures would one expect to cases that are corroded but yet to have a pin hole? I use LC once fired brass and have never seen this. I also use IMI and commercial brass when available. What are the markings on the cases that are failing with pin holes?

[NF1E]

Those came from a MEN 94 200 rnd battleback. I still have 30 unopened but of the 20 I have opened so far for use, only 1 pack had any corrosion and it was limited to about 15 or 20 rnds.

[Beltfed]

I looked it up, Germany stuff. That surprises me as they usually do a great job on everything they make. Thanks for the information and I’ll steer clear of any ammo or casings that come from that company. I understand that storage is out of their hands once it it hits the surplus market. I was a vendor at Knob Creek for many years and very familiar with surplus ammo.

[NF1E]

It's funny, I had 50 battlepacks' 10 cases of DAG 93 which was also German and never found any corrosion. Big problem today is finding KV-7.62 N berdan primers. I am down to my last 6K and hate the thought of having to switch back to boxers.