Smokeless
New member
Originally Posted By: CatShooterOriginally Posted By: SmokelessJust a question, how does turning a few thousandths off a neck harden it enough to warrant annealing? Just asking for info.
The cutters for neck turning are not like lathe cutters, with knife edges.
They are round plugs of carbide that the brass neck is "pulled under" (so to speak) and the excess is scraped off. This produces a lot of squish to the brass and that work hardens it.
When I first started turning case necks, I did a few thou for a PD trip. When we got there, there had been a lot of poisoning and so I brought back a lot of loaded cases.
So I left them for "next time", and when next time came, about 35% had split in a "T" shape - the split went down the neck to the base of the bullet, and then around the neck, following the base of the bullet - so the split looked like a "T" if you marked it with a pen.
I tested the necks that hadn't split and they were brittle.
So, now I anneal all cases that I turn.
That is good to know, thanks.
I have not seen this problem as of yet, but I will keep a sharp eye.
Some factory brass is brittle to begin with, IME. That is why Lapua is king!
The cutters for neck turning are not like lathe cutters, with knife edges.
They are round plugs of carbide that the brass neck is "pulled under" (so to speak) and the excess is scraped off. This produces a lot of squish to the brass and that work hardens it.
When I first started turning case necks, I did a few thou for a PD trip. When we got there, there had been a lot of poisoning and so I brought back a lot of loaded cases.
So I left them for "next time", and when next time came, about 35% had split in a "T" shape - the split went down the neck to the base of the bullet, and then around the neck, following the base of the bullet - so the split looked like a "T" if you marked it with a pen.
I tested the necks that hadn't split and they were brittle.
So, now I anneal all cases that I turn.
That is good to know, thanks.
I have not seen this problem as of yet, but I will keep a sharp eye.
Some factory brass is brittle to begin with, IME. That is why Lapua is king!