Fire forming and annealing questions

[Fudmottin]

Should I anneal my brass before or after fire forming?

Does it matter which load I use to fire form the brass? Or does one work better than the others (light and fast vs heavy and slow)?

I think its time to pop the cherry on the 300-221 AR upper I had built.

[dksd39]

No need to anneal your brass and no need to fire form it either. Just load what you want to shoot and shot it especially coming out of an AR. I can not tell one bit of difference between 5x fired brass and my just formed 1x out of a bolt gun.

[Fudmottin]

OK. I thought annealed brass would last longer. I'm not so much concerned about accuracy. I expect my barrel can out shoot me.

[HUNTER2]

I only use bolt and single shot rifles and pistols. The 300 whisper brass is annealed after the first shot. And then for every 5th there after on everything I reload for 50-70-750 through the 20. By then I can feel a difference on how the brass sizes and there is a little more soot on the necks. I could probably get some more firings out of them, but annealing has extended the life of the case to where I have some batches that have been fired 20 times and are still in good shape! You don't have to anneal brass, but this works for me.....

[dksd39]

Hunter- I may have been a bit short sighted for individuals similar to you on brass cycles. I do not use any brass past 10x but even less with my 300 since I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 5k pieces. I would have to agree that you may be able to extend the brass life. I do not think there would be a noticeable improvement in accuracy with a 300 out of an AR. Would like to know if you have documented improvements in accuracy out of your 300 bolt gun specifically from annealing.

[HUNTER2]

No noticable improvement. At least the way I shoot! Don't shoot paper much after I get an accurate load. Just a lot of plinking. Have to do it when my girl is not around, or I don't get to shoot...I have a 22 Clark with a .5 neck and no throat (made from 30-06 brass). The acc. starts going south after the 4th loading.....In an AR you have to load to OAL? Do you ever load any just touching the rifling? The reason I ask, I have a TC that requires touching the lands on first time formed brass, or about 1 in 10 requires 2 hammer strikes...