Forming Starline Basic Brass

IRY · Jan 13, 2021

Hello fellow reloaders. I need a little advise on forming and annealing brass. I am going to try this new 6mm ARC cartridge and I may want to use Starline Grendel "Basic" brass. Starline basic is brass that has not been formed, has no shoulder. According to Starline "This brass has not been annealed, and will require a body anneal prior to forming, and possibly a neck anneal after forming, depending on how far it is necked down. " I know about annealing case necks, but what is a body anneal? I assume you anneal the brass further down somewhat into the case head?

Eveskcige28 · Jan 13, 2021

IRY said:
Hello fellow reloaders. I need a little advise on forming and annealing brass. I am going to try this new 6mm ARC cartridge and I may want to use Starline Grendel "Basic" brass. Starline basic is brass that has not been formed, has no shoulder. According to Starline "This brass has not been annealed, and will require a body anneal prior to forming, and possibly a neck anneal after forming, depending on how far it is necked down. " I know about annealing case necks, but what is a body anneal? I assume you anneal the brass further down somewhat into the case head?

Don't anneal the case head! That will end in primers blowing out and gas in your face... ive never heard of body annealing either. I would think it probably means annealing like normal, possibly further down but not to the base. But maybe they just worded it "body" because its lacks a neck and shoulder??

IRY · Jan 14, 2021

I asked starline and they responded quickly here's the quote.
"It should work fine for forming into 6mm ARC. You will want to do some studying up on annealing before taking on the project. It isn't as simple as tossing it in the oven, as that will soften the case head. You will need to heat the top 1/3 or ½ of the case (mouth end, not the rim end) to somewhere around 650 degrees (not 100% sure since I haven't formed 6mm ARC). You will need to form it down in several steps as well. After you have it formed and trimmed to length, you will need to anneal the neck of the case as well."

Kinda what I thought, but had to ask and make sure.