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You know how when you have been doing something for so long you forget the simple things? That's what I did. The trick of setting your brass in a pan of water leaving the case mouth exposed above the water then heating up the mouth to make the brass softer. It works. I have some .357 brass I have reloaded for 20 years. I had to heat the .308 brass from top to bottom but it goes in the sizing die with no problem. I have never seen brass this hard. The brass is marked with an LC 14 and has a cross inside of a circle. Any way that did the trick so now I'm going to find out what I can about who makes the case.
 
Does it look like this?

lc.jpg

If so, that's Lake City brass
 
Heard or read somewhere recently that Lake City is now the only maker of GI brass in the US. If that be true, they'd also be the only US source for 5.56mm brass. Praise God we have Trump in our White House. The previous denizen would have wanted his anti-Liberty compatriots in Congress to promulgate a law that recovers from military firing ranges and subsequently destroys all US-made GI brass, and to bar the future importation of all foreign-made ammunition and brass for military-caliber firearms. Can't ban firearms; just make it impossible for the law-abiding to use them for legal purposes...
 
nnaa
I went to another web page where they told me I would blow up my gun if I heated the brass.
Brass doesn't anneal until 742 degrees, I think it is. At that temperature, you'll see it just begin to show a dull orange. I flip my cases into the sink of cold water when I see the very first indication of orange appear. Been doing that for almost six years; still have not had any of my rifles shatter into pieces and imbed the shrapnel into my ugly face.

Below is a picture of my annealing tool. It is a 14mm deep socket (for .532" magnum heads) that has welded to it a 3/8" ID nut and a 3/8" bolt, said bolt being held as closely as possible to the center line of the socket as it was welded. As you can see in how the threads are somewhat shaved down, the alignment wasn't perfect. My gunsmith had to true the bolt to the OD of the socket. Before he had done so, the cases would vibrate and would then "walk up and out" of the socket as it rotated. The really smooth portion to the right end of the shaft is turned down to make it fit a quarter-inch drill. I place a case in the socket, spin it with my cordless drill in the bright blue flame of a bernz-o-matic torch and in less than twenty seconds (have never timed it), I have annealed a case. The socket keeps about 60% of the case's length shielded from the heat, so the head never gets anywhere near hot enough to soften it. The tool works slicker than snot on a hoe handle.

The cases in the picture are examples of my .358 Sierra Stomper mildcat. The Stomper is what the .35 Whelen would be if the Whelen was on a magnum case. The Stomper case holds about 16% more powder (89.0 grains of water to the mouth) than does the Whelen.

annealing-tool-02.JPG
 
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I regularly buy Winchester white box 5.56 from Wal-Mart.
Might be repackaged Wolf ammo, which is made in several different countries. "Wolf" is just an importing company. The ammo is made in several countries, and then put into any number of differently printed boxes to be sold as X, Y or Z brand ammo. I just learned this from the owner of the shop where I have had several AR-type firearms worked-on over the past several years. I always thought Wolf ammo was Russian. Not so...
 

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