https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-HbKeDKm0&t=7s

WHat say you who are long range game hunters/shooters. Reloader /shooter since my teens, this kinda caught my eye...for a WTF moment. Some long range projectile A/B tests in test media might help support his reasoning.

Yeah, WTF might be the correct expression. Show me the results. He's actually " annealing" the bearing surface. With a candle, I doubt he is getting much molecular change.

RMD

I don't buy that it really does anything- but the placebo effect can be effective.

Annealing a bullet to change terminal performance is silly. If you think a SST is too tough (really??), then you should choose a different bullet. Perhaps try a Ballistic Tip.

A fellow shooter sent this to me knowing I would find it amusing. Some of the silly stuff people come up with...annealing a SST cracked me up. Another video shows him doing the same to a Berger bullet...with a torch, bullet standing in water.

Silly man.

After 20 minutes over the candle, the copper is now ready for annealing (real operators don't use pliers as their callused fingertips from trigger time and krav manga insulate the rest of the hand. One should immediately quench in a C ration can of distilled water (don't do this in non tactical containers, and regular water will allow bonding of minerals in the water to the bullet jacket). Then, for any plastic tipped bullets, sharpie the tip in black, brown or green for camouflage. Then put the bullets in the freezer for 24 hours to achieve cryogenic molecular stabilization. Make sure to clean the bullet with alcohol to take off any finger prints when you are done.
With this method you can shoot negative MOA in any rifle.

I watched the two videos about bullet annealing. After watching both, here's a question, why?

The first video shows him warming up a bullet for some reason, over a candle, for all of 8 seconds. He spent more time with a marker than with the candle. I still don't understand why he warmed up the bullet.

The second video shows him heatblasting a bullet in water with a propane torch for about 2 minutes 21 seconds. Then he says to not tip it in the water, to let it cool in the air. This time he did anneal the bullet, quite a lot and I don't know why he was afraid of getting it wet. It would have speeded up the cooling of the bullet.

In fact the bullet was so annealed that it probably flattens when the cartridge ignites in the barrel. I still don't get the "why".

I don't get it either. He has a lengthy 'article' where he says the annealing, or softening of tip aids in better expansion as the velocity drops off at longer ranges. Reading the lengthy stuff would make your head spin and why I didn't post it. A lot of blather about .270 bullets without supporting data. I'm good with how most projectiles function, this is just too silly.

I’m calling BS. My background is teaching metalwork. Some of it spent teaching at the college level. I have cast, machined and formed copper and aluminum.

Here is some basic information regarding copper.

Copper melts around 2400 degrees. To anneal copper it gets brought to an orange color and is then immediately quenched in water. This anneals copper.

Steel on the other hand (note that there are hundreds of types of steel), gets heated to a red head and is allowed to cool slowly, resulting in annealed steel. (This is a rule of thumb. To a metallurgist it is a gross generalization).

If the bullet in the video had any kind of heat it would melt out the plastic tip. Then, if heat were still being applied, the lead core would melt (around 800 degrees IIRC). After that he might get to a point where the copper might begin to be affected.

As far as the copper jacket and how hard it might be from manufacturing - The jacket is made in a drawing process. Think of blowing a bubble with bubble gum. Only it is more like loading a patched bullet in the muzzle of a black powder rifle. The copper is formed with a male die pressing it into a female mold. This shapes the bullet into a skinny cup. The factory likely anneals this jacket at least once, it not several times. Through multiple steps the bullet is formed and the core is added. If the jacket is not soft while working it will work harden and tear in the forming steps. After all this explanation, it is likely the bullet copper is almost dead soft when the bullet leaves the factory. In my opinion, it is already soft. The final step, in this case, is crimping the plastic core into the tip. No heat is involved, the final shaping (the ogive) is minimal movement of the metal, resulting in almost no work hardening.

Finally, for the bullet to imprint into the rifling you want the copper to be soft. The manufacturers know this. It is part of what improves accuracy. Their experience and research would lead them to make the perfect copper for the job. Not too hard, not too soft. Copper can be hardened through alloying. Mix other chemicals and it can affect how hard the metal becomes.

On the other hand, a carbon coated bullet (soot from the candle) might actually affect bullet speed down the barrel.