Brass annealing ???

[mrjbloomington]

Has anyone on here done any kind of annealing to their brass? Is it worth the time and effort? does it make your brass last longer/does it make for more accurate reloads? If so what is your perferred method(s)? I would like to try it but I'm a scardy cat I don't want to blow myself up.

[MePlat]

Here is an answer I gave to another guy in another section:

"Get in a room with low light.  Hold the cases by the case head.  Use a propane torch and heat while turning the case until the case mouths get a dull red or they become too hot to hold and then drop them in some water.
Or,  Stand them in about an inch of water in a flat pan and then heat the mouths till dull red and tip them over.
The reason for low lighting is so you can see the dull red more easily.  Don't want to turn them red so it is easy to see in a well lit room.
Put in the oven at maybe 200 degrees until dry."

Why would you be scared?  How are you going to blow yourself up?  If you observe safe reloading practices and are reasonably careful you probably need to be more scared driving to and from the range.
Trust me there are more things to be more scared of then reloading.

[84Jim]

I too use the torch/low light technique.  When I do it, I try to get to them after about 3 reloadings and then keep loading until the necks start to crack (maybe 10 total loadings, plus or minus) or until I scrap that lot of brass.  I think that it extends the case life but thats just my opinion.  But it surely can't hurt.  As for accuracy, I haven't seen a drop off but don't figure annealing will improve it much.  The problem with this technique is consistency with both temperature and eveness of applying the torch flame.  I don't figure either is perfect.

One thing I'm going to try next time is to not quench the cases in cold water, but to just drop them in a pan and let them air cool.  I don't think that the quenching does anything to improve the annealing process and when you do that you have the task of drying them before you can load.

Jim

[mrjbloomington]

I'm not afraid of reloading I just want to make sure that I'm going to get the desired effect of annealing. I don't want to over anneal or over soften the brass as to cause failure in the brass ruining it or ruining my face or under anneal having no desired effect at all to the cartridge case. All said, I want to do it properly and precisely. I also don't want to dump a load of $$ into a mechanical "wonder" annealing machine either. What is the perfect temperature to get the neck of the of the case ? Does anyone use the Tempstick stuff? does it work good? can you get it off of your case after it has done its job? Just looking for pointers

[MePlat]

If you will either put the cases into an inch of water (depending on case length) and heat till they turn dull red in a low light area  and tip them over or hold then in your fingers and turn them till they get dull red in the flame of the torch and then drop then into the water you will be okay
Don't try to turn something simple into something hard.  
If you hold them in your bare fingers the case won't get hot enough to soften the head before dropping them unless you have asbestos for skin.
If you have any type of good judgement you will be okay when looking for the DULL RED condition.  In a LOW LIGHT area.

[Mckie Hollow]

I use the finger twist / Propane torch method. Very simple. Quit splitting necks once I started annealing.