Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters article on annealing

I remember reading an article by Fred Barker in Precision Shooting magazine pertaining to annealing brass cases but am unable to locate the issue. I would appreciate any help in finding the article.

I have a copy somewhere that Fred gave me several years ago, but can tell you the basics of the Barker Technique:

Light a candle. Hold a case with the tips of your finders, halfway up the case. Hold the neck in the tip of the flame and turn it back and forth until the case is too hot to hold.
Drop the case on a wet towel (either paper or cloth will do), and use the towel to wipe off the candle soot. Case annealed.

Fred came up with the method by using temp-indicator paint. It works really well, and doesn't overheat (and hence over-soften) the brass like many traditional methods.

Unless you annealing Dasher cases in which case you better have some finger condoms on

I candled my 308 Win cases after learning the method here.

Simple and effective.

Have you actually tried it on Dasher cases?

I've used it on some pretty small cases.

yes and on some 6mm rat( Grendel shortened)and it does not work according to my fingers and 650 F tempilac

Have you tried it on 6 BR cases?

If you've got the Tempilaq, why not experiment a little and see where you have to hold the short cases?

I did exactly that and it was in a short 1/8" drive socket with 2" extension ..1/2" socket worked great for the dasher
I dump them on a wet towel to make things easy

That'll work too!

It's great method. I've done .222 to .30/06 with good results.

mule deer, thanks.

How long approximately, in seconds, are you keeping the case in the flame? I tried it with 300 WSM cases and it seemed like 15 seconds or so per case using a candle. I have tried the same method with propane and it is more like 4-5 seconds. Just trying to calibrate my fingers, thanks.

The method is self-adjusting, depending on the size of the case: When the case becomes too hot to hold, the neck is annealed. Bigger cases require more time. You don't have to "calibrate" your fingertips. Instead the method itself compensates.

Fred developed the method because propane can easily heat a case so quickly it over-heats, softening the neck too much. A candle's flame takes longer than propane, and is also simpler and cheaper to use.

Have you ever annealed handgun or straight walled cases?

I have some 44 Mag cases that have been fired 9 times and the accuracy seems to have fallen off. I am assuming mid-level loads, in addition to a fairly heavy crimp, had worked hardened the case mouth more than a bottle neck cartridge would see in an equal number of firings. I was wondering about trying to anneal them or if it may be time to dump them.

Straight-walled cases can be easily annealed too, and sometimes need to be more often than bottlenecked cases, because flaring and crimping the mouth works the brass considerably.

I dunno how Fred's method would work on .44's, but suspect it would work by simply holding the rim. I should do some experimenting with Tempilaq one of these days on shorter cases.

I am almost through this batch of loads and may just give it a try. The primer pockets are still nice and tight and components are pricey and hard to come by. I assume I�ll know my brass is bad when I start getting split case mouths.

Yep, that's the sure sign!

How soon that starts to happen depends on several factors, including how much the mouths are worked (not just how often), the thickness of the brass, and how soft the brass was when new.

Just curious, how does annealing work on nickle plated cases?

Mark

I�ve used quite a bit of R-P nickeled 300 Weatherby formed to make cases for my 340. I�ve only used a torch but it has worked very well. I�ve used the darkened-room method and watched for glow in the mouths before quenching. My cases got quite a bit of color (blue) in the nickel when they were done. I suspect that coloring might throw off the appearance of the glow in the hot brass if the area was lighted well.

What is the rule of thumb for when you anneal cases? After __ resizings? Does partial full length resizing change the strategy? Thanks.