Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers 348 WCF case life-Annealing

348 and 33 WCF cases can be made to last longer by stress relief annealing. 45-70, 45-90 405 WCF and others can benefit from annealing also. It can be a win-win simple process.
There are numerous articles recommending different methods involving propane torches and shallow water-filled cake pans.
Keep the case head cool. Only the necks and part of the shoulder-upper case 1/5 top of case really benefit.

Brass work hardens during the re-forming reloading process. Annealing just enough to slightly change the brass tint will work. It relieves the work-hardened areas slightly softening
the brittle brass-making it pliable or malleable again. Makes hard-to-find 348 WCF last at least two-three times longer.
Its a must for cartridges like the 348 Ackley Improved or 450 Alaskan-due to the case forming steps.

Bench rest shooters a few years back adopted a candle method developed by a metallurgy-minded bench rest guy. He switched his torch for a candle-and it worked.

Hold the case by the rim-lower case body area-WHILE heating the neck shoulder-by candle flame. Temperature around 650-675 works well. . When it gets too hot to hold, quickly place the annealed cases on a damp towel.

The towel removes candle soot. Brass will cool in room temperature. Clean and size- then ready to load

Pretty good advice. Especially the temps you stated.

Especially helpful for bottle necked cases, but I usually do it for all calibers that I handload.

Not technically required to quench, but I always do.

Yep, JB and others have discussed the benefits of this particular method several times here. It works, it's cheap and easy. I sure wouldn't want to do a thousand at once though.