Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters annealing brass

i have only ever used the bucket of water - lit candle way to anneal. now another site they say that doesn`t work they say brass needs to go up to 750 degrees before it is annealed. i have watched it at a ammo factory get annealed and i know dang well that was not 750 degrees either. so what is the temperature or better way to anneal ? or does the candle-water bucket work ,which i think does ?

Mule Deer has written a good bit about this, I believe a whole chapter in one of his books. But I cannot remember which one, and I am away from the house at the moment. He did go deep enough into the science to be comfortable with the method he uses, which I believe is a candle flame and a wet towel. Hopefully he will jump in, or someone else will, who has their books at hand and can tell you where to find it.

There are a few ways to accomplish this. Here is the method I use. It's called salt bath annealing. https://ballisticrecreations.ca/ Prices are CDN, so take off about 30% for USD.

If you have no equipment, this system is less than $200 CDN (approx. $150 USD). Which includes the salt, thermometer, case holder and Lee pot. I have been salt annealing for awhile, and it beats the candle method to bits. It is faster, and much easier on the fingers. Watch the video.

Candle works great. You don't need a bucked of water either. A damp cloth does just fine to wipe it off when it's too hot to hold.

A propane torch. When your fingers get hot, stop. Air cool or quench, whatever floats your boat. It ain't rocket science.

GunDoc7,

The chapter is in THE BIG BOOK OF GUN GACK II, and does explain the science--along with using several methods from the old "heat until red and tip over" to candles to several machines, including what is probably the most advanced (and expensive) annealing machine, the AMP.

Any method of annealing brass involves a certain amount of temperature, applied for a certain amount of time. How complicated and precise a handloader wants to get is another question, which I believe the chapter answers. But two things are certain: Heating brass until it glows red is NOT good, and "quenching" is NOT required.

This.

kwg

I hold mine in the flame of a propane plumbers torch....with a pair of needle nose players...why burn your finger tips?


the tank I use is a 7 gallon camping propane tank... I put about $10 worth of propane in it about 12 to 15 years ago...
I anneal a lot and its no where near half full yet.

223, I hold them into the flame and count to five a regular voice speed...
then drop the case into a light galvinized bucket from Wally World many years ago, that ran me a dollar.

when I am done, I just let the brass cool down in the bucket, by placing it in the frig, that sits next to my reload bench.

243 for instance, I hold that in the flame for about 6 seconds...by count.

as said above, not rocket science....guess I'd have to give any credit for info I have followed to Scenar Shooter and from some of his posts...

I do one or two using the top method, while counting Mississippi's, and then using a long barrel socket of the appropriate size to hold the brass in a drill, I just count off the Mississippi's without burning my fingers. I guess I should make a list of the different brass that I reload and the times it takes so I don't have to do that every time. But then looking for that list would be time consuming. miles

I use an AMP MkII induction annealer. It has software that you can use to analyse a sacrificial case from a particular brand and batch of brass. This generates a code that you then use for all brass in that batch. It is fast, clean and accurate. It will anneal brass up to .50 cal. Well worth the price IMHO.

DNA Anneal link

Alternative to the candle, is more cleaner.

I usually do the same thing except I use a metronome app on my phone to do the counting instead of Mississippi’s.
I have started using the same salt bath annealing setup as Steve Redgwell. The setup takes longer, but once going can anneal a lot of brass very quickly.

You would have to do an insane amount of shooting to get the value out of one of those.

Eliminating question marks/variables is value enough for some.

Maybe I'm a little OCD but I use a propane torch and Tempilaq. I like to know that the job is done right. The torch and Tempilaq cost about $25. Put the shell in an appropriate size socket chucked in a battery powered drill, heat until the Tempilaq changes color and dump.

I do a lot of shooting, I have a good range two minutes drive from my home. But more importantly, I get consistent neck tension and that equates to better accuracy. I need the best accuracy I can get for certain competitive target shooting events. Doesn't hurt for hunting rounds either. I anneal the cases after every firing. The cost of an AMP is not a lot spread over the many years of use it will provide.



Exactly. Gave up on the propane torch a while back because of that reason.

This looks very interesting

Salt bath annealing is cheap, quick, and easy and it doesn't cost $200.

$40 for a Lee lead melter, $12 for a lifetime supply of the salts (stump remover, fertilizer), $35 for a thermocouple temperature meter, and $20 for a lab ring stand to hold everything. You do need a stainless steel thermocouple probe that can stand the temperature. One of these days I'll ditch the thermocouple temp meter and substitute an electronic controller that can handle the lead melter current. Then I won't have to keep one eye on the temp, and keep adjusting the knob on the melter while I work. But when I first set up, I already had the meter, so have been using it to avoid more cash outlay.

Brass anneals faster at higher temperatures, and there is no penalty for being a bit on the warm side. I run my salt bath from about 785 F to 840 F. At those temperatures, it takes 3 seconds or less to anneal brass. The amount of annealing increases linearly with time, and increases with the cube of temperature (Kelvin).

I checked my annealing by cutting a chunk out of the sidewall of a rifle case, and flexing it back and forth 90 degrees until it cracked. 7-8 flexes would usually do the job. Then I took another chunk from the same case, annealed it, flexed it 5 times, annealed again, and repeated. Sometime after 120 flexes I gave up trying to crack it. It had more endurance than I did.

Yes, if you're quick there is no reason to drop the brass in water. Dropping it in water is not really quenching. You're just making sure that the case head doesn't get softened. I usually water cool mine, but that isn't based on any scientific investigation. It doesn't slow up the process, it might prevent a problem, and once it is cooled it won't burn your fingers.

Here's my process:

You're right, but I never said that it cost $200. Here's what I said. And I am in Canada.