Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Decent propane bottle torch head?

I'm getting ready to anneal some 6.5 Creedmoor brass. The torch head that I have now, doesn't seem to be very consistent with flame adjustment. I'm not sure what the brand name is but I know it's probably one of the cheapest you can buy. Any suggestions on one that would probably be better? Nothing to break the bank just something known to be pretty consistent with flame length and not a lot of sputtering problems like I'm having now. The type I'm talking about just screws onto the standard propane 14 or 16 ounce bottles. I will be using it with one of the Ugly Annealers machine. Thanks!

Check the plunger under where it threads to the flask of propane. Mine is spring loaded and gets jammed sometimes. Or the orfice in the tip, it can be restricted.

I bought one at Harbor Freight and it works good for annealing.

^^^
Yep, that one.

My bernzomatic pencil flame became a none pencil flame when it turns out some dust ended up in the flame end. Blew it out with compressed air and it's back to doing well. My only complaint is fine tuning the length of the flame is a pain or perhaps its just me.

Light your torch, apply a wash of heat in the correct area, adjust your time in the flame to reach 730 to 750, and rock on.

You'll drive yourself crazy trying to adjust the heat instead of the time.

as stated by a few above. I got mine on amazon and it was a 2 pack for fairly cheap. Keep one screwed on the bottle and the other on standby.

bought one of those over at Grover here in town, 15 plus years ago...paid $6.00 for it..

I don't use those little green bottles for annealing.. that is like buying $25 a gallon gas...

Picked up a 7 gallon propane tank someone was getting rid of...for free.
Put that in a milk crate, to keep it from falling over, that was basically free also.

Put $10.00 worth of propane in that back when it was $1.30 a gallon. That has lasted me 10 plus years, and still has propane in the tank... so this past summer I went down and put another $10 in it... Just in Case

I load a lot and anneal a lot...

other expense for my annealing needs? old pair of needle nose pliers ( had for decades, belonged to my dad and he quit using that pair around 1980...) a small galvanized decorative bucket.. that cost me a $1.00 at Walmart.

For 223, hold case mouth upside down in flame and count to six or seven... throw in decorative bucket.
For 243 and above, only difference is count to 7 or 8 instead.

Let air cool in bucket.. go put in primer and reload the case. I usually reload in batches of 10.

Most people OVER think annealing big time in my book. Got plenty of brass with 40 & 50 plus reloads on them... and still going strong... Evidently doing something right....

backing off your powder charge where you aren't red-lining the MV, helps because you aren't working the brass as hard... getting max velocity works the brass a lot harder and shortens service life substantially.

Doing 10 at a time... kinda takes me 2 minutes for that step....

annealing isn't rocket science... about as much thought needed to do that, as throwing a left over hamburger in the microwave, and heating up for 20 to 25 seconds...

addendum: now I bet a least one or two campfire members are going to take that last line, and will try to throw a plate of brass in the microwave for 20 to 25 seconds and think that is all there is to annealing.

Doubt if that will work, but if ya got a camp stove, you can just hold the brass in the flame off of that for 6 to 8 seconds each... that'll work also...

A whole 10 at a time???

Damn Homie that is some wild and CRAZY shi t you're pulling off there.

10? Really?? 10???

I can see why you'd hafta save money on propane.

Damn good thing you don't do 3 or 4 HUNDRED at a time.

No, you don't hafta over think annealing, but unless you're dedicated to pissing up a rope, you gotta follow some basic rules of chemistry and physics. Which are as easy to know as nuking a leftover burger.

No wonder that big stick guy rides your dumbass like a two dollar whore.