Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Question for Mule Deer - did I ruin my brass?

Hi John, I was recently re-reading your treatise on The Barker Technique for case annealing in your "Rifle Trouble-Shooting and Handloading" book and realized I skipped the last step with a recent batch of 30-06 brass. I did not wipe the cases off with a wet rag, because I started using an alcohol candle, to avoid dealing with the soot of a wax candle. Your book mentions that part of the last step is to keep the heat away from the case head. I tentatively think I'm OK, but thought I should check. The case necks were all heated to between 10 to 12 Mississippi and set aside, but not "quenched" via a wet rag. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I've never quenched, just let them air cool. No problemas.

Quenching does nothing on brass. As long as the bases are not annealed you should be fine.

Your brass is fine.

As has already been mentioned, if the bases don't get too hot then no harm. The ONLY way this could possibly happen is in very small cases--but I've used the candle (or other flame) method on .22 Hornet cases with perfect results.

The notion that cases needed "quenching" in water to anneal originated with the method usually recommended years ago, of standing cases neck-upright in a pan full of enough water to leave the necks exposed. The usual directions said to tip them over after the necks were heated with a propane torch to glow red; the tipping into ] supposedly finished the annealing process. There were two things wrong with this: Glowing-red brass is actually heated far more than required for annealing, and may actually soften the brass too much, by melting out some antimony. Also, unlike some other metals, cartridge brass doesn't need to be quenched to anneal.

If you dropped the cases when they started to feel too-hot to your fingers when held halfway up the case, that's nearly not hot enough to over-anneal the case heads.

Thanks! And please don't ever fully retire!

That's funny right there.

OK retard, troll on.