Any day you get to use a blowtorch is a good day.

What is annealing brass?

Annealing brass is the process of heat-treating your brass to return it almost to its original state. Kind of like the fountain of youth but with flames.

Every time you fire a cartridge and reload the brass, the material will increasingly become stiffer. When this happens, it is commonly known as work-hardening. This can eventually cause all types of mischief.

If you heat-treat your work, hardening is no longer an issue. That said, even when doing this, there will be a point of no return. There is no such thing as forever brass. Believe me; my wallet wishes there was.

Before someone does something ludicrous and blames me, you can only torch the neck and shoulder of a brass case. Trying to heat the body is a disaster waiting to happen. If you soften the case’s body, it will eventually split/explode during ignition, otherwise known as “blowing up in your face.”

How do you anneal brass?

There is a large selection of machines that you can purchase to accomplish this task. The difference between these devices is the purchase price, how long it takes to complete the project, and temperature accuracy.

However, you don’t necessarily have to buy a gadget to do it. Unless you consider things as simple as drills and blowtorches machines, heat-treating is one of those processes you can decide how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.

When I first started annealing, we used the above equipment and called it a day. I have something a little more complicated now, but I also treat thousands of rounds every shooting season. Time becomes an issue when you have to do 1,000+ at that crack.

Another benefit of doing this is that it will give you more uniform neck tension. That will improve the accuracy of your rifle. I wrote an entire article on neck tension. (Click here to read it.)

How often should you chase the dragon?

All the independent lab studies that I have read came to the same conclusion. It would be best if you did it after every time you fire a case.

I’m sure someone is going to get butt-hurt over that statement. However often you choose to do it is better than not doing it at all.

What is the downside of this process?

There wouldn’t be a downside unless you managed to burn down the house in the process.

That is the reason my girlfriend bought me a fire extinguisher. It’s one of those things; if you do it correctly, there is no real downside. The question you should be asking yourself is, “Why not?”

Keep in mind: that there is indeed a wrong way to anneal. If you get the brass too hot, you can burn the zinc out of the metal. If the manufacturers didn’t think zinc was a necessary ingredient in the recipe, it would not be there in the first place.

Don’t even get me started on salt-bath annealing powered by snake oil. I could rant all day about those pieces of garbage.

Although it’s tempting, I don’t recommend trying to light your cigarette with the torch, either. True, it’s somewhat amusing—yet more than a little dangerous.

In closing, I hope you have enjoyed this installment of the Advanced Reloading Series. I hope we answered the question, what is annealing brass?

It’s up to you whether or not to spark up a blowtorch and have some fun. If you choose to do it, make sure it is done correctly. Now it’s time to let the flames loose and try not to set yourself on fire.

5 Gun Nation is one of the world’s largest competition shooting websites. We have multiple articles on shooting sports and adding more all the time. If you can’t find it here. We are working on it.