Tempering brass

[jonp]

Yesterday I cleaned some brass and figured I would put them in the oven for a few minutes to dry while dinner was cooking. About 30 min later I remembered that they were there. They wete all black and so I was wonderimg if baking them for 30 min at 375 took the temper out or would they be safe to reload.
Anyone?

[Reload3006]

Well IMO the oven is not a good place to try to anneal your case necks. you do not want the shoulder of the cases softened just the necks. But I would try resizing and loading ten or so if you do not cave the top in when seating your bullet I would not be afraid to shoot them.

[Phoenix]

I really don't think 375 is doing any annealing at all. Besides alot of people heat them red hot, which would be a multitude hotter than that. The melting point of brass is over 1600 DegF.

I really dont think you could anneal your brass in a household oven even if you tried.

[runfiverun]

i think 375 is fine if that is really what the temperature of the oven was.
i know what the knob said...
375 is about what temperature brass see's on a cold day when fired.

[earthling121757]

You didn't say what caliber these were, but one thing you might try is take a cooked and an uncooked case, hold the necks together and squeeze them against each other. If they appear equally hard, you should be okay. If the cooked one deforms easier then they may be compromised.

[Phoenix]

I found this statement.

"most of the brass varieties said to anneal at a temp of 797 - 1380 °F"

I also read other articles that say the temperature has to be at least near half its melting point.

I really cant see even 500 deg being a problem

[felix]

It takes longer to get a recognizable anneal as the temperature goes down. Might try setting the oven at 300F, put a case in there, and test after a week's worth of soak. ... felix

[jonp]

thanks for the answers. I'm going to try and load a couple with a light load and watch for signs.

[MtGun44]

Good to test, probably not a problem.

Bill