annealing brass the old fashioned way

[Forrest r]

Duke in Maine set me up with some 40S&W brass to use them for jackets for the 44’s & 45acp’s. (Thank you Duke!!!!, beautiful brass). They were already cleaned so I wanted to get them annealed. So I built a fire in a small 35 gallon drum in the back yard & let it burn down to 3” or 4” of hot coals.

Then on went a grate & a cast iron skillet & some bacon grease and spices.
Cubed up some potatoes & browned them in the grease/spices
Added a can of chili beans & a can of greens to the browned potatoes & let it all cook down until there is a gravy from the water from the can of greens.
The skillet of gets pulled off the fire to rest & thicken up.

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Then the deer steaks go on along with some seasoning. They get cooked for about 2 minutes on each side or until their medium rare.

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The dutch oven full of brass goes into the coals & more wood is added around it. The dutch oven turns red hot & stays that way for an hour then slowly cools down as the fire burns out.

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The dutch oven the next day pulled out of the drum with 500 annealed 40S&W brass in it.

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I’m sure there’s better, faster & simpler ways to anneal brass. But it’s hard to find a tastier way.

[nhrifle]

So when are you annealing your next batch? I'll bring the beer!

[Lizard333]

Add your cores when anneal next time and you will have bonded cores. You can go straight to notching then point for. No need to seat your cores. Very good way of doing it!

[DukeInFlorida]

MY current favorite for annealing brass is to use the Lee 20 pound dipper pot. I bought a brand new one for the purpose, and it will never see lead.
Does a batch in about 15 minutes. Could have done that same 500 pcs in a mere 2 hours.

I did the coals thing one time a few years ago. The coals were, apparently, still too hot. I ended up with a puddle of molten brass in the bottom of the cast iron pot.
Won't do that method ever again.

[Utah Shooter]

You suck! It is almost 11 p.m. my time and you just made me hungry.