Annealing primed brass???

My rule of thumb with reloading is if I question it, I don't do it. This was from a stupid mistake years ago. Primers going off unexpectedly are a bad thing. I highly would not recommend doing that.
 
Originally Posted By: Rock KnockerWhat do you all think about torch annealing LC 223 brass that has already been primed?



I would like to nominate this thread for a Darwin Award.

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Uh, waitaminit. He could put the brass head down/mouth up in about 1.5" of water and then torch the case necks to whatever color he wants and the water will prevent the heat from getting to the primers and then let them cool in place. He could put the brass in a rack before submersing them so they don't fall over. I would recommend sealing the primers first if possible.
 
Originally Posted By: fw707Originally Posted By: Rock KnockerWhat do you all think about torch annealing LC 223 brass that has already been primed?



I would like to nominate this thread for a Darwin Award.

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X2
 
Lol, you guys are no fun.

Besides, depriming brass in a sizing die has never given me warm and fuzzy feelings. If a primer pops out in the open from a flame I know where the primer is facing, if a primer pops in a sizing die I dont know where all that blowout is going.
 
I've decapped a lot of live primers & never had one go off.

I'm far less confidant about having them that close to a torch flame.
 
I'm sure the odds of a blowout is lower but I have no fear of a primer that's not confined and facing away from me, I have some fear of a primer in a die with everthing sealed nice and tight.
 
If a hot neck touches another case primer it will pop, don't ask how I know this.(22-250 brass will travel several feet ).
 
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I have annealed a few primed cases, just to experiment (using a socket chucked in a drill). Nothing happened.

In theory, the case head should never get hot enough to cook off a primer. They can cook off in a very hot chamber, search YouTube for barrel AR15 or full auto melt down tests etc. But that's WAY hotter than the case head should ever get during annealing.

Having a hot case mouth cook off a live primer isn't really caused by the annealing. Rather, it's caused by the unsafe practice of allowing a hot piece of metal to touch a live primer. Case mouths by themselves don't set off live primers. You can tumble live ammo all you want without worry, or loosly bulk pack live rounds and toss them around. A primer going off due to being struck by the sharp rim of another case is unheard of. But touching a super hot piece of metal fresh out of an annealer or torch flame to a live primer could certainly do it.

Don't hand hold the case, keep it pointed in a safe direction, and it should be fine. Let them cool in a fashion that extreme heat doesn't touch live primers. But this is not recommended as normal practice. Primers are pretty inexpensive, better to just pop them out first.
 
I always "de-cap" spent primers as a separate operation with a dedicated de-capping die. (on a separate press) If you accidentally tweak your expander ball pin, accuracy will suffer.

De-priming crimped primers out of 1X fired mil brass will normally lead to broken pins and a tweaked assembly.

Another benefit to the de-capping die is that there is no seal. If you ever have to de-cap a live primer, risk goes way down.
 
Like I said, if he used primer seal, had the brass mouth side up sitting in a rack in a pan of water about 1.5" deep. No problemo. They won't fall over & ruin the primers nor will they get hot enough to cook off the primer because the whole situation is water cooled. He probably should just load 'em, shoot 'em THEN anneal them. But annealing primed cases can be done safely with some hassle.
I have decapped live primers many hundreds of times without one detonating. However I have never tried to decap a crimped in primer.
 
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