Hi Folks,

Recently I found a few split necks on some of my older .30 caliber brass.  I realized it had been a while since I annealed it, so I've just begun annealing each time I handload.  This is not so much for precision as it is to extend brass life.  I neck/partial resize, and I've not had one case head separation.  I've had a few where I thought I was beginning to feel a groove and tossed them just-in-case, but they'd been loaded well over 10 times and in all honesty were probably OK.  I cut a couple open and saw nothing that would indicate incipient case head separation.  

Anyway, I hold the case with my bare fingers so I know if the bottom starts getting warm.  I rotate the case 180 degrees and back, and by that time the flame just starts to change color and I toss the case into water.  (Some say a flame that changes color is too much, but I tend to think that's when folks run the flame a few seconds after the color change.  Others like to heat the brass to cherry red, but I'm not comfortable with getting the base that hot.)

After the water I wipe down the outside and toss them into the oven at 150 degrees or so for about an hour.  I pull them, neck size them, trim them, brush the insides, etc.

I can't find a reason or even a time to tumble these!

The handgun brass still gets tumbled, of course... but I'm wondering if anyone else does anything similar to what I'm doing?

Thanks,

Josh