Accidentally baked my brass....

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Carbon_15

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I had some wet .357 that I wanted to dry quickly before I droped them in the tumbler. Stuck em in the oven for 10 min....totally forgot about em for an hour at 325.
Are the safe to use??
Thanks
 
There is some debate as to how hot brass needs to get before it "goes bad."

Probably depends on a whole lot of factors that are impossible to judge.

My theory on brass is this:
If it "might" be bad, I treat it as bad.

There are many reasons not to fool around with bad brass.
In my case, I just don't have the time for it.

For future reference, DO NOT put brass in the oven.
If you are in that much hurry to get your reloading done, you made a bad decision (probably several) that led to the situation, long before you ever got to the point where you thought putting cartridge brass in the oven was necessary.
 
325 OUGHT not to have annealed your brass throughout, but I would not take the chance.
The direct radiation from burner or element could have heated the brass hotter than that locally.

It is possible. I dry my wet tumbled black powder brass in the oven at 225 with no problems. Not at black powder pressures, anyhow.
 
I also would recycle them after smacking each one with a hammer/crush with pliers or such to render them unusable. The reasoning that got you into this situation should be reviewed as noted above. IF you insist on drying your brass in the oven make sure NOT TO overheat it. I have done this very thing in the past myself so you are not alone in this misfortune.
 
Changes start to occur in brass grain structure at 480 degrees fahrenheit.

Unless your stove is really badass, or in this case, just bad, you haven't done much.

If it really bothers you that you "overheated" them, heat them again for the same amount of time, and immediately dump all of them into a sink full of water.

You have now "annealed" your brass.

For those purists out there... I know this isn't annealing. It isn't hot enough, thats my point.

Please, send 'em to me.....don't destroy them.........

Take one, and expand it.

Seat a bullet in it.

Crimp it.

Remove the bullet.

Resize it.

If it endures all of these processes, you have just experienced the wonderment of modern metallurgy.

Your oven is not a foundry.

YMMV
@ Trent : Please explain what happened to you using this exact temperature. I'm very curious.
 
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The real question is how much do you trust your ovens accuracy ? Brass is not a pie, its made of thin metal and as such can greatly exceed the ambient oven temp from absorption radiant heat from the elements. Your brass is now trash anyone claiming otherwise is simply being irresponsible with your face possibly getting blown off.

The moral of the story. Ovens are for Turkey and cookies not brass.
"Ruined brass" is dang near a tag search term for brass in the oven too long.





posted via that mobile app with the sig lines everyone complaints about
 
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+1 on using a hair dryer, as I usually wash my Black Powder cartridges and dry them that way. The best way I know how is to dump the cases into a strainer, to let water escape, all the while shaking them and blow drying them at the same time. A good high output hair dryer can dry them in a short time. LM
 
I wet tumble decapped brass. I shake out the water by flicking my wrist. I then dump them on a towel, roll them around, and the makes hem dry on the outside. I size them and by the time I'm done they dry on the inside.
 
Optimal Case Temperatures for Successful Annealing
Brass is an excellent conductor of heat. A flame applied at any point on a case for a short time will cause the rest of the case to heat very quickly. There are several temperatures at which brass is affected. Also, the time the brass remains at a given temperature will have an effect. Brass which has been "work hardened" (sometimes referred to as "cold worked") is unaffected by temperatures (Fahrenheit) up to 482 degrees (F) regardless of the time it is left at this temperature. At about 495 degrees (F) some changes in grain structure begins to occur, although the brass remains about as hard as before--it would take a laboratory analysis to see the changes that take place at this temperature
Click to expand...

I got this info from 6mmbr.com (http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html) in their article on annealing. I am no metallurgist, but I trust their information.

If in doubt...I would contact the brass manufacturer and ask their advice before trashing the brass.
 
It's perfectly fine to dry brass in the oven. The secret is to turn the oven off prior to putting the brass in.

You only want enough heat to evaporate the water, and water boils at 212F, so you certainly don't need any more heat than that. Actually, you need a lot less. Try this:
Heat the oven to about 200F, which should only take about three minutes, then turn it off. Put the brass in, and it should be dry in about ten minutes.

Of course if you forget about it, it will just gradually return to room temp, and be waiting for you when you get around to it.
 
I wouldn't see a problem in using them. I've dried brass at 325ºF and left it in for 30-60 minutes with no ill effects before I had a tumbler and used Dawn\water to clean my cases. I realized shortly after that I only needed to set it to 225ºF to let it dry, though.

I never shut the oven off either, and my brass was still going strong after doing that at least 2-3 times.
 
Every time I have to question myself or say to myself, If I'm real careful I can away with doing this, its definitely not the thing to do.

Last time I thought the above I ripped, not cut but ripped, 2 fingers out of my hand.

Brass is not that expensive or that hard to get.
 
Really don't get the hysteria here. The 357 case does not contain pressure. The cylinder does. So you haven't annealed the cases, and even if you did, it still wouldn't blow up your gun. Might as well try one.

I've accidentally baked brass overnight at 275, and I'm still shooting it. 223 and semiauto pistol brass.

The WORST THING that could happen if the cases were truly annealed (which these weren't)... well, I guess the casehead might expand enough to let the primers loose and you could get gas cutting on your recoil shield. And even if you didn't take the time to notice this gradual/cumulative problem, it would be pretty obvious when you try to reload the cases and they no longer hold a primer.

If it were an autoloader with crappy casehead support, then that's another story.
 
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If the brass had reached a temperature where hardness had been affected, wouldn't you be able to notice a color change in it?
 
If the brass had reached a temperature where hardness had been affected, wouldn't you be able to notice a color change in it?
Click to expand...
Wet, untumbled brass does not come out of an overnight in the oven looking normal, I'll tell you that. Mine came out looking like crap. Dark, dull, and some cruddy stuff looking almost like rust on the pieces lying on the bottom of the pan. At first, I almost mistook this for annealing.

I took a piece out and crushed the case mouth with pliers. Did the same to a case that hadn't been through the oven. Felt the same to me. Tried to crush the web, and couldn't. Called it good.
 
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325 deg for an hour will cook a turkey but not brass. If this will damage brass all my aluminum cook wear is trash. The temp of a fired shell will reach that, reload a couple of shells and shoot them and see what happens.
 
blarby said:
YMMV
@ Trent : Please explain what happened to you using this exact temperature. I'm very curious.
Click to expand...

The brass turned wicked purple with funky swirl effects, on the side facing the heating element. Brass was in there for maybe 5 minutes with the element on full blast, as my wife preheated the oven, opened it, and found the brass sitting on the shelf....
 
You could set the brass upright on top of the stove, or even in a window for a few hour's. Granted this is not the fastest way to do it, but the worry is all but eliminated.
 
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