HELP!! Tell Me I Didn't Destroy 300 .223 Cases

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Nightvisionary

Nightvisionary

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I can't believe I did this. I washed about 300 cases of mixed brass .223 cases prior to tumbling.

Last night before I left for work I shook out each case then placed all the cases in a steel bowl and stuck it in the oven at 400 degrees to evaporate any remaining moisture. I hopped in the shower and meant to shut the oven off when I got out. Well, I forgot and just came home to find my oven still on.

300+ brass cases in the oven at 400 degrees for 9.5 hours. Are they ruined? They look ok. I know some shooters anneal brass but I think that is at a much higher temperature for a much shorter amount of time.
 
I think you're under the annealing temp but not by very much. I'd say take some pliers and squish one in several places comparing the feel to one you haven't cleaned. Of couse totally annealed it would be dead soft, if you can't feel the difference you're probably OK.
 
I think you're under the annealing temp but not by very much. I'd say take some pliers and squish one in several places comparing the feel to one you haven't cleaned. Of couse totally annealed it would be dead soft, if you can't feel the difference you're probably OK.
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I compared a couple of different pieces with a set of pliers. I could not see or feel and difference between baked cases and unbaked. Both needed about the same pressure to deform and the color on both looks the same.
 
my oven has a feature that will turn it off after a the bake time you program in...bake your brass at the lowest oven temp and use the auto-off feature.
 
my oven has a feature that will turn it off after a the bake time you program in...bake your brass at the lowest oven temp and use the auto-off feature.
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My oven doesn't have a timer otherwise I would have done just that.
 
OK, seriously you could leave them at that temp for a year and not significantly change their material properties. You were well below the stress relief temp, and half of the minimum annealing temp.

400F is a bit high for drying purposes, as water changes to a gaseous state at just about half that, but they're fine. And if you really don't want to use them I'll take them off your hands.

Here's the ASTM specs for 70-30 brass:


Annealing Temperature 800-1400°F 425-750°C
Stress Relief Temperature (1 hr) 500°F 260°C

Hope this helps. :D
 
Check your oven temp with a thermometer made for use in ovens. If the actual temp at the 400* setting is over 450* I wouldn't chance it. Most modern ovens are pretty close on the calibration. Some of us remember when most people had a thermometer fixed on one of the oven racks.
 
Actually, if you wash/rinse them in the hottest water you can, and let the cases get good and hot, when you drain them and spread them out they'll pretty much dry on their own from the heat retained in the brass itself. Maybe not perfectly, but quite well. I always wash brass in hot soapy water, and I've dried brass many different ways, but found it's really not that necessary. Spreading them out in the sun works very well too. Depriming first helps too, that allows a tiny bit of airflow through the cases to help with evaporation. If you put them in a basket and give them a rinsing dip for a few minutes in boiling water, the cases will get hot enough to self-dry very quickly.
 
For the love of all things ballistic quit putting your crap in the oven.

I swear every time you see a thread title along the lines of "is my brass ruined" it's always the same thing! Someone put their brass in the oven.

Ovens are for biscuits not brass

To answer your question I have to ask you a question. How much do you trust your made in Mexico oven thermostat??? If it's 100% accurate you're OK. if it reads 100 or 150 degrees cold your brass could possibly rupture and your rifle might blow up in your face possibly blinding you for life?

To trust your oven to a red baron pizza is one thing, but do you trust it enough to risk your vision to it's accuracy??
 
For the love of all things ballistic quit putting your crap in the oven.
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Agreed.

Air drying works fine, if your patient. (A fan will speed it up) Tumbling is cheap, easy, and works great, which is why most folks tumble.
 
Believe it or not, I had a friend who shot himself in the foot oven-drying .38 Spl brass!

Ralph washed a bunch of cases early one morning, spread them out on a cookie sheet, and placed them in the hot oven with the door open.

He then proceeded to the breakfast bar, where he was setting barefoot, reading the morning paper.

BAM!!!

One of the "empty" cases had a live primer in it.
It went off, and the primer whizzed across the kitchen and buried itself between the small bones in the top of his foot.

He had to go to the ER to get it dug out by a doctor.

In case you are thinking that was really bad luck?
The same guy later blew himself up with an 8 pound keg of Bullseye powder.

He left the lid off, and put it under his bench, right under his bench-grinder!
Sparks in the powder keg from the grinder set it off and he lost his ears, most of his nose, some fingers, and a lot of skin from the resulting flash fire right between his legs.

He was in the hospital burn unit for months, and later died from infection.

I guess some folks just probably shouldn't be reloaders!

rc
 
Believe it or not, I had a friend who shot himself in the foot oven-drying .38 Spl brass!

Ralph washed a bunch of cases early one morning, spread them out on a cookie sheet, and placed them in the hot oven with the door open.

He then proceeded to the breakfast bar, where he was setting barefoot, reading the morning paper.

BAM!!!

One of the "empty" cases had a live primer in it.
It went off, and the primer whizzed across the kitchen and buried itself between the small bones in the top of his foot.

He had to go to the ER to get it dug out by a doctor.

In case you are thinking that was really bad luck?
The same guy later blew himself up with an 8 pound keg of Bullseye powder.

He left the lid off, and put it under his bench, right under his bench-grinder!
Sparks in the powder keg from the grinder set it off and he lost his ears, most of his nose, some fingers, and a lot of skin from the resulting flash fire right between his legs.

He was in the hospital burn unit for months, and later died from infection.

I guess some folks just probably shouldn't be reloaders!
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I honestly believe both these cases are just over-sights or accidents. I don't believe it was stupidity. Could they have been more careful? Yes. But I really don't believe these two cases amount to stupidity.
 
I'm not so sanguine...., but let's test in 4 steps

1. load one round at moderate pressures
2. Fire round (eye/ear/handprotection) -- even better, anchor the gun (AR?) in an old tire and fire it w/ a string (I'm not joking)
3. (If able) after that, resize/decap and then re-prime the case
4. Does the new primer go in with "normal" resistance, or is it now a tad loose?
 
I'm going to be a bit chauvinist here but.......Way too many guys know way too much about a piece of equipment that isn't meant to be use by you for anything! :D

I had a friend once that took his wife's watch away, there was a clock on the stove! :)

There is a reason that a woman's feet are smaller........Its so they can get closer to the sink in order to do dishes! :D

I agree with the poster that says: Stay away from the oven! I have for over 33 years!
 
But I really don't believe these two cases amount to stupidity.
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Who said anything about stupidity??
I certainly didn't.
For the record, my late friend Ralph was anything but stupid.

I just said Ralph probably should have picked a different hobby where careless mistakes wouldn't have ended up killing him.

rc
 
If you washed it in your wifes kitchen sink, then dried it in her oven, why not just use her hair dryer instead to dry it?

Just messin with ya there, sorry. I think the brass would be fine, but next time use a timer!
 
Use a timer for sure.

And 225 degrees is all that is necessary to turn water into steam almost instantly.
(Water boils at 212.)

Leave the 400 degree setting for cookies & pizza!

rc
 
When drying brass I got about it in 3 steps.
1 - Remove as much water as possible. You can spin in a media separator.
2 - Allow room for air circulation.
3 - Apply as little heat as possible. This is as much about reducing cost as anything else. If the heat source is free that is perfect. AKA the sun.

That said, I try never to wet brass unless needed.
 
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