Annealing Incident

wv.citybilly

Private
Minuteman
Feb 4, 2023
52
52
West Virginia
Introductions: I'm fairly new to reloading, and have a limited budget.

My reloading procedure begins:

Deprime
Clean Primer Pockets
Anneal
Steel Wool
Soap and Water
Dry
Inspect

My annealing tools are a blowtorch and drill.

While annealing, I had a mishap that sounded like a firecracker went off. My first thought was a primer fired, but I had cleaned the primer pockets, so WTH? Most of this brass has been reloaded and fired 5 times, but a few shells were new ammo fired only for their brass (Lapua .223).

I stopped what I was doing, washed the brass, and then after it dried completed annealing.

Any idea of what happened? Dust? Moisture? Unfired Powder? Impure Brass?

Thanks.

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