I like your attitude.  I'm hesitant to buy more than one green banana at once.

I must say, however, that having a 'lifetime' supply for myself, I haven't really kept a close watch on these prices day-to-day.

Paul

Is this high, low, or about what you are seeing?  

Chuck said
You heat the brass just to the point where it turns orange or stars giving off an orange glow.  DO NOT quench it.  Quenching hardens the brass.  Air dry only. Watch some of these videos.
annealing brass - Search
  

I wondered about that. My knowledge of metals chemistry is very limited but I know a water quench renders metals hard and brittle, to some degree.

Since beginning to reload in the mid-Sixties, I've read about annealing techniques during which the heat is killed by knocking the cases over into the pan of water used to protect the heads.  I think people do it to speed up the process and make room for more cases

My Dad was trained to work metal as a machinist and welder. He thought the annealed portion of the cases should air cool to stay dead soft. 

I use a small rechargeable drill and proper size socket to anneal with. Hand held torch and a slow turn does the job nicely. With a pair of tweezer to remove the brass, set on a extra board or the like, cuz I found that sometime the brass head is hot enough to leave a mark on the table.

Excellent suggestion and I just tried it this morning.  A more consistent heating and far easier on my bare fingers! Thank you.

Jon

If this rifle locks up on a live round at the THIRD range session, I'm on the phone to Vatican City for their #1 exorcist. I've exhausted every possible cause except demonic possession. 

Should the Rite of Exorcism fail,  the resident demon better get his asbestos underwear on becsuse I'm not to be messed with. I have plenty of Mesquite kindling and there's a lot more where it came from. 

Mike

On the topic of pulling bullets from live rounds, I have been using the same Lyman kinetic bullet puller for 45+ years with no issues. I believe that I paid $2.50 for it

Bert

Zebulon said
There's something therapeutic about destroying a tool that doesn't work well.  Out of impoverished necessity, I used to buy Harbor Freight power tools and soon discovered that the motor windings fried themselves under heavy loads unless the "sealed and permanently lubricated" ball or needle bearings froze up first. 
  

I have a different reason for Harbor Freight.  Instead of buying another $120 Makita side grinder, I wait for the cheapo 4.5" grinders to go on sale at Harbor Freight.  They used to be $14.99 but now only go on sale for an outrageous $20.  I buy 5 of them at a time ($20 less than my Makita) and put different wheels on each of them (cut-off, flap disc coarse, flap disc fine, grinding disk, etc).  Saves me from having to stop and change disks during a welding project.  And when they die (and they always do), I smile as I drop them in the recycle bin.  My rock-solid Makita I save for Sunday use only.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE quality tools, and buy the best when necessary for precision, but I am also lazy (and miserly) at heart when it comes to non-precision work like repairing the cattle gate where some nimrod backed a horse trailer into it.  The gate didn't seem to care that the grinder was made in Taiwan....

And before you call me out on it, I know, I know, now that it has been weld-repaired and repainted, my cattle gate no longer has "collectable". status...but it still keeps the cows out of the front yard.

Best Regards,

After slowly crawling several rungs up from the barrel's fetid bottom, I finally was able to afford DeWalt and Bosch.  

My projects got finished sooner and my wife says my vocabulary cleaned up to the point she could have friends over.  

But, somehow, I miss the catharsis of those violent, outrage-filled trips to the dumper. 

From long-ago experiences with RCBS, I foolishly thought I could call and learn whether "35" meant ".350" or "358".   They don't even answer their telephone.  I ordered the 35/38 anyway, hoping for the best. 

The next day, as an afterthought, I decided to ask Gemini about it.  After cogitating maybe 4 seconds, the answer came back. "Don't get the 35/38 because they mean .358 and it probably can't get a good enough grip. If it does, it will probably score the bullet.  But RCBS makes a "348" collet that has enough leeway to receive a .351 bullet and it will work just fine." I'm paraphrasing but that's what Big Gem advised.

The 348 collet was a little harder to find in stock but Graf had one and I ordered it. It came today, too late to do the job because I had already pulled the bullet with the 35/38 that showed up last Friday.  Of course the 35/38 scored the bullet. Fortunately,   I was only making a dummy to test the functioning of my Model 07 so it didn't matter. 

So get the 348 collet.  And have an extra bowl of Wheaties for breakfast because Western Cartridge crimped those 351 bullets to withstand being slammed into the chamber really hard by the massive breechblock extension of the 07.  The bolt is carrying a lot of energy on the return stroke. 

Forget trying to use the RCBS inertial puller "hammer".  I have one and all you will do is distort its head. I've wondered whether Western applied a sealant to the bullet shank. If so, after maybe 65 years it had plenty of time to cure. 

annealing brass - Search