Abbiboy
A little more info.
Brass work hardens as it is flexed and distorted. This is what happens every time you fire a Rifle, then resize the case. The numerous times it expands, contracts, then is squished down in ordertohold the bullet, causes the brass toloose some of it's ductility.
Annealing the brass does what the others say,it returns that part of the case to the originol softness that it had when new.
If you look at cases made by Lapua, you can see the Factory annealing in the shouklder and neck area.
While we are talking about this, I might add that NEVER heat the head portion of a case like this. The brass at that point has a certain strength that the annealing would destroy, leading to a case that is compromised in that criticle area.
When I anneal cases, (not very often), I stand them up in a shallow pan with about 1 inch of water. I heat the necks with a small propane torch untill they have a good even redness, then just tip them over.
The rapid cooling has no affect on the proccess. It is simply to keep too much heat from conducting into the base.........jackie