As to the question,
I read the article, and the author is hung up on 'Hardness' rather than optimum grain size & structure and removing occlusions/defects.
That's actually what makes the brass fail, not the annealing process.
Not a metallurgists so he gets a pass on the details since the folks reading metallurgy from a gun magazine won't know the difference anyway.
They probably won't realize he contradicts himself several times,
And that the entire article is an advertisement for an annealing accessory.
As for annealing,
I started with one torch and temp stick, moved to three torches with the case static,
The biggest improvment in consistancy I saw with gas was,
A precise timer,
And a gas regulator,
Switching from oxygen gorged 'Jet' torches to something more compact and a little less dependent on humidity/barametric pressure & oxygen content being added, all of which change with atmospheric conditions.
I built a turn table 20+ years ago after seeing one at a manufacturer's open house.
Has nothing to do with consistancy, it was simply a way to deliver the cases from a case feeder drop tube...
As for the 'Bevis & Butthead' comment, I was that guy...
Young, ignorant, and believing what I read in gun magazines,
With a plumbers torch & a drill, wearing an AC/DC shirt, trying to backyard engineer what I'd read... Until I saw how it was actually supposed to be done...
Ignorant means you haven't learned yet.
Stupid means you know different, but do it wrong anyway...
I'm NOT a cartridge brass engineer... didn't spend 4 or 6 years in collage, another 4 or 6 years training in...
So I learn something new every time I get the opertunity to talk to a brass engineer, and I had to hire one for a defense contract that gave me an (expensive) education in cartridge brass...
And just in case someone doesn't know, general metallurgists have to specialize in brass, there is an entirely different curriculum and certification to become a brass engineer.
Until you have tried to produce a conical brass spring to military/aerospace tolerances, you don't know what a complete brain meltdown is!
20,000 ways to screw it up, only one way to get it right, and you have to PROVE you got it right to a bunch of qualified inspectors that ARE going to cross section, destructive test, chemically analyze, etc.
You WILL buy a lot of expensive equipment, and you WILL learn to use it...
Or you won't get paid, simple as that...
As my EDUCATION progressed, I've simply moved to electro-magnetic induction because it makes sound scientific sense,
No trying to regulate the heat source, the brass heats from its own interior on a molecular level, no contamination carried in from 'Gas' or a heating die, precise timing control, down to the 1/10 or 1/100 second without mechanical linkages creating timing problems...
Just makes sound scientific sense and since the price is VERY reasonable, no excuse not to electromagnetic.
Energy savings with electromagnetic also, something I'm watching since I'm solar powered, and there is a limit to my energy production.