Brass Hardening from annealing?

[CLT65]

In terms of Brinell hardness, water quenching yellow brass after heating may make it harder, but in terms of cartridge hardness, it achieves the desired effect - minimizing crystal formation. Work hardening - firing, sizing - promotes crystal formation. Crystal size becomes smaller with increased work-hardening, and the smaller brass crystals increase the likelihood of case cracks. The brass will be more brittle.
Over tens of thousands of annealed cases, I found there is no perceptible difference between water or air cooling in my brass. Hence, I no longer waste time in drying my brass.
Annealing brass is one of those things where YMMV applies. Eric Cortina did an experiment where he grossly over-heated his brass while annealing, and found it did not affect accuracy.
I anneal because the cheap bastige in me prefers more brass life, I like how my bullet seating force seems more consistent, and I want to believe it makes my hand loaded cartridges more accurate. But, accuracy is a funny thing - with the same load batch, some days I'll shoot 1/4 MOA, and on others I'll struggle to keep it under 1MOA -- that indicates that my annealing has a miniscule effect. Hence, while I anneal, I don't sweat the details too much.

You and I think very much alike in this regard. Quenching annealed brass isn't required; I just do it for convenience, when it's convenient.

 

[P7M13]

Careful. Teslas quiver in your presence.

Teslas are pretty cool, in that if you shoot one in the right place, you can start a massive barbecue.
i wouldn't carry my Sig P320 around one.

 

[ActBlueDonor]

Teslas are pretty cool, in that if you shoot one in the right place, you can start a massive barbecue.
i wouldn't carry my Sig P320 around one.

Maybe. But wouldn't be cool with awesome pup co-pilots in them, especially the Subaru type. ;-)