Nickel Plated Brass

[baldhunter]

I bought a 100 nickel Remington 7mag brass in 1994.That brass was excellent.I know I loaded some of those cases a dozen times without any issues.I bought another 100 of them a year or two later and it was pure junk.Some cases were very hard and brittle and gave me poor accuracy do to lack uniform neck tension.I since have gone back to brass.

 

[Calvin45]

I've never had an issue with it in my .300 win, 270, or 243. Just keep an eye on the case mouth for flaking off effects, if it's doing that or just "looks rough" - you'll know - don't use it.

I wouldn't be trying to get a ton of loads out of it for bulk shooting, but for dedicated hunting/field cartridges the benefit of being resistant to the elements and slippery as all get out is there.

Sometime I plan on loading up some .300 win "make sure" rounds. I have some 180 federal trophy bonded tips, some new Remington nickel plated brass. Gonna load it with with a temp insensitive powder, 7977, and probably not right to full pressure, stop at 3000 fps. Seal the primer and case mouth, a weather proof bonded core load.

 

[planetwaves]

Is nickel plated brass ok for reloading. Was told years ago wpould bugger up dies

A while back, my reloading gear was in storage after a move. I had a rifle in 270 Win that did well with Winchester Silver Tip factory ammo that have nickel plated cases. I fired about 140 rounds. Since then I have reloaded the cases twice with no issues caused by the nickel plating. There were some case defects/deformities that resulted in tossing a few, but nothing caused by the nickel plating.

 

[Alberta Wexit]

Thanks for all the input. Dug the boxes out of the garbage wiped them down lube them and full length resized them. In tumbler now for cleaning. will load them up over next few days. Learned something new. LRH is a good source of information on just about all reloading.

 

[OldElkHunter1961]

It depends. Who's brass, what caliber, how hot you run the loads in that brass, and what dies you use and how you use them. Lube seems to matter little as long as its correctly applied. My results have been mixed based on the above. Mid-range .38 Spl loads no issues forever. Top-end .300 WM loads problems after a couple loadings. Not all cases in a lot. Maybe 1 in 10-15. As with all things in life there is a risk level. Is it worth it to you is the real question.

 

[del2les]

In one cartridge or another including many bottleneck rifle cases, I have been sizing and loading nickle cases for 5 decades, and while the resizing pressure is slightly more, a properly lubed and cleaned case will not hurt your dies.

 

[nocannons]

Raised my curiosity this AM. Federal nickel plated and Hornady non plated. 260 rem. 10 of each and if any thing Federal seemed to work smoother. Hornady would have places where you would have to apply more pressure. Federal was more consistent pressure and no tight places. Used Imperial wax and Rcbs fl die. Have not noticed any flaking of plating. Have some of same kind of brass in 243 and when i turned necks it cut down to brass but no problems when shooting these. Still plenty of material. .014 thickness .

 

[tigerrose01]

I have a few hundred 30-06 nickel cases (Rem). Several reloads, no issues...cases. dies, or otherwise.

 

[ajkellerusmc]

I cant believe no one has brought this up so here it goes. The most controversial topic on the forum.

How do you? or can you? anneal nickel plated brass? I know I just opened the can of worms.

 

[LVJ76]

I cant believe no one has brought this up so here it goes. The most controversial topic on the forum.

How do you? or can you? anneal nickel plated brass? I know I just opened the can of worms.

Never have and never will. And no issues.

 

[Calvin45]

Never have and never will. And no issues.

This^^^

 

[del2les]

I cant believe no one has brought this up so here it goes. The most controversial topic on the forum.

How do you? or can you? anneal nickel plated brass? I know I just opened the can of worms.

One should not anneal nickel plated brass, for the process will actually harden the nickel. Some studies show it can increase the hardness up to 2 fold.

 

[Justice1327]

I cant believe no one has brought this up so here it goes. The most controversial topic on the forum.

How do you? or can you? anneal nickel plated brass? I know I just opened the can of worms.

See post #8
I don't know about an open flame for annealing Ni coated brass, but I can and do anneal my Ni brass with my AMP. To anneal normal brass is ~ 600-700d, Ni takes ~ 1k - 1150d to anneal. AMP code is much greater for Ni brass, too...meaning it gives it more time and heat while annealing
pic is 280 Win, fire formed for 280AI, then annealed

 

[rifledoc]

The only nickel cases I had an issue with were Sig Sauer 300 BLK - my dies did not like them at all. All other nickel cases I have had in .223, 300 BLK and .308 worked without issue!