Reloading Nickel plated brass??

[oldfortyfiveauto]

If you mass load it is heaven, best thing since naked women and cheaper, a small 6 oz spray bottle cost about 8.00 including the 6 oz spray bottle from walmart. and thats enough spray to do about 5,000 .223 cases ! You need to try it amazing stuff !

The lanolin mixes are fine on smaller cases, but larger ones like 308 or 30-06 not so much. I've had stuck cases on them and have since used Imperial for the larger ones.

 

[Hairtrigger]

I need more 7stw brass and Federal made another batch of loaded ammo with 160gr trophy bonded bullets and at the same price as unloaded Nosler brass but it's nickel plated. Thought I would ask. Thanks Guys!

Same price......Nosler would be the easy choice for me.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Same price......Nosler would be the easy choice for me.

Yep. Same here. I've had some really bad luck with Federal STW brass having case/head separations after just a couple firings. I started using Nosler brass about 4 years ago, and was so impressed, that I swapped over to Nosler for all my belted magnums, and even some of my non-magnum cartridges.

 

[dgr416]

I.use 7 mm rem mag nickel brass for both my 264 win mag and 338 win Mag works awesome.I.Love it for hunting.where it rains alot .It works awesome in Alaska .

 

[J E Custom]

I have had both good and bad experiences with nickel plated brass. and after much research I discovered there are several processes to nickel plate brass and some processes leave the nickel much harder than the brass and reloading the magnum cases can cause the nickel to crack and in some cases the brass itself.

I like nickel plated brass as long as the nickel last and doesn't crack or start to peel. The best place that I have found for nickel cases is for Hand gun cases and straight sided rifle cases because there is not that much sizing required that can stress the nickel.

I don't know how to tell the good plating from the bad so I inspect all of my nickel and look for the failure signs. ( had some of the "Bad" nickel cases in 7 WSM and they flaked so bad that I discarded them after the second firing) because I was finding nickel flakes in the chamber while cleaning. The best way to find bad plating early is to feel it with your fingers, It will feel rough to the touch if it is going bad and smooth if it is good.

So my suggestion is to watch it and if after 4 or 5 loadings your not having any flaking or cracking it is good.

J E CUSTOM

 

[oldfortyfiveauto]

I just scrapped a bunch of nickel 357mag brass due to failures. No idea how many times they were loaded, but they all appeared fine. I won't buy it if I have a choice.

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

I only ever used it in a rifle once, a 22/250....used the same load, 34.1 of 4064, 50 v-max and wlr primer, 1/2 neck sizing...this load shoots sub 1/2 in my 700vs all day long....straight line bullet seated....the nickel brass shot exactly the same groups but they were 4 inches to the right of where they should have been...never did find an explanation for that but the plated brass shot great groups..

 

[shaughn]

I use them in .375 H&H, a buddy doesn't reload and he usually leaves the brass behind when he practices (Federal Premium), use Hornady oneshot on them, full length resize. After the next firing I neck size and do a cycle thru the action after loading, before packing them away in the appropriate ammo box.

I don't run my 375 full throttle, I strive to emulate the original loadings and do up 200 round batches and cycle thru all the brass I may have for a rifle, before starting at the beginning, so I haven't even reached a 3 rd firing between what I purchased and range brass accumulation and I do practice a fair bit, like LR, heavy rifles need to be shot or you lose your edge.

There is a reason some people call the .375 H&H the .375 Ouch & Ouch

 

[waltercrouse]

I use them in .375 H&H, a buddy doesn't reload and he usually leaves the brass behind when he practices (Federal Premium), use Hornady oneshot on them, full length resize. After the next firing I neck size and do a cycle thru the action after loading, before packing them away in the appropriate ammo box.

I don't run my 375 full throttle, I strive to emulate the original loadings and do up 200 round batches and cycle thru all the brass I may have for a rifle, before starting at the beginning, so I haven't even reached a 3 rd firing between what I purchased and range brass accumulation and I do practice a fair bit, like LR, heavy rifles need to be shot or you lose your edge.

There is a reason some people call the .375 H&H the .375 Ouch & Ouch

I feel the 375 H&H recoil is not as bad. The worst recoil is the short angle magnum's and the long tapered mag's such the 375 and 300 H&H have a little less.

 

[shaughn]

If memory serves a lot of calling the .375 H&H the Ouch & Ouch had a lot to do with the rifle weight and the stock designs and the lack of practice, since how often did one use the DG rifles outside of Africa.

Today you have hunters using .416 Rigby, the various .450's, .375's for just about everything. Overgunned...there's no such thing in my opinion...it's is it dead or keep firing...I am not small, and don't find the .375 H&H or .416 Rigby, never mind light weight BP cartridge rifle launching 500+ gr bullets to have excessive recoil.

 

[blinderthanascope]

nickel brass will work harden every time you shoot & reload it, you cannot Anneal it, it will get harder, best to throw it away or sell it imho

 

[RH300UM]

Not to high jack the thread but this brings a question to pose.
Is nickel plated brass that much better for foul weather over regular brass? That is the reason it was introduced, correct?
Any real world experience to add to the mix?

 

[Hairtrigger]

Nickel plating brass seems like a solution for which there is no problem

 

[waltercrouse]

So no problems resizing?

I purchased 243 win nickel cases years ago. I was crushing the necks of the cases, until I purchased a VLD reamer from Lyman. With the reamer I cleaned and beveled the opening and had no more problems with crushing the cases. Nickel cases will crack in the neck area after a lot of uses. Easy to clean and pretty to look at.