Nickel brass worthwhile to reload?

Nickel plated brass loads just like plain brass.The only drawback to nickel that I see is cases that have been loaded many times start to flake off the nickel plating in your dies. The flaking can easily scratch your dies permanently.

Process it the same way as ordinary brass. I have not had any problems trimming nickel plated. And, you’re right, it’s just plain cool. It makes you want to wear a bandolier of all that bling.

In 35+ years of reloading 38 Special and 357 Magnum nickel brass and a bit fewer years reloading 44 Magnum nickel brass I have none that I could say had a "shorter life" than plain brass. I only have about 150 nickel plated 9mm brass and just a handful of 45 ACP nickel plated cases and haven't noticed any down side yet, for a few hundred reloads. But I can find every one of my cases in the dirt, grass, trash of the "range" where I shoot. I have carbide sizing dies and in thousands of nickel plated brass rounds loaded in them, not one scratch or marred die. I do have to admit I only loaded a few nickel plated 223 cases (as an experiment) and not enough to form any opinion, but they worked quite well.

Nickel plated has been said to not hold up to as many reloads, but other than that load away.

I have chopped it, annealed it, sized & trimmed it for 300BLK.
No flaking of the nickel so far after several reloads.

I have worn the nickel away in some areas on some of the cases.
I'm guessing that tumbling in SS Pins may be the cause.

After my success with the converted brass, I moved on to using nickel for .223, .308 & .45 Colt

I am no longer afraid of nickel plated brass.

FYI:
I also use the WFT to trim my rifle brass.
I use an AMP Machine for annealing.

total recoil said:

Nickel plated brass loads just like plain brass.The only drawback to nickel that I see is cases that have been loaded many times start to flake off the nickel plating in your dies. The flaking can easily scratch your dies permanently.

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I've seen this in person.
My rule of thumb is 5 reloads max on nickel plated brass. Then again I load my nickel plated stuff hotter as hunting loads.

dredd said:

I have chopped it, annealed it, sized & trimmed it for 300BLK.
No flaking of the nickel so far after several reloads.
I also use the WFT to trim my rifle brass.

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If anything, it's been a lot harder to cut (for me). It tends to spin in my Zep Reloading cutting jig, resulting in chattering of the blade around the case, and the neck spins off and rips leaving a high spot on the case mouth which makes trimming with the WFT quite challenging. Probably happens 3 of 10 cases. I recently added the Frankford Arsenal Universal Trimmer to my kit, which handles that burr a lot easier.

Aside from this I'm quite enjoying loading .300 Blackout into shiny Speer nickel cases. No flaking, not even when the mouth was already subjected to more brutal cutting/trimming than my brass cases. I haven't attempted annealing as yet...all I have is torches and Tempilaq.

I bought a bunch of nickel Remington rifle cases about 25 years ago. I was fire-forming 7x57 to Ackley Imp. and the nickel cases didn't take well to reforming.

For normal reloading they are OK.

markr6754 said:

If anything, it's been a lot harder to cut (for me). It tends to spin in my Zep Reloading cutting jig, resulting in chattering of the blade around the case, and the neck spins off and rips leaving a high spot on the case mouth which makes trimming with the WFT quite challenging. Probably happens 3 of 10 cases. I recently added the Frankford Arsenal Universal Trimmer to my kit, which handles that burr a lot easier.

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Same experience trimming nickel plated 223 brass with a WFT also. I'm starting to think nickel cases are what prematurely dulled my original cutter...

total recoil said:

Nickel plated brass loads just like plain brass.The only drawback to nickel that I see is cases that have been loaded many times start to flake off the nickel plating in your dies. The flaking can easily scratch your dies permanently.

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Flakes of nickel are not going to scratch hardened steel dies, the flake could scratch up the brass and get stuck to the side of the die scratching subsequent pieces of brass just like normal brass can. I've gotten dies that were supposedly scratched on the inside but a little work with a pick and a little polish removed the stuck on brass leaving a non scratched die. Even a small rock won't scratch the steel die, brass is softer then steal so the brass will scratch and deform way before the die will. This is one of them wives tails that just won't die. Guys think they need to run there brass that went straight from the rifle to a bag never touching the ground through there wet tumbler so it won't scratch there brass, I've sized dirty ground scavenged brass with no issues.

I prefer nickel in general.

In the past I have been bothered by inconsistency. Some batches suffered from case mouth splits after only a few loadings, while other batches, even from the same manufacturer, would last as well as unplated. Since I switched to Starline for all my handgun brass, that problem has gone away.

Regarding scratched dies, I never have had any problem that I can attribute to nickel. I don't have a full understanding of the various hardness scales, but my understanding is that nickel is generally not quite as hard as the steel used in dies, and not nearly as hard as the carbide used in most handgun dies. I won't deny the experience of other men, but I am not convinced that nickel is the actual culprit.

This is all for straight wall handgun brass, by the way. I have used nickeled rifle brass, but not enough to have any firm opinions about it.

If your WFT has a carbide cutter you should not have a problem cutting through the nickle plating.

As far as life, I've completely wore off plating on some 357mag brass and never had one split, 15 + reloads. All depends if the mfg took short cuts in the nickle process. If your going to loose leather belts loops to hold the round the Nickle is preferred due to corrosion resistance.

Only nickel cases I have are 38 special +P brass mostly Speer. They have been loaded a lot as brass is showing in places and still work fine. I was told about the scratching sizing die years ago and have used a separate Hornady sizing die for them. Don’t know if it’s true or not.

Nickel plated cases just load like brass.

If you are using steel sizing dies, make sure the cases are clean, but you would do that with brass cases away.

I've shot alot of 38 Special and 357 Magnum plated cases. They seem to have a bit shorter reload life but I have never done a study. Anyway, case life differences were never enough to worry about.

I've resized some nickel plated cases so much that the nickel wore off. They still loaded and shot fine.

Yes, the nickel on some cases will flake off. Just brush the flake aside and keep on using them. My experience is the number of flaking cases is small.

I do not have alot of experience with rifle cases except for reforming some nickel plated 308 Win cases to 6.5x54 Kurz Mauser. After a couple firings, the cases split where the neck joined the shoulder. So, I will not use nickel plated cases for reforming to other cases.

I was given a bunch of nickel plated 357 cases by my dad that are older than I am. I load them up and treat them just like a regular brass case. Of all the cases I have had split most of them have been the nickel plated cases. I generally use them for light plinking rounds now and have no problems tossing them out if they show any signs of abnormal wear and tear.

I've read that with Nickle handgun cases with any kind of die, that one should resize them with case lube to keep the die from picking up Nickle and scratching cases.
I use One Shot case lube on all my handgun brass because it makes them resize so much easier in my progressive presses, so I guess I don't have to worry.

Jottke neckel cases are probably differrntvtgfm straight walled cases do to more work on the cases.
On the straight walled nickel cases I have seen the nickel wear off right down so they revert back to brass.

Not much experince with nickel bottle necked cased

I love nickel plated brass.
Ni plated pistol brass slide through a carbide die so, so nice. It's down right lovely.
Ni plated rifle goes through noticeably easier too, especially if you run small base dies.
If they need to be trimmed, trim them and don'tworryaboutit.

I size all my nickle plated brass with no lube in my carbide sizers. All I do is tumble them clean first, dirt is the big enemy.

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That may be the case with today's nickle plated brass, like you said in post 17. I'm just in the habit of using spray on lube with all my handgun loads. I tumble them after loading (except for hollowpoints) for about 10 minutes to get the lube back off.
Not saying my procedure is the best way, just saying that's what I've always done.

jeeptim said:

Happy 4th my friends.
So I have acquired about 1k each 223, 9mm, 40s&w, and 400 45acp.
I just like the way it looks..
I do understand cracked necks and the wear on dies but nothing looks cooler then some spiffy bullet poking out a silver case.
I'm prepping 1k 223 with some v-max.
These are all speer cases once fired no split necks. As I'm writing this thinking is trimming a problem? With a WFT?
Been at this a while and dont foresee any problems but thought I would check with the experts.
Thanx

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Reloading nickel plate brass is only worthwhile if you're going to shoot 'em and reload 'em again.

Nickel Reloads , Nickel Gun
That's my Nickels worth......