Any reason to reload nickel plated brass cases - or just dispose of them.

If you toss your serviceable nickel plated cases, you might as well put a stack of "Benjamin-s" in the shredder.

Nickel plated cases reload and shoot just fine.

I find their case life seems to be a little shorter than unplated cases, but not enough to worry about.

That said, if I'm buying new cases, I generally get only unplated cases unless I have a desire to load something that I want to easily identify as special. Range and pick up brass, I take what the brass gods provide for me with gratitude.

Search the forum, this subject comes up quite frequently.

I reload mine. I save them for defense loads that I know will be in the gun and the speedstrip for a long time, so I don't have to look at tarnished brass every day.

Feel free to toss it right to me if everyone else doesn't persuade you that there's no downside to reloading it.

I have been reloading .38 special wadcutter loads in nickel plated (mostly Winchester) cases. I got them about 1964 and they have been reloaded so often that the brass is showing through where the nickel has been worn away. Yes, the case mouths do split but they have been expanded each time and this is to be expected. I have never had a problem with flakes of nickel interfering with reloading. Most of these cases are still in my rotation. No reason to avoid nickel.

Here's one thread.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=806002&highlight=nickel+brass

If you are speaking of handgun brass , That list of disadvantages is mostly horse hockey.
I just finished reloading 200 nickel plated 38 special cases , all have been reloaded about 5 or 6 times with cast bullets and standard velocity loads.
If you have nickel cases , reload them until they crack or split. Don't toss the plated handgun brass because there is nothing wrong with it.
Nickel will not scratch a hardened steel die , it will not harm a carbide die. If the plating starts to flake and it bothers you then toss it, but it will not hurt dies or loading.
Personally I have reloaded many that had flaked a little around the mouth, no harm was done . The only thing I see that may be true is " more expensive " Starline sells 100 38 special brass cases for $17.29 and nickel plated for $19.99...a whole $2.70 more, so yes they are more expensive. Other than that ....use them.
Gary

Here's an article written by the guy who taught me how to reload last year. Look at the chart towards the end. It seems that the nickel are ok to reload, they just can't be reloaded as many times as brass.

http://www.massreloading.com/longevity.html

What internet "expert" wrote that nonsense??

They may split sooner but other than that................

Guys with super wet wash and dry cleaning systems may have issues with the solutions reacting but , hey nickel doesn't get dirty.

I tend to like Nickle plated brass .... they are much easier to find on my grass range !!!

Can't say that I've ever found a "Con" to reloading straight/tapered wall nickel plated pistol cases, and I've never tried them in bottleneck cases. All the "Pro" arguments are true in my case, and I'll add that I find they resize with much less effort in my press.

IF they can't be reloaded as many times as brass cases, I've never found to be true. Of course maybe that's because I tend to loose cases before that can happen.

I have always reloaded mine. I can't remember ever having one split.

I started reloading with nickel plated brass I picked up at the local Police range in 1969. I loaded thousands of nickel plated cases with no additional problems (my plain brass cases experienced split mouths at the same rate as nickel plated cases). I picked up a .357 Magnum and that also got fed a lot of nickel cases, again with no additional problems. Next acquisition was a .44 Magnum, and it also digested some nickel cases, but far fewer. I still have some nickel cases, Remington .44 Magnum, that I have kept separate for heavy loads (I've got about 10 full magnum loads through them so far). Same results, same case life as plain brass. I have even reloaded some 38 and 357 cases so many times the nickel has worn thin from resizing, and still shootable...

Some may not have had the same good results as I have, but I've not had any extraordinary wear/weakening of the cases, no flaking, and no ruined dies..

One big plus for nickel plated brass; it's really easy to find 45 ACP nickel plated cases in the dirt, rocks and trash at my local "range"...

I love them. They look really good too imo. +1 to resizing easy.

I have some old (easily 50 yrs and possibly another 10 or 20 on top of that) 357 nickel plated brass that seems to be very thin towards the mouth. Almost like the metal evaporated over the years, except that it looks decent, but I have seen flaking with a few of them. So maybe the list of disadvantages comes from something like that. But I also have some nickel plated 9mm (made in the mid '90s), and it's really very nice stuff.

Nickel is generally harder than brass but not quite as hard as steel. But when you get into different plating technologies, heat treated vs various steel alloys, and carbide inserts in dies, we know that carbide is almost indestructible, and a good heat treated steel alloy is harder than any brass alloy or nickel plated brass. Nickel plated other things - no idea how that would rank.

I reload them without issue, much like everybody else.
I have a whole slew of nickel 357mag case that are worn through to the brass, and they still shoot just fine. I have seen them split at the mouth, but not really any more often that straight brass.

I like them especially for keeping in leather belt loops. Nickel keeps the verdigris away.

I had read the same horror stories years ago about loading Nickel Brass.

I also read all of the "just load it".

So... I decided on really tough test.

I wanted to make 300BLK Cases using Nickel so I would always know which ones were my subsonic loads.

I chopped the cases, deburred, annealed, sized, stainless tumbled, trimmed, deburred and loaded. All the time looking for any flaking or other issues.

I am only on my second loading, but they still don't show any issues with the Nickel.

I figured being chopped, heated, squeezed & trimmed would be enough to ruin them.

Anneal them and use them. When one cracks anneal the rest and throw the cracked one away.

kwg

I use nothing but nickel plated brass for loading .357 Magnum ammo and I have not had one split a neck that I can remember. I also use nickel cases for my 30-06 hunting ammo too.

What cases are you talking about? Handgun, rifle, what? I would keep them or give them to another reloader but don't throw them away. Heck, if I can use them I will pay shipping instead of you tossing them.

I use yellow brass for .38 Special ammo and nickel for .357 Magnum ammo for quick identification and the nickel cleans up easier form the additional carbon I get on. 357 cases. No other reasons. I'm glad you decided to load it, no reason to shy away from perfectly good brass.

mikemyers said:

I am currently attaching a set of carbide dies to my Pro-2000 for loading 38 special. I read the instructions, and this resulted in a call to RCBS - will post that separately, in a new thread.

Quoting from the instructions from RCBS:

IMPORTANT: We find that most scratching of the interior of a de is caued by nickel cases or grit on the brass case surface. If you are using nickel pistol cases, we recommend that you use a Carbide Sizer Die. This die is hard enough to resist the scratching nickel cases cause. Cleaning the case's exterior surface will prevent scratching of the internal die surface.....​

I've got both nickel plated and regular brass. The brass has only been shot once, and looks brand new. I'll probably use that for now. With care, I accept that using nickel is fine. For me, I don't see any reason to use it instead of brass, but I guess I don't need to avoid using it if I ever have to.

Click to expand...

Back in the dark ages when many pistol resizing dies were steel, yes, you had to be careful resizing nickel plated cases.

Generally, I found the cases had to be cleaned and well lubricated.

Not an issue with carbide dies.

In my steel 357 Magnum sizer die days, circa 1980, I reloaded lots of nickel cases. Periodically, I start to get scratches in cases. I'd spend some time polishing out the dies and the scratches would disappear.

Load 'em and shoot 'em.

Load them. Nickel brass is a commodity for me. Like others said it loads just fine and the only detriment I have seen is that it cracks a couple loading a sooner than yellow brass. The reason I call it a commodity is that it lets me run special loads with an easy distinguisher. In 38 spl that's my wimpy loads that are quiet and gentle for now shooters or my wife. In rifle calibers I use nickel for other special loads like heavy bullets or something. It's great to know what's what when your ammo crate tips over.