Reloding Nickle Covered Brass

[Black Cat]

I would like views on reloading nickle covered brass. I have a lot of it from purchasing expensive amo. I am told by others to never use it. I have never found any thing one way or the other in reloading manuals. What is the purpose of coating it. I am not sure Nickle is cheaper than Brass

[Hammerslagger]

NP brass was originally developed to be more corrosion resistant for ammo carried in leather belt loops and in hot high heat/humidity climates. It costs more to make than plain brass cases as there are several extra steps to the electroplating process.

There is no reason not to load it with only one caveat that should be kept in mind.

That caveat is that occasionally a lot of brass cases will come out just under minimum material thickness specifications. In such situations the lot of cases is scrap metal, unless something can be done to dimensionally bring them up to minimum material dimensional specifications. Electroplating with nickle can make up for a few ten-thousandths of an inch of being short. However you will still have a case that barley meets minimum specs.

The above is not the case with most nickle plated cases but it should be kept in mind if you reload them. This is especially important when reloading autoloading pistol cartridges that headspace on the case mouth. Make sure that you bullets are held securely by the case and cannot easily be pushed deeper into the case after loading. Minimum safe "no move" load forces are 50# for .45 &40; 35# for 9mm & 38.

[aa1911]

^^ good post!

been reloading nickel with no issues, they work perfect. Nickel cases are almost always more expensive compared to their brass counterparts (but they look pretty, hahaa)

[Alpo]

Nickel, being a stronger metal than brass, is also a more brittle (or less ductile, of you prefer) metal. That means it cracks sooner. Factory ammo - it don't matter. One shot is not going to hurt it, but for the reloader, nickel brass will fail sooner. It work-hardens quicker and cracks sooner. Where I might get 15 or 20 (or more) loads from a brass 38, I'll get less than 10 from nickel.

It's just the nature of the beast.

[howlnmad]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You should never reload nickel plated brass. You should box it up and send it to me for proper disposal. Just kidding, reload it but watch for flaking.

[Bindernut]

Actually, the reason that nickel plated brass tends to crack or split after fewer loadings than plain brass is a phenomenon called hydrogen imbrittlement. Its a long explain but if you google it, there is quite a bit of good info available on the metalworking sites. Its the same problem that causes chrome plated car parts to fail...and why I'll never use a plated axle on a street rod.

That said, there is no reasn not to reload plated brass. They will have a shorter lifespan but not enough to really worry about. I still get 6+ loadings with plated 25-06 brass. That's not much less than I get with unplated.

[Hammerslagger]

Bindernut in post #6 and Alpo in post #4 makes an interesting points

Here is a link for the tech minded: http://www.finishing.com/165/71.shtml

[Black Cat]

Thanks for all the great help

[oldfartrr]

Originally Posted by Alpo

Nickel, being a stronger metal than brass, is also a more brittle (or less ductile, of you prefer) metal. That means it cracks sooner. Factory ammo - it don't matter. One shot is not going to hurt it, but for the reloader, nickel brass will fail sooner. It work-hardens quicker and cracks sooner. Where I might get 15 or 20 (or more) loads from a brass 38, I'll get less than 10 from nickel.

It's just the nature of the beast.

if u anneal the case mouth just as with regular brass cases, it will give u more loads without splitting

[mikld]

I guess my experiences with nickel plated brass are different/odd. I have been reloading .38 Special since 1969 (not continuously, but at leasy 500 per year and mostly more, and in 2009 I was teaching a newby to shoot so mebbe 5k that year). I have a lot of the brass I've been using (mostly since '86) and a good bunch is nickel plated. None have split mouths, and none have flaked nickel. I have some that have worn beyond the plating in spots, down to brass, but no failures I can blame on nickel plating. I did not use different loading techniques nor load data for nickel plated. Mebbe all the brass I've purchased (a few K of once fired), and all the cases I've saved were oddballs? Or is 38 Special brass "special". Never had probs. with .44 Specials or .357 Mags either...

[sting75ray]

I load all of the 25-06 ammo with nickle plated. At one time when I was hunting with my 270 or 30-06 my daughters were shooting 25-06 so if something happened and any of it spilled in the truck or the bag we carry our hunting gear in it was always easy for them to pick out their brass.

[ozo]

I 'usually' buy new brass and don't pay extra for
the shiny plating.......
The carbide dies do a great job on the plated brass
and the only difference I see for load longevity is
the hotter loads in the nickle plated brass don't last
as long, maybe 50%, but in the lighter charged loads
I don't see much.
I don't use much nickle brass , so maybe my input is of
no pertinent value.
Would I load once fired nickle plated brass that you gave me ?????
Sure, I have no qualms......

[JLA]

Nickel brass loaded with cast lead make great werewolf ammo.

[Bindernut]

Originally Posted by sting75ray

I load all of the 25-06 ammo with nickle plated. At one time when I was hunting with my 270 or 30-06 my daughters were shooting 25-06 so if something happened and any of it spilled in the truck or the bag we carry our hunting gear in it was always easy for them to pick out their brass.

That exact same scenario is exactly why I exclusively use nickeled brass for my 25-06 too.
Dad tried to do his pre-season zero check of his .270 with a box of my .25-06 one year. Needless to say the groups weren't worth a toot and I've been running nickeled brass in that rifle ever since.
(Not sure what I'm gonna do if I ever build my 6.5-06. )

[JLA]

red sharpie marker..

[sting75ray]

Originally Posted by Bindernut

That exact same scenario is exactly why I exclusively use nickeled brass for my 25-06 too.
Dad tried to do his pre-season zero check of his .270 with a box of my .25-06 one year. Needless to say the groups weren't worth a toot and I've been running nickeled brass in that rifle ever since.
(Not sure what I'm gonna do if I ever build my 6.5-06. )

A good friend of mine bought a 25-06 years ago and did not have any brass to start out with so I took 200 rounds of 30-06 brass and necked it down for him. We used some red fingernail polish on it to identify what it was. I called Highboy to get some extra nail polish but he said he had just used the last of it on his toes just before the big Idaho Tater Dance.

[76Highboy]

Originally Posted by sting75ray

A good friend of mine bought a 25-06 years ago and did not have any brass to start out with so I took 200 rounds of 30-06 brass and necked it down for him. We used some red fingernail polish on it to identify what it was. I called Highboy to get some extra nail polish but he said he had just used the last of it on his toes just before the big Idaho Tater Dance.

[Bindernut]

Originally Posted by JLA

red sharpie marker..

Red, black, blue, and green on the loading bench here. I use em to mark the cases when I'm testing different loads. The pesky stuff keeps scrubbing off when I tumble the brass though.

[JLA]

You could always spend hours putting discreet file marks on the caseheads. But that would take forever.

[Alpo]

"The pesky stuff keeps scrubbing off when I tumble the brass though."

Yeah, I have that problem.

I bought a case of Federal 45 ball. FC96. Crimped primers. That's normally not a problem. Yellow brass comes with yellow primers, I punch out the dead one, remove the crimp and reprime with white primers. Easy to tell, at a glance, that it's had the crimp removed because it has been reprimed.

But these dang Federal cases are yellow brass, but they came with nickel primers. So when I pick up an empty to process it, I don't know whether it is once-fired, and needs the crimp removed, or whether it is multi-times fired and had the crimp removed long ago.

So I started taking a black sharpie and drawing a line cross the back of all this brass I de-crimped. But when it goes through the tumbler the line goes away, and I'm back to "does this one have a crimp or not".

To quote Charlie Brown. Aaarrrgh.

[Wildone72]

Glad I read this post. I had the same question the other day with a friend. He has been picking up range brass for me and a bunch was NP. Now I feel better.

[al45lc]

I was given a bunch of NP 7.62 cases that went through a mini gun. (Aircraft ammo)
Never had a problem with it, been useing it as hunting ammo in my Scout rifle for years now.

[judgecrater]

Originally Posted by Black Cat

I would like views on reloading nickle covered brass. I have a lot of it from purchasing expensive amo. I am told by others to never use it. I have never found any thing one way or the other in reloading manuals. What is the purpose of coating it. I am not sure Nickle is cheaper than Brass

I have reloaded thousands of rounds using nickel without difficulty. I have reloaded the same cases over and over; no problem. 45ACP, 38special, 357mag.

[Black Cat]

Is this a active forum? I find a post I made back in July listed as today. Is someone using my name. What date was the last post of any kind?

[rmorgan9718]

NP brass in five rifles and 5 handguns, have reloade some 38SPCL s more than 10 times with no problems. 280 Remington some have 7 or 8 reloads, no signs of failure or cracking.