Nickel Brass and Annealing?

[Rtheurer]

I had a nice offer from a member here for some brass on one of my projects. Unfortunalty it was Nickel plated. Turning 243 brass into SLR or CM or AI brass I wonder what would happen to the Plateing and then what would happen when you Annealed it?
I might find a couple of piees to just to see what happens.. Im Geussing it flakes off...

RussT

 

[CatShooter]

I had a nice offer from a member here for some brass on one of my projects. Unfortunalty it was Nickel plated. Turning 243 brass into SLR or CM or AI brass I wonder what would happen to the Plateing and then what would happen when you Annealed it?
I might find a couple of piees to just to see what happens.. Im Geussing it flakes off...

RussT

I have annealed nickeled brass and it anneals fine. There is a belief that nickel will scratch dies, but it is a rumor. Hardened tool steel cannot be scratched by nickel plate.

 

[13red56]

I have a 22-243 with an improved 30* shoulder. I have been using RP Nickle brass only and have had no issues with it. The brass has 5-6 firings on it with no split necks. Some of the plating has come off where the neck and shoulder meet but it hasn't caused an issue for me. Still shoots extremely accurate. I haven't ever annealed it so I can't help there.

 

[watercam]

That is good information. I have avoided nickeled brass specifically because 'everyone said' it would work harden and become useless too quickly. Guess I can broaden my horizons a bit!

 

[wboggs]

I had a lot of neck shoulder junction splits on nickel plated WW .300WSM cases on the second reloading. They were not annealed.

 

[searcher]

I've used and annealed nickel-plated brass with no issues. I do know a few guys at the range that will not reload plated brass (rifle) because they say you cannot see the shiny tell-tale ring above the base of the brass where case seperations form. I believe prudent brass inspection will rule over potential problems otherwise.

 

[XTR]

I had a nice offer from a member here for some brass on one of my projects. Unfortunalty it was Nickel plated. Turning 243 brass into SLR or CM or AI brass I wonder what would happen to the Plateing and then what would happen when you Annealed it?
I might find a couple of piees to just to see what happens.. Im Geussing it flakes off...

RussT

I have annealed nickeled brass and it anneals fine. There is a belief that nickel will scratch dies, but it is a rumor. Hardened tool steel cannot be scratched by nickel plate.

I can tell you for a fact that it will, but you have to do something different to make it happen.

I was experimenting with shooting paper patched bullets in my 45-70 and having a dickens of a time trying to get the bullets loaded w/o tearing the paper. I tried putting a slight flare on the mouth of the nickle 45-70 cases then running them up in the sizing die to take off the flare. Scored up two dies before I figured out what was happening. So yes, flared straight wall nickle cases will scratch your die. As for rifle cases, I don't know.

I have annealed my 45-70 nickle cases, but I have never really checked the results and my 45-70 experiments have been suspended for a while now so I can't say for sure whether it helped or hurt.

I ended up using a case, and electric drill and some lapping compound to polishing out the scoring, but the dies were gouged up pretty good.

 

[Bogusname]

It will dull any kind of trimmer/turner in a hurry.