Reloading Nickel

[vbirddogs]

Does anyone here reload Nickel casings for their rifles? I go through a lot of brass but have never reloaded nickel for a rifle. In all my pistol matches I use nickel for major power factor loads and brass for minor loads, but never did rifle. If you do reload it, do you anneal it too?

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

I run nothing but nickel brass in my Lilja 17 rem barrel, had a custom reamer made off it after I purchased several hundred for the rebarrel project. My 338wm has been only nickel because I found 50 for a great price. If you anneal a nickel case I would think at least a color change of some sort.

 

[riflewoman]

I’ve loaded nickel plated brass. It’s ok. A bit stiffer to size, but it works. Federal ran with nickel brass in 222 many eons ago. Some liked it, some not.

 

[foxguy]

Several years ago I reloaded 7mm WSM Nickle plated brass. I had no problems reloading it. altho, I had only reloaded it twice. I really liked the Nickle plated brass.

 

[RegionRat]

Yes, I have reloaded nickel cases from factory hunting rounds.

I’ll be honest and say I didn’t care for doing it for two reasons. The trimming would have eventually added up to more wear on the cutters. I also found it took more effort and discipline with the lube and sizing to achieve good results.

I never tried to anneal them cause I only ran them once except for a test batch that I ran about 4X without problems. I just stopped using them cause I felt I didn’t get any advantage for the extra effort.

Edit to add: these were from 30-06 Trophy Bonded Bearclaw ammo.

 

[Straightshooter1]

Does anyone here reload Nickel casings for their rifles? I go through a lot of brass but have never reloaded nickel for a rifle. In all my pistol matches I use nickel for major power factor loads and brass for minor loads, but never did rifle. If you do reload it, do you anneal it too?

I have some nickel plated cases for my .308 that I've reloaded 4 times so far with no issues (see pic below). And yes, I have annealed them after every firing, just like I do with my other brass. In fact, you can tell in the picture that I also turned the necks as I've processed them no different than my other brass. For annealing, I use the same time interval as I do with my regular brass, but there's no discoloration on and below the shoulder like one sees on the regular brass.

 

[bozo699]

The nickel of course is just plated but it’s much harder than brass,... I have scratched my dies sizing it and no longer use it I think I have several hundred new 22-250 nickel plated brass. But as stated by others I treated it no different than any other brass.
Wayne

 

[stork]

The nickel of course is just plated but it’s much harder than brass,... I have scratched my dies sizing it and no longer use it I think I have several hundred new 22-250 nickel plated brass. But as stated by others I treated it no different than any other brass.
Wayne

And every single piece of brass that follows gets the nice scratch down the side. Saw a nice set of Redding 257 Roberts dies ruined with Nickle. Have never used another piece. That was 35 years+ ago. They're easier to find on the ground but that's the only positive in my book.
Al

 

[JEFFPPC]

I agree, nickle cases are hard on dies. I will use new ones for hunting loads as they feed slickly but do not reload them. I use to shoot a lot of running deer matches and liked how they fed but after ruining a set of dies I quit reloading them.

 

[JFrank]

Good information Gents‘
I’ve a large box of Nickel cases for a 270 WSM I was wondering about.

 

[spclark]

I have some nickel plated cases for my .308 that I've reloaded 4 times so far with no issues (see pic below). And yes, I have annealed them after every firing, just like I do with my other brass. In fact, you can tell in the picture that I also turned the necks as I've processed them no different than my other brass. For annealing, I use the same time interval as I do with my regular brass, but there's no discoloration on and below the shoulder like one sees on the regular brass.

View attachment 1205607

You use a carbide cutter in your neck-turning rig? I'd have to think a steel one'd get dull PDQ running nickel-plated cases into it.

Color change when annealing won't happen with nickel 'cause it's the alloy nature of brass that affects how those colors appear from annealing. Nickel doesn't react the same way.

Nickel cases can scratch rifle chambers just like they can steel sizing dies. I avoid 'em for this reason first and foremost, but as others have noted there's more to not using 'em than just that alone.

 

[bobm]

I have been loading nickle cases for years with no problems. Yesterday I fired this batch of 100 and had them loaded back up last evening. I fired 50 each out of two M700 offhand practice rifles. They were originally .308 once fired Federal picked up range brass that I turned into 7mm-08. Currently on #5 times fired, neck sized with bump only. I do not anneal brass.

Load is 36.0 grs. IMR 4064 behind inexpensive Speer 160 gr. BT's. R-P 9.5 primers. This is a one MOA load in these two rifles, plenty accurate for smacking the 18" gong offhand at 300 meters.

Nothing wrong with free nickle plated brass.

 

[rjtfroggy]

I use nickel for my 223 and nothing else. Normally I get around 12 loadings before the necks start to split, no annealing. Never had a problem with ruining a die.
Not bad for all once fired range pick up brass. I know it was once fired because I picked it up after a couple of days of police qualifying at the range, I have probably 800 pieces. They were all free.
I formed a couple hundred into 6x45 and have had no problems with these either after 5-6 firings.

 

[Straightshooter1]

You use a carbide cutter in your neck-turning rig? I'd have to think a steel one'd get dull PDQ running nickel-plated cases into it.

Yes, I use a carbide cutter. I try to use carbide whenever I can (like even my expander mandrels).

Color change when annealing won't happen with nickel 'cause it's the alloy nature of brass that affects how those colors appear from annealing. Nickel doesn't react the same way.

I know. I only mentioned it in case someone might be expecting to see a color change due to their annealing like we get on brass.

 

[stork]

I use nickel for my 223 and nothing else. Normally I get around 12 loadings before the necks start to split, no annealing. Never had a problem with ruining a die.
Not bad for all once fired range pick up brass. I know it was once fired because I picked it up after a couple of days of police qualifying at the range, I have probably 800 pieces. They were all free.
I formed a couple hundred into 6x45 and have had no problems with these either after 5-6 firings.

Free is alway's good, only beaten by someone paying me to take them off their hands.

That being said, no matter how guilty I would have felt leaving the brass there (and believe me leaving 800 rds of once fired brass lay would have bothered me. Probably cause me nightmares and a lot of regret), I would have policed it up & thrown it into the recycle bin. It may go forever without a piece of nickel flaking off during sizing and scoring the inside of one of my dies, but I won't take the chance.
Al

 

[XTR]

And every single piece of brass that follows gets the nice scratch down the side. Saw a nice set of Redding 257 Roberts dies ruined with Nickle. Have never used another piece. That was 35 years+ ago. They're easier to find on the ground but that's the only positive in my book.
Al

I've been told that there is no way that nickle can scratch dies, but I've had the exact same experience with 45-70 dies that once I sized Ni cases they scratched my brass cases.

 

[jk80]

I had problems with pistol cartridges that were brass. The nickel seemed to rub off on carbide sizing dies and really loaded them up. After a while it started scratching brass. I bell the mouths of the brass as little as possible but it seemed like the nickelbrass work hardened and would start to split necks. After that I've avoided nickel brass like the plague. Ymmv.

 

[BCBRAD]

A nickel case does not lend itself to annealing, as the nickel will harden and the brass will soften.
Poster #6 gets away with it as the cases are neck turned to expose the brass.
Factory rounds are OK that are nickel coated as they are only designed to fire once.

 

[M-61]

I've loaded about 40 nickel 222 brass, with necks I turned, an unknown number of times (more than 30) and never had a problem with the cases, dies or neck cutter.
I stopped reloading them only because the nickel plating started to flake off in places and cosmetically they looked bad but they were in use a long time.
The same dies (RCBS competition dies in the wooden box) have never scratched my brass cases. This is strictly my experience.

 

[bobm]

I had 50 pcs. of Federal nickle 7mm-08 cases in my scrap bucket. They were tossed due to half had loose primer pockets. They had eight firings on them each. These were neck sized only for each time reloaded. I grabbed five for a close look at the necks.

I used the Teslong flexible borescope with mirror removed to look closely at the neck outer surfaces.

You can easily see fracturing of the nickle plating and places where the plating has flaked off. Keep in mind this is high magnification. It took eight firing cycles to create this rather minor issue. I will continue to use nickle cases as I come across them.

https://gundigest.com/more/how-to/the-nickel-brass-case-reloading-the-shiny-sibling