Winchester Stainless cases

[Legacyfirearms]

I have a bunch of 23 to 30 cal. Winchester stainless cases. They are once fired and I would like to know if they can be reloaded. Is there any trick to reloading them if it can be done?

 

[matorre]

Scrape one of them, you'll see a brass colour underneith that slick finish.

They are ok to use.

Michael

 

[NHgunNut]

supposedly if the nickle starts to flake off it can scratch a die. I dunno about that, and i have never seen it flake. I wouldnt be afraid, I have loaded quite a few nickle plated cases without issues

 

[ourway77]

This may apply I use to load 38 special ammo a ton of it and they were most all nickel plated. Using a carbide die no bullet lube never had any flaking. I guess this would apply to your question. Good Luck Lou

 

[CJ6]

Your TRIMMER will LOVE this STUFF : ??? ;D

 

[lpreddick]

re nickle plating flaking off brass case: factory nickle plated brass is "plated" onto the brass. there is a process called "electrolus nickle plating" whereby the nickle is actually incorperated into the brass, not plated on. the nickle NEVER comes off and the finish is very sliperry...called lubricity. you can have your whatever brand brass treated as such,as i did, and enjoy the pleasures of nickle coated brass. nickle does harden the case but they are really shiney and slick and clean very easily. how many people do you know shooting 22-250 norma nickle plated brass?

 

[jonbearman]

Bozo,you can send that junky remington brass to my house and I will use it to keep my dies thoroughly scratched.Let me know.

 

[lpreddick]

bozo699: my friend that once owned and ran an electroless nickle plating business is not available to describe this process, so i resorted to available sources. i mispelled the word...electroless. the word in and of itself states that no electrical energy is used in the process of getting nickle to bond to a surface. the process involves an assortment of chemicals to first absolutely clean the surface then expose it to chemicals of varying concentrations to get nickle ions to bond. the thickness can vary depending on the concentration of some of the chemicals. the thickness of the nickle can be from .0001 to .0005 or more and produces a very hard and extremely durable surface. my friend "plated" items that had to be highly corrosive resistent and abrasive resistent...ex. valves, drive shafts and other parts used in nascar engines. other than having my friend coat some brass, i had him "plate" a factory barrel that was bad to copper foul...i hoped the "lubricity",as he called it, would dissapear. it didn't. i haven't used the brass he treated in some time, so i thimk i'll pull some out and use it to see if the hardness factor is a plus or a minus. i'll also put a metal file to a case to see what happens. i wonder if they can be annealed???

 

[markm87]

i wonder if they can be annealed???

Plated brass can be annealed. I forget where I read this.... but I've done it. The shoulder will look like a chromed exhaust header... with that rainbow discoloration.

 

[lpreddick]

not to keep beating a dead horse, but...electroless nickle plating was the full time business for 29 years of a good friend who treated some brass for me and i learned a lot about the process. the following is from this friend "Electroless nickle plating is an auto-catalytic process used to apply a nickle alloy to a metal substrate. There are no anodes, cathodes, or electricity used as in electro-plating. The process is driven by the breakdown of bath chemistry in the solution as nickle is deposited on the work. Propritary formulations contains liquid nickel sulfate, various other metals for particular alloys, and stabilizers to hold the metals in solution until catalized onto the work. Directly appled to the metal substrate at an atomic level assures absolute adhesion and uniformity of thickness. Deposit characteristics are hardness, lubricity and corrosive resistence. Electroless nickle is used primarily as an engeneering coating, not as a decoratine one. " This nickle WILL NOT come off, which is why it is used to coat(for it's lubricity) crankshafts and pistons in nascar motors. The end.

 

[bozo699]

I wish them G## D## plating technicians would quit calling me down there to fix there rectifiers as there isn't any rectifiers in a plating system, I am going to copy and paste this thread on the plating tanks and tell them to quit calling a electrician (ME!!) every time they quit plating!!!
Wayne.

 

[PREMOD70]

From my experience it is best to use the nickle plated stuff for low pressure loads, the plated cases do not grip the chamber as well as the unplated brass and can cause all kinds of accuracy and sometimes supposed pressure problems.