Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles nickel plated brass - advantage or not?

i have never used nickel plated brass in a rifle... there is some available in 25-06 currently, and i am tempted because i've had a hard time finding brass...

are there any advantages or disadvantages in using the nickel plated stuff???

Advantages are it looks cool and cleans up very nicely.

Disadvantages is that since the nickle plateing is very hard, it will dull a case trimmer quite fast. If I had the choice I would use regular brass cases but, if nothing else were available, I would use nickle plated brass.

some guys pimp their ride, some pimp their bullets


I love em, but I do like to wear a feather in my hat when totin them

The are just fine for straight walled cases, and in particular, pistol calibers.
If you are a reloader, they should be avoided in bottleneck rifle calibers. They are ok to load once, being extra careful with the bullet seating part of the process.
I have tried them off & on over the years, and never found them to do anything better than plain ole brass.

Someone must have told you I was a gun slut and a bullet pimp... cause its all true...I load all my hunting ammo in nickel plated brass for reasons I can't possibly articulate- even to myself- without the help of Sigmund Freud.
On a logical and useful side, I can use only nickel plated brass in my titanium .357, as it is the only thing that will extract easily.( brass seems to obdurate to fill the pores in the more elastic titanium,,,)
Ingwe

I have shot lots of nickles plated brass in Rifles from 223- 338 Win Mag. One most always work the load up to your best pet load in Nickle brass from your standard brass loads. The outside of the case being plated will change the pressures when loaded. Sometimes as little as half grain lighter to as much as a grain and half lighter. It has never made my rifles group shoot diffrent when they were loaded to the same speed. The cases do seem to heat up faster when left laying in the sun. So I load them with extream powders. Also they show up better in the grass. Hopes this helps.

They look cool with certain bullets. I used them for the 45-70 but as to any advantage, I know of none. I have heard that they are supposed to be used if you store them in a leather ammo carrier for a long time. Supposedly, they will not tarnish or corrode as fast as regular brass when stored in leather.
They are worth trying out of curiosity. I might choose a nickle case if I'm going to be doing a special hunt and want a nice looking casing to save for the animal I took it with.

It would be interesting to have a brass and nickel casing left in moist weather for a long time to see which corrodes faster.

Might wanna check with Dogzapper. I believe he's used more than a few and has a great likin' for 'em. I'd value his opinion over most.

I have noticed with my target 308 loads that the nickel starts to flake after five or six reloads. Not a lot, but the residual flakes will scratch brass cases if dies are not cleaned after the nickel is used. I chose nickle for the look cool factor, but noted case to case variance in weight was noticably less than similar brass cases. As a bench rest shooter that was a considerable advantage, at least in my mind.

I use brass only now, except in the 308 since I have 100 "match" brass for it.
Randy

I agree with the foregoing observations: nickle plating is high on the "coolness" factor and provides ammo companies an opportunity to charge more for their product. My suspicion is that any genuine, significant advantage over conventional brass cases is largely illusory.

I have always wondered if the nickel hides the bright "stretch" ring right above the web on a stretched case.

I have a couple of guns I fully resize for and I use the bright ring as an indication its time to toss a case. What happens to nickle when the case stretches?

i have been warned about the nickle plating flaking and because it is so hard it will scratch the resizing die. don't know if it is true or not but stick with plain brass whenever possible

An obvious and redundant +1 from me on the coolness factor. I also wondered about changes in group/ pressure etc. when switching from brass to nickle plate, but in a hunting rifle cannot notice enough difference to consider..
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't nickle plated brass originated for use in the tropics as brass would start growing stuff on it ( especially that green stuff it gets when left in leather) Also, as alluded to... for easier extraction in tropical heat before there were "Extreme" powders???
Or did the old timers just like the coolness factor? ( they rarely did anything for that reason except churn beavers into felt for top hats....)
Ingwe

I like the pimped out look, a lot cooler than my green fuzzy Barny rounds.

It's good for quick load identification say between a 270 & a 280. Nickle seems to have a greater case capacity in bottle necked cartridges. It will split quicker. Just hope I don't get a full case head separation ever, cause you can't see it from the outside, I use the bent paper clip method. I haven't perfected annealing it yet, next try will be with those temperature strips for soldering.

I will buy it any time I see it on sale for less than plain brass.

It's pretty but I stay away from it. What I have I use for set up checks usally because it stays clean looking and is handled alot. Don't think anyone recommens many reloadings and warns to watch for spilts and flakeing. As far as the annealing I don't know anybody that had any luck with that either. I've tried the Horady kit and like it but if you follow their instruction to a T you won't see much discoloration of the case on brass so I don't know if it would help you much even with the kit on the Nickel. I have some twice loaded that I keep for one of my hunting rifles I don't use much, to keep it looking good but I will discard after fireing because most of the people I talk to suggest somewhere between 3 to 5 loadings you will get the flakeing or cracks. When I'm working loads I may load the same 50 cases 8 times in a month and all I've done is trim my brass. Now change to Nickel and everything may stay the same but when I did play with it some it never had the same POI. Don't know if was so much case weights as it was neck tension. IS DARN PRETTY THO!

I use nickel plated brass in "big bores" if it is available ii said caliber..I use the nickel for solids and brass for soft points, I know at a glance a soft from a solid in a tight situation..Its handy in the field.

If I was worried about flaking of nickek, which I am not, then I would outside neck turn the nickle off as that is where it would flake..I have an aquintence that has done this on light varmint calibers, it gives a 3 tone effect, actually a very pretty round.

A possible disadvantage of plated brass is the potential for increased bolt thrust due to the reduced ability of the plating to grasp walls while under pressure. Kinda like oiling up your brass.
We are often more fortunate than we realize when a strong modern action covers up our little experiments in excess.
I do some pressure testing from time to time, and have witnessed this phenomena in plated cases. It is somewhat erratic, but I have been able to reproduce it.

I have not dug into this sufficiently to Know whether calibers with "medium" pressure specs are more subject to this than say, calibers running at 62,000 psi. I simply decided that using plain brass eliminates a potential problem. Period.
I think noKnees comment about plating hiding rings indicating impending case separation, for guys that reload a lot, should be given some serious thought. Risk vs return??

Enios:

I wasn't aware of the different pressure characteristics due to the stretch or lack of for the nickle brass. It make sense, is their any data on this? The neck tension is trickier due to less spring back, I will be experimenting with this with inside reaming and various sizing methods. I did seem to have better lot consistency weights with the nickle vs brass cases.

I clean my dies before and after each run especially when switching between brass and nickle cases. I also give a quick swipe with a wire brush to the necks and inside of the case to hopefully remove any flakes.

To answer the original question. Nickle is only an advantage for rounds stored in leather loops, or if you are a real Gun Geek and like the extra futzing around.

I couldn't prove it one way or the other but what I was playing with were 708 cases. Weight differences were less than 2 grains between the brass I was loading. Difference in neck thickness was nominal, Loads Identical, sized with a Forster comp FL and seated with Forster Micro benchrest seater. All things as close to equal as I could possibly get them. Only thing I didn't do I should have is check the ID of the neck. The brass loads shot under 1/2" and the Nickle over an inch, close to 1 1/2" with most. I always shoot at least 5 rounds to group but sometimes 10. Only thing I could think of was the probability of spring back from the harder brass. I use either redding or Forster bushing sizer for all my loading except the 708 because they had neither when I acquired it. I always checks my neck thicknesses and use the bushing to give me .001 under most of the time. I'm trying to develop the very best loads I can because I shoot more paper and a few varmints more than anything. I do full case preps and try to sort in a max of .2 gr in my case weights. Once I develop a load I use the same 100 cases for it, so I can keep my case weights with the load. I could go way to long and have now, but with all things as close to the same as I could get it they weren't the same. I'm slowly now getting custom dies made for the rifles I shoot the most. I got the one for my 308 today and it was perfect. From a fireformed case it sets the shoulder back .001 and in .001 and the base .002. Minimal sizing for reduced case stress but no pressure on bolt when you drop it. It is also a bushing die. 223 next on list.

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