Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles nickel plated casings?

i had a bunch given to me for my 35 whelen. cant these be resized and what not to use again or are these a on shot deal so to speak?

Nickel plated cases are fine to reload. There are a couple of caveats, however:

1. Nickel is hard and will dull and or ruin case trimmers rapidly. If you're going to trim, I'd suggest investing in a trim die.

2. The point of impact of loads made with nickel plated vs plain brass cases may be different.

Not to discount Grumulkin's experiences, but mine run different than his - the beauty of all the opinions on here! Nickel is fine, hasn't damaged my Forster trimmer carbide cutter, and the nickel loads shoot exactly the same as the standard brass, provided of course that you're using the same manufacturer. Mine are all R-P cases.

I have trimmed nickel cases for over 20 years on the same trimmer and it still works fine. Once did 800 at one siting, not a problem.Rick.

SB20ga

I've loaded both the Federal and Remington plated brass with no issues.

If you decide you don't want them--lemmeno.

WN

I have reloaded my Win and Fed 338WM nickel brass for years... they have never dulled my case trimmer... and I use a Lyman power trimmer.

There is no issue with loading Nickel coated brass... No real reason to either...

I use mine to differentiate between rounds for my 338WM Bolt and BAR...

I wrote this for Gun Digest Magazine a couple of years back. Hope it helps.

Bryce

I was discussing handloading with a buddy from a major handloading equipment manufacturer at the recent Safari Club International show in Reno and I commented that the black plated coating on the Hornady .223 Remington TAP ammo was wearing off when I cleaned my brass.

�That ammo is not designed to be reloaded,� he told me. �In fact, we do not recommend reloading any nickel plated cases. The Hornady TAP is simply a black nickel which, other than color, is not any different from the silver nickel used on many cartridge cases. The reason you notice it polishing off is because it�s more visually apparent with the black, but the same thing happens with silver nickel plating.�

I will note another reason why this appeared in the TAP rifle ammo. I have been tossing my empty .223 Remington Hornady TAP brass into the same bucket with the rest of the empties from my AR-15 shooting sessions. Because I load this ammo to a relatively mild pressure and I load it for volume, I don�t bother to sort my cases. It�s the same technique I use for my Cowboy Action ammo and for my practice ammo in .45 ACP. I simply collect the brass in a bucket and reload it in bulk. The brass tends to be dirty and so I dump into the case cleaner and let it run until the dirtiest case is clean. That means that the TAP cases can spend a lot of time bouncing around in the mildly abrasive cleaning medium, particularly if they are on their second or third loading cycle. When I load most plated rifle cases other than .223 Remington for my AR-15 style rifles, they are only in the cleaning medium long enough to remove the resizing lubricant and so there is no degradation of the plating. I also only reload most centerfire rifle cases a few times so they don�t experience as many loading cycles.

The problem, as my buddy explained it, is that microscopic pieces of the nickel coating can flake off and because it is harder than the steel of the die, it can imbed in the resizing die. This will cause scratching on the subsequent cases as they are resized. I wondered if every die manufacturer agreed, so I polled several of them on this issue.

Two of companies who sell reloading dies do not recommend using their dies with plated cases; period, end of discussion. Two others pretty much didn�t care, and another took the approach that plated cases can damage the dies, but it�s up to the customer to decide if they wanted to risk it.
It�s not a problem with straight walled cases if they are loaded with a carbide resizing die, which will not imbed with the particles.

In further discussions with some of my �go-to� sources in the reloading industry, I have confirmed what I thought that I already knew. I have been reloading nickel plated cases for years. With straight walled pistol cartridges I load them until they fail, but always with a carbide die, so it�s a moot point. Plated rifle cartridges will fail sooner or later and that failure will likely first appear in the plating. But, if you are loading for hunting and only plan to use the case for one or two reloadings you will probably be fine. If you are going to load the plated rifle case until it fails, you run the risk of damaging your dies. Usually the resizing die can be polished out to repair it at least once, but the risk of needing to replace it is very real. The bottom line is if you already have a lot of nickel plated cartridge cases and the price of replacing the brass exceeds the cost of a new resizing die, it might make economic sense to continue loading the plated cases. Chances are pretty good that you will not encounter any problems, but even if you do, you are money ahead in purchasing a new resizing die.

I have no plans to stop reloading any of my plated cases. Most rifle cases I only reload once or twice anyway, as I want to insure the brass in my hunting loads is fresh and trouble free. Even if I do have a problem, a new die is cheaper than buying more brass. Besides, a lot of my high volume .223 Ammo is loaded on a Dillon Super 1050 progressive machine. When I polled Dillon about this issue they said, don�t worry about it, if the die fails we replace it under warranty, so just keep loading any brass you have.

For the record, Hornady TAP is some of the finest personal defense ammo on the market and I have no intentions of not using it in the future. In fact, I have ordered more in .223 Remington. The truth be known, I am a brass hoarder and have been for most of my life. I doubt I could stand the mental stress of throwing my empties in the trash. I�ll keep loading the TAP cases and if I have to buy a new resizing die now and then, that�s part of the cost of shooting.

What about using nickel brass to form Ackley improved rounds ?
I've heard arguments for and against.

I honestly don�t know about using plated brass for AI cartridges. I have always used non-plated brass for any cartridge forming. My guess is that stretching and fireforming plated brass could cause the plating to flake off, but it�s only a guess.

I form 308x1.5 Barnes cases from 300Savage nickel plated brass. Never lost a case and they have been loaded many times. No damage to the dies/trimmer etc. I think the damage part is one of the old tales that refuses to die.Rick.

I load quite a bit of 340 Weatherby in nickle R-P 300 Weatherby brass. Sometimes I get just a bit of flaking on the neck where the metal has stretched. However, I tend to get more plating flaking on 45 Colt nickle cases, perhaps because the chambers on the two Colt chambered guns I have are on the typical loose side of tolerances called for by the caliber specs.

When the Ni does break loose, it will sure ruin a die...big deal...you may not live that long.

here's a nickle 280 case fireformed to 280ai !


no problems.

This is what it did to a Lee Collet Neck Sizing mandrel




when using the Lee Collet to uniform the new case necks.

Will it scratch your dies? You make your own decision. I have made mine.

Looks like Lee didn't harden the mandrels. Did you chamfer the cases prior to running the mandrel through them? I have run an expander ball through many a nickel case mouth without any damage.Rick.

thanks for all the info, i usually only reload my whelen and 350 brass a couple times so i think i will be okay. its doubtfull i will use those casings any time soon as im pretty well loaded up for a while other then working on a load for my 350 mag w/ a 250gr .....thanks again!