Nickel coated brass.

[BLUEDOT 72]

Does anyone out there have anything that suggests that Nickel coated brass is shorter lived than regular uncoated brass? Could it be more brittle and prone to separate at fewer loadings than plain brass? I am talking about rifle brass such as the 7-30 Waters.

[Rocky Raab]

I think you put your finger on it. The plating is very brittle, and when it cracks, the crack follows right into the brass.

The plating also tends to flake, leaving almost microscopic chips in your size die - which imbed in the steel and are impossible to get out. It ruins the die.

You can read between the lines. I don't like nickle cases at all.

[shaleetoo]

too many bad cases for me i just threw it all away, even new stuff lee

[Cobra]

Stuff is pretty, costly and basically worthless. Avoid it.

[BILLY D.]

well shut mah mouth. here i go again. i use nickel brass in two of my firearms exclusively.

my 7mm/275 rigby that i built and dedicated to osa johnson, and my 45 lc/colt ruger bh.

in the rifle i thought the copper bullets really looked neat in the silver cases. i thought osa would like that. kinda dresses/fancies things up a tad.

in the 45 i use them to separate the +p hunting loads from the rest.

i have never experienced any problems using nickel cases and they all have several reloadings on them.

to answer your first question, they do not last as long as straight brass cases, i understood this when i started my projects and when the cases are worn out i have plenty more to replace them with.

i don't know if you know the reason for nickle cases so here is the short story. they were mainly invented for law enforcement personel to carry in the belt webs. leather corrodes brass and makes ammo look real crappy. after a few years on duty the chief thinks it looks undignified for an officer to have corroded ammo in his service belt.

[Terry Blauwkamp]

I load them once for hunting, and hope I loose them.

After a couple loadings, they are real tough to resize.

[Adam Helmer]

Billy D,

I agree with you. My experience with nickel .38 Special cases began in 1970 when I went to work as an agent and that was our issue ammo. I reloaded far too many thousands of Remington. WW, Federal, Norma, S&W and Speer .38 Nickel cases and I have never seen one "flake" or crack. And, yes, the nickel cases do not corrode in leather belt loops like brass cases will.

I have loaded .303 British, .30-06 and .444 Nickel cases and all have performed well over many reloadings. I have no doubt that some nickel cases will peel, crack and fail, but I have yet to have one.

I load about 95% nickel cases in the .38 Special and .357 Magnum versus about 5% brass cases in those calibers. I have always had good results with the nickel cases and prefer them.

Adam

[Rocky Raab]

Billy and Adam, I think we need to separate straight-wall pistol cases from bottle-neck rifle.

I have and use nickle pistol cases, mostly .357 Mag. While I have seen few that crack or flake, it has happened, particularly at the mouth, where repeated belling and crimping are at work.

Rifle cases with a neck and shoulder are much worse. In the very few that I've tried to load (mostly .308), I've seen cracking and flaking all through the shoulder area as wel as the mouth. I attribute this to full-length sizing. When the shoulder is set back, the nickle apparently cannot "follow" the brass and it cracks loose.

Even worse than that is using nickle cases to fireform or "blow out" to other case shapes. Few if any survive the first fireform load.

[Adam Helmer]

Rocky,

Thanks for the input. I have never fire-formed a nickel case so I do not know of their shortcomings there.

A few years ago Midway had a "Special Deal" I just had to get in on: they had 500 new nickel .303 British cases for some low cost, which I cannot recall. I got the 500 nickel cases and they are the best I ever used in my 30+/- SMLE rifles. One No.1 Mk4 used to stretch factory brass cases beyond belief. I fired a light cast load in 40 new nickel cases in that "long tooth" No.1 Mk4, backed off the sizing die almost a full turn and loaded 150 grain jacketed bullets and 41 grains of IMR 4895 in the nickel cases. I fired the lot and did not see any case stretching in any nickel case! I am on my 5th loading of those nickel cases for that same rifle and it has been a good experience.

While my nickel case experience has been limited to .38/.357 cases and the .303, .30-06 and .444, I have nothing negative to report. I still have about 400 nickel .303 British cases on establishment; I wish I had more at the "Old" price.

Adam

[BILLY D.]

well i'll back up rockys statement on the fire forming. my gunsmith and i got a wild hair one day about a long range 22 cal cartridge.

it was a 8mm mauser case necked down to 22 cal. i neck sized the 8mm case down to make a false shoulder then fireformed the case to blow out the shoulder to the 40* it was supposed to be and fill the chamber. one critical error, i used nickle cases. no matter how i changed the powder charge the cases would either not form or they would split. i lost 75% of my cases.

i have only reloaded the 7mm mauser cases i refered to earlier 4 times and i neck size only. i've never experienced a problem with them.....yet.

the pistol carts are self explanatory. so far no problems.

[Cal Sibley]

My only real gripe with nickel brass, and it's a major one, is it's death on my bevelling tools. A guy at the range gave me 40 of them in .300Win. Mag. I thought I'd save them for a friend. I cleaned them up in the tumbler, and then decided to bevel the iside/outside of the necks - bad mistake. It really dulled my bevelling tool something awful. I personally don't use nickel cases and that's why. Just one mans opinion. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[temmi]

I use Fed & Rem Nickel brass for my .338 WM... Last just fine. Never had a problem.

[BLUEDOT 72]

Thanks all who responded to my query! Guess I was on the right track. The main reason I had the 7-30 Nickel Brass was cause I was also shooting a 30-30 Contender and I thought that it would be simpler to keep them straight. Now, I don't have the 30-30 anymore so I now have no excuse to use the nickel. I am so used to shooting "many" reloads as long as I annealed the necks every now and then so I was truly flabergasted when the 7-30 brass failed after not too many reloads.

Thanks again for the advise and help.

Jim

[gumpokc]

I'll chime in too.

The only nickel brass I've used is 8mm mauser, and .38spl/.357mag.

the .38/.357 i have used several times, I got it on a midway special, similar to Adam's, but i think I got mine about 7 years ago, roughly '99-2000 timeframe.

I've had no problems, as expected with the straightwalls, but the 8mm really puts them through the wringer.
Add to the fact that until last year the 8mm I was firing them through was a Hakim, and you can see they didnt last long.

If you had to load them, and have them handy in all weather conditions, for any length of time in belts or otherwise exposed, I think they'd be just fine.

just my .02

[wyt_tail]

I too have used Nickel Brass with no adverse affects on chipping or cracking. In fact, I have gotten over 12 reloads with Nickel Brass before I had to throw them out most likely from my over loading them as the primer pockets were loose. Here is a pic of the cases I am talking about, using them for my 22-250AI. They form nice and also never had any problems with dies scratching as I have heard about.

22-250AI on left:

http://photos.imageevent.com/judeinpa/reloading/small/nickelbrass.jpg

[Kragman71]

I have to thank each of you posters.
I just finished seperating all my used cases,in all caliber,and will sell those that are not kept.Scrap brass is selling for .80 cents a pound.
have a lot of nickle 38 special and 357 mag cases to ponder about keeping.
Thanks to you,I'll keep them.
Frank