44 Mag Nickel Cases Hard to Size

[ColColt]

I searched everywhere and couldn't find any brass 44 Mag cases so I bought some Starline's in nickel. I wanted either Starline or Winchester and most were on back order in brass. I tried running them through my size die and thought they'd never go in. I had to really put some pressure on the ram handle to get them all the way up and back. Plus, there were vertical scratches on the cases. I don't much care for nickel cases and wondered if this was typical of the breed. I have some cases in 45 ACP and honestly don't remember them being that difficult to size. I had to really put some pressure on the handle to get the case in and out of the 44 die(RCBS for 44 Special). Realizing the mag case is longer I backed out a little but that didn't help. I mean the whole work bench was shaking...what's going on with this?

[bumpo628]

You might want to try some Imperial Sizing Wax or some Dillon Spray Lube. In my experience, nickel cases are always a little harder to size. A large case like the 44 should be worse since there is more surface area for friction.

You don't have to lube every single case. Just do it in a batch. For example, spray some lube on the cases in a plastic bag. Then shake the bag for a minute or so to spread it out. Each case should have a light coating afterward. After sizing, you may want to tumble them again to get the lube off. The sizing wax is similar, but you put it on your hands and then 'knead' a bowl full of cases until they are evenly coated.

One more thing, you should probably mount your press table to the wall. This will help transfer all of the energy into sizing instead of moving the table around.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I haven't noticed that Nickel was harder to size than non-nickel plated cases.

even with using carbide dies, I do notice that once in a while I have a batch of cases that are tough to size. I ever so lightly lightly lube about every fifth case.

another thing I do is when tumbling cases in treated corn cob media,
I add a little liquid automotive wax...that makes sizing easier with carbide dies.
Jon

[geargnasher]

Col, are you using CARBIDE DIES? I'm guessing you are or you would have torn off the chickenchit rims of the .44 cases by now, but stranger things have happened. I generally use a generic trigger-pump spray bottle (from the dollar store or Wal Mart) filled with denatured alcohol and 10% Alberto V05 Hair Dressing paste to spritz a folded and smoothed towel and roll the cases that are tough to size on it like a case lube pad. With carbide dies, less is more, it only takes a hint of the stuff to get things going smoothly.

In general, I haven't found nickel to be any worse than unplated brass except in rifle calibers.

Gear

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I just had a thought...
since these are new cases,
maybe the diameter is on the High side of Spec...or larger.

maybe, you will need to lube every case...again with a small amount.
I lube them the old school way with RCBS case lube on a pad...not overly coated,
and one gentle roll.
Jon

PS. as Gear said, if you're not using Carbide dies, you will certainly have to lube every case

[drinks]

Don't know how the .44 mag. cases will do, but a batch of Rem. .45-70 cases I bought were very hard to size and about 1/2 of them split the neck at the first firing, I have .45-70 brass cases that have had at least 20 uses and have not split yet, so I do not buy nickel plated cases anymore.

[fredj338]

Case lube is your friend.

[firefly1957]

Lube the cases I have never noticed harder effort to resize plated cases if these were new they may have been over specs.. Plated cases do show scratches worse but IO would suggest you clean your resizing die, just a thought I have had crud build up in mine and cause problems.

[ColColt]

These are old dies but really weren't used all that much...maybe 1,000 rounds total since I bought them in the mid to late 70's. I finally broke out my old RCBS lube pad that still had lube on it and that helped tremendously. I only lubed every other case and it did fine. These were brand new cases and I didn't think they'd be that tough to size.

I decided to order a new carbide die just to see if that may help and discovered after the fact that I could have bought an entire set of dies, including the carbide die for that caliber, for the same price! I guess there's no changing that now. I thought $36 was a bit high for a carbide die and looked at the price of an entire set and they were about the same. Alberto VO5...now there's an idea. I'll bet Wildroot would work even better.;)

[Tom W.]

Surprise, surprise, surprise. Nickel plating is not a lubricant as such.

[watkibe]

I bought some nickel plated 44 mag brass for my lever gun loads; then I could tell them apart from the revolver loads in yellow brass.
Some of that nickel plated stuff has really given me fits. IIRC, mostly the cases were slightly creasing when seating a boolit or while crimping. I could run an unplated case through the same press/die set-up and have no problem, and then try it with a plated one, and it would crease. Seemed like it had to be the cases causing the problem, but no way to prove it was the nickel plating.
I finally just put all the silver cases in a plastic bag, and I will figure it out some other rainy day.

[geargnasher]

The Alberto V05 hair dressing contains a percentage of lanolin, with the balance being paraffins and paraffin oils. The Lanolin itself works fine in smaller percentages (like 2-5%) mixed with denatured alcohol, but the hair stuff is cheap, available just about anywhere that has a cosmetics aisle, and works. It also works VERY well when used straight as a case lube pad lubricant, in fact that's all I use for rifle cases anymore. Used to use the RCBS water-based stuff, but I got tired of rusty dies and tarnished cases.

Gear

[Echo]

Plus, there were vertical scratches on the cases.

I don't see this addressed before - scratches indicate your steel dies have been scored, and burrs pulled up, to scratch the cases. Easily fixed with a dowel, ScotchBrite, cutting oil, and fine valve grinding compound (if needed - I haven't need the VG cmpd). Epoxy a tad of ScotchBrite on a 3/8" dowel, add a drop or two of cutting oil, and polish out the interior of the sizing die - before you sell it off after receiving the TC sizer.

And I have reloaded hundreds (thousands?) of nickle cases without your problems. But I lubed them prior to resizing. Some of this was with a steel die before I got a TC sizer.

[jhrosier]

If you are using steel (non-carbide) case sizing dies, every case needs to be clean and lubed before sizing.

If your sizing die is leaving scratches or grooves in the case it is already ruined. Replace it with a carbide sizer. A new Lee die set is probably going to be cheaper than buying just the sizer from RCBS.

Nickled pistol brass is sometimes quite a bit harder to size than plain brass. In my experience, nickled brass that is harder to size generally leads to the nickel separating from the brass after just a few loadings. I've also found that nickeled brass tends to run right at the maximum size and is worked more than plain brass, leading to early failure.

I have a large lot of mixed plated and plain 38 Spl brass. The cases that develop neck splits are almost all plated cases.

I've also heard that the plated cases are hard enough to scratch the inside of non carbide dies but I have not had this problem myself.

The nickeled brass that has lasted longest for me seems to have a very thin coating that will "wear through" with a few trips through the case tumbler.

I got the plated brass for free. I wouldn't buy plated brass if plain brass was available.

Jack

[casterofboolits]

I started reloading (1973) for the 44 Mag with 500 Nickel plated, once fired brass and RCBS steel dies. The cases left some nickel plating in the dies which made vertical scratches in the brass and made them prone to spliting. My Dad did the tool polishing for the tool shop we worked for and I had him polish the dies out and soaked them in penetrating oil.

We did the same with the new RCBS Carbide size die I purchased. I still use a Q-Tip to lightly oil all my carbide size dies when I start reloading.

I learned to clean my cases before reloading them. I still shy away from nickeled cases to this day.

[drinks]

Kiwi mink oil is a good a case lube as I have found, just brush your fingertips over the lube and fondle the cases a bit, re touch the mink oil after 6-8 cases.
I have never had a case stick, even when making wildcat cases using the mink oil.

[ColColt]

As I mentioned these are new cases and didn't need cleaning. The next time I use them they'll spend some time in the Lyman 1200 Tumbler, as I usually do, before put through the dies. It could be that particular size die gave scratches before but since I haven't used them in literally decades, it's sort of hard to recall. At any rate I'm consigning it to the back burner until the carbide dies get here. They're much easier to work with and no sticky fingers.

I never would have bought nickel cases to begin with had I found brass but Midway has them on back order and Graf's didn't have any nor did Midsouth and you can forget trying to find brass 44 Mag cases around here. Cheaper than Dirt didn't even have any and all Sinclair had was Remington bras...not my favorite brand at $30.

[rintinglen]

The Alberto V05 hair dressing contains a percentage of lanolin, with the balance being paraffins and paraffin oils. The Lanolin itself works fine in smaller percentages (like 2-5%) mixed with denatured alcohol, but the hair stuff is cheap, available just about anywhere that has a cosmetics aisle, and works. It also works VERY well when used straight as a case lube pad lubricant, in fact that's all I use for rifle cases anymore. Used to use the RCBS water-based stuff, but I got tired of rusty dies and tarnished cases.

Gear

For those of us of a certain age...
Brylcream--a little dab will do ya.:lol:

[Cowboy T]

I notice this on .45 Colt as well. The nickel-plated cases take a bit more oomph on the press handle during the resizing operation. This is with carbide dies. Nothing to worry about.

[watkibe]

It's hard to imagine why anybody would use steel dies for handgun cartridges anymore. The Lee carbide dies are so cheap and work so well, it's more than worth the few dollars more than buying Lee's steel dies.
The time and hassle of lubing cases is gone forever with carbide !

[Artful]

New cases usually will be harder to size in carbide die and nickel more so in my mind.
smooth new surface has more/better surface tension as more seems to come in contact
- I try not to use nickeled cases as I alway have some left behind in the die.

Imperial sizing wax is probably best besides pure lanolin in my book.

[Harter66]

I just did a batch of both brass and nickled 357 through carb.dies,the .05 was much tougher. In the steel dies all of the 1st 5 then every other for 10 or so ,repeat. Depending on what and all of course. I don't get too excited if its a short neck size,if its more than that lube it all.

[XWrench3]

yep, they are always going to be harder to size. much more friction in a nickle plated case, than a standard brass case. lube them, size them, then wash them in HOT soapy water, rinse them in hotter water, and let them dry. then load as usual.

[Lizard333]

44 mag in a dillon 550b is a pain nickle or not. I find that my bench shakes as well. A little case lube from dillon makes a big difference. Much less than what I use or my rifle brass.

[Cherokee]

I have loaded a bunch of nic 44 mag cases and regular cases, never noticed a difference in my carbide dies. Cases fired will full power loads are usually harder to size. New brass is usually harder to size in my experience, plated or not. YMMV I have lately started using Hornady One Shot for all sizing operations, just makes it go easier. Clean them off in the vib cleaner.

[dnotarianni]

I notice that I get about half the reloads from a nickel case than a brass one before I see splits and that is in a .38 straight wall case. I believe it has a lot to do with the plating process.
dave