Nickel brass life??

[pull the trigger]

I do not know where to post this, but, does the nickel plating affect the life span of brass? Can it be reannealed? I can not say enough how much i appreciate the knowledge and help on this site!! THANKS!!!

[Love Life]

Some say yes, some say no. I have a few pieces of Starline 454 Casull nickel brass that is on it's 9th reload running spooky amounts of 2400 underneath a 255 gr RNFP.

[snuffy]

This is one of the most controversial subjects on any shooting/reloading forum. Some say it's sooooooo hard it'll ruin your dies, even carbides!:killingpc Or so hard it'll dull trim cutters. Then there's those that claim it "flakes" off to travel down the barrel ruining the rifling.

For one thing, it's a coating now, of low phosphorus nickle, so it's not hard, and not a layer! It used to be electroplated nickle. It's now electroless nickle coating.

The sole purpose for it was and is, corrosion resistance. At first it was for cops in duty rigs made of tanned leather. The belt loops would turn plain brass green in short order.

As for whether you can anneal the neck of a bottle neck case, you certainly can, you just won't get the color change you would normally see on plain brass cases.

[Bonz]

Love the look of nickel plated cases but the nickel does eventually crack & peel. Also, you should not wash/wet tumble nickel cases & brass cases together, ruins their color ;-)

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

In my experience, the difference is slight as far as case life. You may get a few extra loadings out of a brass case, you may not. The ONLY significant difference that I have experienced is that when nickel cases do crack, the cracks seem to be longer i.e. with 38 special cases I have found that when the case mouth splits in brass cases the crack will usually be 2-3 mm and with nickel cases it is often around 8-10 mm, of course that is simply my experience, and in either situation the case has cracked and is no longer useful.

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

Oh and if you use the citric acid cleaner found in one of the stickies, don't clean them together, the citric acid will leave a pinkish brass plating on your nickel cases.

[mdi]

FWIW; I have some .38 Special and 357 Magnum nickel plated brass that I have been reloading since '87. Some have the nickel worn enough that the brass shows through (I have about 1,500 38s that I've been reloading, so I have no idea how many times these nickel plated cases have been reloaded). No different treatment, nickel and plain cases loaded the same. I even have a few 357 Magnum cases that have been loaded pretty hot with heavy roll crimps; no splits, no flaking, no wear any more than plain brass..

[runfiverun]

I find the nickel cases split early on in their life.
the ones that don't split keep on going just like regular cases.

[FLINTNFIRE]

Load it shoot it , when it wears out pitch it in recycle tub, have cleaned them both together in citric wash and then tumbled , came out fine , have very little in rifle sizes and that only from range pick up.
In 38 special and 357 I have noticed some flaking in the stuff I had 20 years ago , as to splitting it does seem to have a longer crack when it does more so then the brass , have not noticed any flaking in my newer stuff.

[rintinglen]

I Think that the nickle cases split sooner, but I have a few left that have been loaded lord only knows how many times that I've had since the 70's that are still going strong. I don't trouble myself about it. I will say that I have never had a problem with my dies resulting from reloading nickled cases, and my old Lyman TC sizer has loaded over 100,000 rounds, with maybe a 4th of them nickle.

[abqcaster]

My experience has been that I've had a few more nickle cases cracked than brass for .357 mag. I've also had nickle cases that have worn down to the brass. The nickle sizes more easily in my dies, and seems slicker. YMMV...

[ku4hx]

For me, the greatest assault on handgun case life has been case flaring and crimping. Too much of either and necks seem to split a lot sooner. That's with 44 Magnum and 357 Magnum. I've never seen a split neck in 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP or 10mm that I recall. Maybe I've been lucky.

About 12 years ago, a buddy and I bought once fired 40 S&W brass from the salvage department at our nuc plant. Security officers practiced a lot and we each bought about 10,000 cases. All were nickel plated and about 90% 40; 10% 38 Special. I've had no flaking, no cracking and essentially no problems. Maybe I was just lucky.

I've found no difference in case life between nickel and non nickel.

[fecmech]

I think it may depend somewhat on caliber and the pressure the case is operated at. I'm speaking of cases from the 60's through the 80's and their plating process, whatever it was. The .38 spl nickle cases of that era did not last anywhere near as long as brass cases did. A friend was a commercial reloader loading in excess of a million rds per year. His scrap bucket of cracked brass was 90% nickle brass in .38 spl. My own experience was similar. OTOH all my .357 mag brass was nickle and the only way I lost cases was small neck splits same as brass .38 spl, never the full length case crack like .38's. Almost all of my .45 was brass so I can't comment there. I wonder why cases operating at 30K+ psi don't crack as much as cases in the 10-12KPSI range do.

[427smith]

never had many nickel brass. had some in 44 mag about 15 years ago. as memory serves some of it cracked on the first reload. I could here it CRACK in the sizing die. but still got some that's been loaded at least 20 times. Most of my throwaways are split at the mouth but the nickeled cases split down the side. all I can say is I've avoided them for years.

[Blammer]

I shoot an clean an reload it until it's a brass case. :)

[Stonecrusher]

Never noticed much difference with pistol brass whether nickel or not. As for rifle brass I avoid nickel plate like the plague. Never had good luck with it as it always seemed to flake inside the case neck.

[Steelbanger]

I use some nickel plated cases in 30-06 and often wonder whether I would be able to see signs of incipient head separation on them. While the brass beneath the surface surely would I have no idea what to look for on these nickel cases. Of course there is always the wire feeler to check from inside.