Nickle Plated 30-30 Brass?? Headstamp W "76" W

[Foto Joe]

I picked up a hundred or so pieces of 30-30 brass from a friend last nite and in the bag were probably a dozen or so nickle plated ones. The headstamp says W"76"W so I'll assume that these were a product that Winchester Western produced nearly forty years ago for the bicentennial celebration. I'm quite sure that all of the brass has been full length sized and reloaded at least a few times. I don't sweat nickle plated handgun brass at all but are there any quirks or issues with reloading nickle plated rifle brass??

[Shiloh]

I used some nickel in a .223 bolt gun. No issues with it. I used it because it cleaned up in the tumbler very fast. In revolvers, it seems that the nickel brass is the first to split.

Shiloh

[runfiverun]

they did some memorial bi-centennial ammo runs back then.
I believe they done some john wayne boxes of ammo in nickel too about that same time,
I vaguely remember him standing to the side holding up a model 94 on the box face.

[geargnasher]

Remington nickel tends to run thin in the necks and splits from working the case mouths after a few loads, other than that, no issues and it sure is purty.

Gear

[cbrick]

Winchester did a 76 commemorative model 94 and a box of the same head stamped ammo came with it. In all probability that's the brass you have. Load it & shoot it or keep it as collector's item. Shame ya didn't get the rifle too. :mrgreen:

Rick

[milrifle]

I have several pieces of that brass and one box with a single unfired round. I haven't loaded any nickel plated cases since I read it was hard on reloading dies. Maybe it's not? I don't have enough of it to make much difference one way or the other.

[lightman]

I have an unfired box of that stuff. It was a Bi-centennial thing. I remember buying it because it was on sale.

[BCB]

Remington nickel tends to run thin in the necks and splits from working the case mouths after a few loads, other than that, no issues and it sure is purty.

Gear

Yep, I have discovered that also...

As far as sizing, I never seemed to have any trouble with it scratching/ruining dies...

After you use it several times and full-length size it, the nickle coating will start to be removed and the brass will start to be seen...

I have reloaded it a dozen times. I was only neck-sizing and shooting 4.5 grains of bullseye under a Lee C309-150-F. Maybe that is why I got good life from it...

On the other side of the coin, I fire-formed some of it to 7-30 Waters and was shooting moderate loads in them. They didn't do well at all...

Good-luck...BCB

[blackthorn]

I have loaded the same 20 shiny, silver colored cases for my son's 30-06 five times (so far) with no problems. The load used is 54gr of IMR 4350 under a 180gr Nosler partition, used for hunting Moose etc. Works for me!

[beagle]

I have several of those cases as well. Loading .38/.357 cases in steel dies will scratch over time and will even cause a buildup in carbide sizers which can be polished out with a wooden dowel. I have a bunch of nickel plated 06 brass and have loaded it several times and wipe down the necks with bronze wool before resizing and so far, no problems./beagle