Nickel cases and black powder?

[19Rams]

What does experience say about using nickel cases with black powder? Will the cases fail after fewer loadings? Any issues with sizing? Or are there any problems at all?

[Don McDowell]

Just need to clean them real good. They will eventually give you some losses to case mouth splits, as you can't anneal them.

[hpbear101]

I use nickel cases in 45-70 and 45 Colt to I.D. my BP cases. I just treat them as any other BP case, give them a good wash and they are good to go. I have a large mouth gallon jug I fill with water and a little dish soap, I decap and toss my brass in there to wash.

[Tom Trevor]

Watch for chips at the case mouth.They will sure cause long grooves in dies.

[Chill Wills]

I have some 45-70 nickel cases and would agree with everything above. My cases saw repeated use but cracked long before the regular brass cases with a similar number of reloadings. They work fine but I would not buy any again unless it was all I could get. In these times of shortages, we might have to take what we can get.

[Postell]

I run my nickel 45-70 and 90 cases through my Annealeez, like I do brass cases.

[Chill Wills]

I run my nickel 45-70 and 90 cases through my Annealeez, like I do brass cases.

Yeah, I never tried but when Don said you can't, "as you can't anneal them" I just shrugged. I didn't know. I never anneal much of anything and my brass 45-70's get shot almost every month for more than 20 years. I guess I got my money's worth out of them years ago.

[Dave H]

I too have been shooting 45/70 nickel plated cases for years in my single shot guns I don't have any idea how many times they have been used with black powder no crimp just push the bullet tip in by hand when fired immediately submerged in a container filled with water and dish detergent.

[Don McDowell]

Doesn't seem like the nickel plated cases take the annealing as well as the brass cases. So its sort of a why bother thing, and I don't think it's very good on the nickel plating.
I have quite a number of the rp nickel plated 45-70 that the nickel has worn of the base and now they're sort of two tone but they shoot just fine, non annealed, but occasionally one will get a small split in the case mouth.

[martinibelgian]

I cleaning my nickeled cases in the ultrasonic cleaner, anneal after every shooting . The nickel just wears off with the citric acid solution over time, no flaking.

[Deadeye Bly]

I've been shooting some nickel cases in a 40/65 since 1996. I've lost a few due to cracked necks, more than my all brass cases. I only neck size just enough to hold the bullets securely. Yes, they can be annealed and I've done them quite a few times. The nickel wears off some by the ceramic media but they are still OK. In fact, I bought some more last year.

[Postell]

Yeah, I never tried but when Don said you can't, "as you can't anneal them" I just shrugged. I didn't know. I never anneal much of anything and my brass 45-70's get shot almost every month for more than 20 years. I guess I got my money's worth out of them years ago.

I was told long ago that I couldn't form 17 Squirrel cases from nickle 22 Hornet brass. Out of a hundred cases I lost about 15 or so until I figured it out. I started annealing between each form and my losses went into maybe one in twenty.
I anneal 308 and 300 WM cases all the time. It worked for me.