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?
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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?
Just need to clean them real good. They will eventually give you some losses to case mouth splits, as you can't anneal them.
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.
Watch for chips at the case mouth.They will sure cause long grooves in dies.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Postell
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chill Wills
I anneal 308 and 300 WM cases all the time. It worked for me.