Maybe a strange question...

[Ithaca Gunner]

I never gave this any thought. Does anyone here anneal nickle plated brass? I've never done it, I anneal most all my rifle brass, but never had enough nickle plated rifle brass to even think about it before. Well, now I do, probably over 100 nickle plated cases in .338 Winchester Magnum. Is it even a good idea to anneal them? Same method?

[Winger Ed.]

I'm not sure if it was my imagination, or a coincidence but one time I sized a handful of Nickel plated .270s.
After that, the die was scratched inside enough to transfer the print of them onto brass colored brass.
A couple looked deep enough to maybe cause a split.
The die was basically ruined.

In the cases I scrounge, I don't encounter many Nickel ones, but now I'm a little gun shy of them.

[wilecoyote]

that's not a coincidence, but the consequence of some tiny plating specks going around and scratching the die.
this can happen even more often if the case necks are trimmed

[Hick]

Good question. I've noticed that the small amounts of nickle brass I have found seem to split sooner than straight brass. I have a gut feeling that nickle brass age hardens faster (but I've never researched it)-- so annealing nickle brass is probably a good idea, but I've never tried it.

[Bazoo]

I am interested as I’m about to foray into a handful of nickel 30-30 cases.

I think a scratched die could be polished back out. I should have kept my spare die just for nickel cases, dern.

[ulav8r]

The only nickel plated cases I ever bought came from J&G Sales. They were 30-30, supposedly once fired. They showed signs of very high pressure, apparently they were proof rounds. I loaded them with a very light load of Unique under a cast bullet, with the intent of discarding them after one firing. That was about 1977 and I have not bought anything from J&G since then.

[Bazoo]

I have 20 nickel once fired federal from a friend. I’m thinking they would be swell for my belt slide.

[LeonardC]

In my early days of reloading I bought and reloaded Win. .357 nickel brass. Small bits of the nickel would flake off and scratch the brass for a long time after I quit using the nickel brass. I have a little bit of nickel brass stashed away, but I don't reload it. Like Bazoo I think it would be good for rounds that are carried in the weather but I just can't bring myself to load any of it.

I have some .500 S&W brass from Star-Line that is Black Oxide. Some day I'll get brave and give it a try.

Edit: I never ran nickel brass through a carbide die. Better Worse? I don't know what would happen.

[gunther]

PIstol caliber nickel cases don't last as long as brass. But they're easier to find in the grass. Ask any cowboy action shooter. The nickel plated rifle brass I've found has been so hard it was a bear to size, so it got put out of sight, and out of mind. There might be a use for it some day, but I haven't found it yet.

[Texas by God]

When Midway sold Remington nickel rifle brass, I bought twenty each of 22-250, .250 Savage, .243, and 25-06 for hunting loads. As said above- easier to find on the ground.
This was around the mid 1980s. It wasn't long before the necks cracked after a half dozen hot loadings. Only about 8 .250 Savage brass are still with me.
They seem to be more brittle than plain brass.
I've had no trouble with nickel plated pistol brass at all.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[Harter66]

The plating process makes them harder .

I did some once maybe doubled the life of 38s but it was old brass then and it went maybe 6 loads instead of 3-4 .

I've never had enough nickled rifle brass to give it any trial .

It's nickle based chrome so it's as hard as the steel dies , but should be slicker .

[Bent Ramrod]

I annealed some nickel plated Starline .44-40 brass, but haven’t used it yet. No color change, so I just gave it the same time in the flame as I do brass cases and let it go at that.

I’ll use them for black powder loads when my semi-balloonhead cases finally wear out. Which they’re doing at a rapid rate.

I do notice that nickel cases in general are more brittle than brass ones, and the nickel plating does flake off and stick in sizing dies. This experience using .38 Special range pickups. I put the sizing die in my lathe chuck and polish it out with a piece of crocus cloth when necessary.

The supreme virtue of nickel-plated cases is corrosion resistance. You get a little more forgiveness if you have to delay your session of washing out black powder fouling. Also, they resist the tannins used in leather processing. That 12-loop section in the back of your SWAT Team leather belt will hold the same 12 nickeled cartridges indefinitely, whereas brass cases will have green goo on them after a few weeks’ contact.

[pacomdiver]

i had a batch of 500 Winchester nickel 308s when we shot long range Tactical competition. they sized fine and actually felt like they fed better (smoother) in the rifles. they were loaded at least 7 times and never annealed them . i used some Winchester 300 mag cases too, but never had enough to satisfy my needs (only abt 100). i also used some of the 5.56 Nickel Lake City cases in test loads but decided i didnt like losing them in the grass and i didnt have a readily available resupply source for them

[MarkP]

Yes you can anneal nickel plated cartridge cases. I have annealed nickel 300 Wby, 308, and annealed 357's to make 256 Win Mags. I use nickel cases in 243 for hunting loads to distinguish from varmint loads.

[georgerkahn]

I never gave this any thought. Does anyone here anneal nickle plated brass? I've never done it, I anneal most all my rifle brass, but never had enough nickle plated rifle brass to even think about it before. Well, now I do, probably over 100 nickle plated cases in .338 Winchester Magnum. Is it even a good idea to anneal them? Same method?

My "nickle" experiences have soley been with .38 S&W Special, .467 Mag., and .45 ACP handgun cases -- three calibres I do not anneal for. However, the chemical properties of the nickel are soooo different from brass, I would find it hard to see a benefit. While the plated cases, 'specially when new -- look so pretty, and have the promise of limited/no corrosion -- my wee experiences have led me to stay away from them. I so concur with post re the nickel cases appearing to split sooner than unplated brass; and -- 'specially from trimming -- I do not like the cut-off.
My opine...
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