Nickel?

When I 1st started loading, all my 357 Magnum stuff was nickel cases... they load fine, but I started deeply scratching cases on a new set of dies, before 2 years...

... that was long ago, still have some 44 Mag cases that have had the nickel polished off them over the years, from multiple cob media tumbling...

... now I wet tumble, & I don't like wet tumbling nickel cases, as mine have a tendancy to pick up that black chrome look... so most of my nickel has been replaced with new brass over the years
 
Mr. Watts, just for my info.; what damage was done to your dies? What caliber were the damaged dies, and which particular die in the set was damaged?
 
Gritty cases will damage dies. It doesn't matter if the cases are aluminum, brass or nickel plated. I too have a damaged die and it did put these striations in my brass. I cleaned the die up and dressed it with some fine emery cloth and that ended the striations. Yes I havened to be using nickel plated brass at the time but the cases were a bit gritty so the situation was caused by me which is what I suspect was the case with some of you also.

My carry ammunition is done in nickel plated cases if I have it to prevent tarnishing.

mikld
Think about it and the steps used in reloading......the die that will get damaged is the sizeing die.
 
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Nickle embedded in a 30/06 RCBS sizing die..

The nickel flaked off and to some degree embedded in the die, whoever inspected the die knew it had been used on nickel cases plus knew what to look for. What happened to my 30/06 resizing die is not an unusual occurrence and happens quite often. Many of the dies I have are 30 or more years old, all were purchased new, dies are durable and if taken care will last a lifetime.. I always tumble my cases before sizing plus tumble a 2nd time to remove the sizing lubricant before loading, additionally I chamfer the case mouth & uniform all primer pockets before priming and loading. William
 
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My gal bought me a single stage press with some Lee's dies. I know steel isn't worth it, but didn't know what more seasoned reloaders thought of nickel.
 
I am not a metallurgist nor am I an engineer but I don't see how that very thin, soft nickel plating can hurt reloading dies? could be, I just don't see how. As far as annealing hardens the nickel plating to the hardness of steel, I will have to say " I don't think so ", just because someone says it on the internet doesn't make it true. I always reloaded nickel plated brass the same as my brass shells, perhaps others have had problems, I never have, in fact I use the nickel plated brass for my " Hot " loads so I can readily identified them by sight. Don't know, I don't doubt that others have had problems, I'm just saying send me all the nickel plated brass you don't want. In the 30 years that I've been reloading I have never had any problems. Maybe I've been doing it all wrong. :)
 
Curiously, I've never seen a warning or instruction on any reloading die that ever gave any warning about nickel plated brass. If nickel brass was an issue, you would think they would include a warning, especially on 357 dies, where nickel is almost as common as brass. I can't imagine nickel cases voiding an RCBS warranty, without any such warning.

Has anyone ever asked Lee or Lyman, or Hornady about nickel cases with their dies?
 
In fifty years I have never heard a whisper about nickel brass harming dies, and I likewise have never heard of anyone using rifle brass with nickel more than a few times. I'm dumbfounded.

Nickel brass has a few quirks, including a slightly shorter life span. It is usually only used in handguns. It is possible that chemicals used in the plating process weakens it. Regardless, I would choose not to reload plated rifle brass since I have some experience with pistol brass s splitting.

You will be loading .40. You will be using carbide dies. Carbide is cut with diamond tools, cutting or scratching carbide with any combination of brass or nickel will not happen. Nickel and brass will both come in at approximately 4-5 on the moths scale. TC is 9. Use your brass as long as it lasts then recycle it. If it didn't work, it wouldn't be used.
 
Right on to the above; nickel plated rifle brass does have a short life span compared to brass, but in my case it is always split necks. But sometimes with me I've only been able to get the plated for some belted mag calibers. But they do polish up nicely after firing, tumbling almost not needed. Somewhat more force required during sizing, apparently due to thicker case walls.
 
Is nickel rifle brass still available? I know that I've seen it in the past on super premium rifle rounds, and a few times I have seen African rounds in nickel. I can see someone buying a box of Rigby loads in nickel, as they might have a whole lot of travel and not a lot of using.
 
Yes some nickel plated rifle brass calibers are still available, mostly Remingtons and some Starlines. My usage has been mostly .300 Win mags, .416 Rem mags and .45-70s. Split necks after just a few firings are common with the .416s but hardly any, maybe even none yet, with the other two. I've received them from Graf and Midway. My most recent Midway catalog, which isn't real recent, lists quite a few plated calibers.
 
Anyone that has split necks in nickel cases for .30-06, .308 and such just save them up as one of us that has a .44 Auto Mag could surely find a use for them.
 
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