Nickel Plated Brass Help, Opinions

[JC5123]

I have about 300 rds of Nickel Plated brass for .308 that I got a few years ago when components were near impossible to get. I've heard that it can be damaging to equipment (both weapon and reloading dies) due to the fact that it is a harder metal than straight brass. Does anyone here know much about nickel plated stuff or am I just being paranoid?

[GASPASSERDELUXE]

I had some 300 Win Mag nickle plated I was resizing. I was useing the Lee collet neck sizer.  The rod that went down into the case and deprimed it had deep scratches the full lenght of it. Pissed me off.  Sent the brass along with a nasty gram complaining about the damage to my die. Eventually they refunded my money and i got a replacement part for my die.

[jaybet]

I reload nickle plated all the time, but for pistol. That's less complicated and they usually slide right on and off the dies. Rifle rounds might be a different story.

[JC5123]

I haven't had a problem with them....YET. Though I've only loaded 100. I was just wondering if you guys had any experience with reloading them, and whether or not you saw any truth to them being harder on equipment.

[ellis4538]

Bench rest shooters luv nb and you know how fussy they are!

Richard

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

With pistol cases I haven't notice any particular difference in reloading or in case life over regular brass.

But then that's not rifle cases.   

I'm curious though GasPasser how the depriming/expander rod had scratches the full length.   Maybe the Lee die is different?    Or did you mean the full length of the expander plug not the whole rod?

[GASPASSERDELUXE]

I'm curious though GasPasser how the depriming/expander rod had scratches the full length.   Maybe the Lee die is different?    Or did you mean the full length of the expander plug not the whole rod?





There were some slight deposits/buildup inside the the case mouth which was enought to cut gouges in the expander rod when i was sizing the cases. I suppose on after thought should have reamed the inside of the case mouth to remove them.  Hindsight is wonderful.

[TAB]

Atleast it was a cheap part.

[MikeBjerum]

That is the nice thing about RCBS (I'm sure other companies will be similar), if your nickel plated brass scratches your die you get a new die free.  Good customer service!

We run nickel through our press all the time with no issues.  I also shoot a lot of nickel in rifles, because the high end hunting rounds are often nickel plated.  I have never had an issue with any of it.  In SASS there are many people reloading the nickel plated .45LC and .38spl and running it through their lever action rifles with no problem.

My point after all of this is to treat it just like any other brass.