The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

noylj · July 17, 2010, 01:10 PM

Purely the results of over 30 years reloading:
I do not reload nickel brass. Why?
1) The nickel does flake off and will embed in steel resizing dies. Solution: use them new carbide resizing dies.
2) The nickel still flakes off and sticks to the carbide ring. Solution: watch your cases for signs of scratches/striations. Then clean your die, again. Go back to reloading until your brass starts to show scratches/striations again. Then clean you die, again. Repeat as needed. Also, notice that you are cleaning you Lee FCD frequently too (unless you like the looks of the those racing stripes on your cases).
3) Go to the range and shoot about 100 rounds of brass and nickel plated cases. You will notice after a few trips that you are discarding maybe 2-5 nickel plated cases after each outing for cracks in the case body or splits at the case mouth. You don't seem to be losing any of your brass cases.
4) Package up all your nickel plated cases and sell to someone who loves the shiny silver look. Be sure to tell them all about the corrosion resistance of the nickel cases and how pretty they polish up.
5) Take the proceeds from the sale and buy more brass cases.

July 17, 2010, 01:10 PM	#17
noylj Senior Member Join Date: October 22, 2007 Location: Between CA and NM Posts: 860	Nickel plated brass Purely the results of over 30 years reloading: I do not reload nickel brass. Why? 1) The nickel does flake off and will embed in steel resizing dies. Solution: use them new carbide resizing dies. 2) The nickel still flakes off and sticks to the carbide ring. Solution: watch your cases for signs of scratches/striations. Then clean your die, again. Go back to reloading until your brass starts to show scratches/striations again. Then clean you die, again. Repeat as needed. Also, notice that you are cleaning you Lee FCD frequently too (unless you like the looks of the those racing stripes on your cases). 3) Go to the range and shoot about 100 rounds of brass and nickel plated cases. You will notice after a few trips that you are discarding maybe 2-5 nickel plated cases after each outing for cracks in the case body or splits at the case mouth. You don't seem to be losing any of your brass cases. 4) Package up all your nickel plated cases and sell to someone who loves the shiny silver look. Be sure to tell them all about the corrosion resistance of the nickel cases and how pretty they polish up. 5) Take the proceeds from the sale and buy more brass cases.