Nickel Brass

I’ve tumbled both nickel and non-plated brass. I haven’t run into any issues with nickel brass in particular. Did it have something to do with the nickel reacting with the stainless steel? If so, you may avoid that by removing your brass from the tumbler when it’s finished. I can’t see the cases getting discoloured over the course of a two-hour tumble session—unless it has something to do with the pH of your wash.

The only trouble I run into is when my wet tumbling wash is too far from a neutral pH. Recently, I’ve taken to doing a preliminary wash with a heavy degreaser, which I’ll let run for 20mins-ish. I’ll dump that water and flush with clean water. I’ll then let the brass tumble with a little Dawn detergent for a few hours. It has really helped with case discolouration caused by the dark oily film that seemed to be plaguing my brass.
 
Here is another long - time handloader that does not use nickle plated brass at all.
It simply goes in the recycle bin when some ends up in my hands. Dave.
 
careful inspection of brass is important, beyond that however is some indication that the nickel plating makes the brass harder and more brittle. This would be the reason for neck splitting and cracking sooner than plain brass. I found that nickel .38 special cases did fail sooner than brass ones, I was loading for competition with a light loading and wad cutter bullets. I would get only 5 to 8 reloads on nickel plated and 10 to 20 with brass.
 
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I have an 8mm-06 rifle and use nickle plated 30-06 brass to load for it. If I have nickle plated brass loaded, it will be 8mm-06, simple as that.
 
B said:
Only if you didn't bother inspecting it first. If it is flaking and you run it through your dies that's your own dumb mistake. In thousand upon thousands of nickel plated rifle cases I have yet to scratch or otherwise damage anything.
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Excellent.
 
I am not a fan of nickel brass. I segregate it until I find a use for it.

One use is a way to identify "special" ammo. If I have practice ammo and also "hunting" ammo, I might use the nickel for the hunting ammo, since reloading is not an issue. The brass will probably get lost, but it is a way to identify the ammo loaded with the expensive Nosler partitions, etc.

And I have ammo in wildcat calibers, where the headsptamp is no longer accurate. My 8mm Mauser ammo, for example, is all made from 7mm brass. (I have many 7mm rifles, but only 1 8mm, so I segregate the nickel brass and use it for 8mm.)

And ALL my 280 brass is nickel brass so I don't mistake it for 270. They look the same.
 
B said:
I like nickel too. Never had a major issue but the necks do seem to split a lot sooner. Using too much lemishine in a SS tumbler will also turn them a weird black tarnished color.
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In pistol ammo, 0 issues with nickle plated brass; seems to last just as long, and is not harder to run through the press.
 
Meroh said:
In pistol ammo, 0 issues with nickle plated brass; seems to last just as long, and is not harder to run through the press.
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I've had nickel plated 38 Spec brass that was reloaded so many times, the plating was wearing thin. No issues with it otherwise.
 
time4t said:
Have used thousands of nickel plated brass and experienced no significant problems with them. They don't last quite as long, and do better with neck sizing. Any whose plating starts to peel or break hit the bin.
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I hope you're trying to be funny because those sound like problems to me.
 
My first experience many years ago with nickle plated brass was bad.
I had ordered 100x 300wby brass, and a set of dies.
The order came , the brass was nickle.
Before I knew it, I had scored up the neck sizing pin to the degree the neck was no longer opened enough to accept the projectile easily.
I do however use it almost exclusively in 38/357 reloading now.
That's my "nickels" worth, since we don't have pennies now.
 
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