troubles with Nickle brass.....

[steve750]

Hey guys... I am new to reloading and have a few pieces of winchester nickle brass for my .300 WM. Last night I was trying to trim a few cases and realised that thay are as hard steel...

I have a Redding case trimming lathe and had to push very hard to get it to cut, when it did cut the case got stuck on the pilot and I had to pry it off two out of two times.. I used smaller pilot and it just made a mess of the casing. Is this normal for nickle brass???

thanks.... steve

 

[RePete]

Nickle is only a coating to stop the ammo from tarnishing.

It is harder than brass but your cutter may be dull. Get yourself a carbide cutter for it or don't use the plated brass.

 

[joe-nwt]

You can definitely feel the difference when trimming nickel brass. That being said, I've not encountered all the problems you have while trimming. I'm using a Forster trimmer, perhaps something is slightly different in the Redding setup?

 

[Boomer]

I avoid nickeled brass as if were the plague. What I dislike is the inconsistent bullet pull weights I have experienced. One bullet will be tight in the neck, the next you can turn with your fingers. This might be part of your trimming problem; the resized brass is springing back to the size it was squeezed down to after the expander ball passed through it. Perhaps try an expander ball one size larger, or get a Sinclair Neck Turning Expander Mandrel.

 

[carbonrod]

Nickle brass is awesome for m14s, and other hard use rifles. Wears out your cutter quicker, but you don't have to do it as often, and the impacts from the ejection are minimized.