hey reloaders, brass or nickle cases?
- Thread starter cephas
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The shinier nickel cases will eventually scratch, even with a carbide sizer. They are nickel plated over brass. Brass will always tarnish, but a tumbler can take care of that.
I have really never given it a second thought. I have/had lots of nickel plated brass over the decades and run it through carbide sizers. Never have noticed any difference as far as case life goes. I always did wonder if a nickel plated case would scratch a steel sizing die if grit got in there, but have never had the opportunity to find out.
I lean towards brass because you can scratch your dies with nickle cases. I tumble my cases prior to reloading so have not had a problem yet with any nickle cases.
If I am ordering once fired cases I would never order nickle because of this however.
If I am ordering once fired cases I would never order nickle because of this however.
I prefer to only neck size the brass for two reasons: prolong life of the casings, and to enhance accuracy because of the brass being fire-formed to the individual chamber. This is where I start getting to my point. My father has a Remington in .243 Win. and I had a Winchester in the same caliber. I used nickel casings only, and he used brass casings only. This way, we did not get them mixed up between rifles, because casings fired in his rifle would not feed in mine due to my rifle having a tighter chamber.
I don't like nickel due to the fact I have to run them thru my dies a couple of times to make sure they actually resize and don't spring back to chamber size.The neck on nickel will crack more often and also won't like trimming as well as brass.Winchester brass is hard also and will not reshape as well as Remington or Federal.IMO FOR RIFLE Federal brass is best for longevity,weight of case closeness and second for resizing ability.Remington is the softest case to work with and forms great with the largest powder holding abilities but stretches the most when fired and will not have a long case life.Handgun brass Star-line rules then Remington with federal running a close second also with Winchester bringing up the rear...I load may-be 3-4000 differents loads a year for both handgun and rifle
I have noted that nickle cases split after far fewer reloadings than brass. They stay cleaner and don't have to be tumbled as much on the other hand.
Thanks for the input. After checking around a bit, it seems one reason nickel cases are used is that they have less of a reaction over time than brass when carried in leather belts. I've seen cautions yellow brass may turn the leather green, and if left in wet may fuse with the belt. Have a good one.
The advertising for the nickel plated rounds says "it chambers easier and reaction to the elements are nill"This I find somewhat truthfull and a falicy.If you take ordinary brass cases and nickel plate them (which is what the big ammo companies do)you change the tolerences of that ammo.We had a fellow buy Federal Safari ammo for his Ruger No.1 Tropical (falling block)in .375 H&H and there was NO WAY it would chamber unless he took fine sandpaper and sanded off the nickel plating from the rear of the cartridge.That is how tight his chamber was in that rifle.That minute amount of nickel plating made the cartridge jam when he tried to lift the lever for his block to lock!Nickel will not crimp well ,on lets say a 30-30 reload ,or a firearm thats rough on cases like a semi-auto (M1 Garands' are brutal on cases)
and has a tendency of pushing bullets back if a crimp cannot be done properly.IMO if you want to buy nickel loaded factory ammo and use it on a hunt, but don't care about the reloadability, go ahead.Just make sure there are no function problems with your particular firearm BEFORE you go into the field.If you still use leather (other than for show)while hunting ,with all the cordura accessories out there ,then you should re-think about what makes sense in the weather.
and has a tendency of pushing bullets back if a crimp cannot be done properly.IMO if you want to buy nickel loaded factory ammo and use it on a hunt, but don't care about the reloadability, go ahead.Just make sure there are no function problems with your particular firearm BEFORE you go into the field.If you still use leather (other than for show)while hunting ,with all the cordura accessories out there ,then you should re-think about what makes sense in the weather.
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