Reloading some Federal cases for my .375. Have both nickel plated and brass. Is there a difference in regards to reloading these cases??

No.

In general the answer is - no do not reload nickle plated cases. They are extremely hard to resize. The problem is they can become brittle and the nickle can chip off damaging the die. However, I have decided once that I am going to take the chance. I bought a full length Foster die and used Imperial lube in the resizing process. The Foster Die had handled the resizing with ease and I would just monitor the condition of the nickle plating. If I can get 2 reloads out of it, I have scored. I just cannot throw them in the dust bin!

I've never had any trouble resizing and reloading nickel plated cases.....and actually prefer them as they are much easier to keep clean.

I have not loaded a lot of them but the ones I have I have had no trouble with them.

The nickle usually flakes off at the mouth of
the case. Avery light outside champher seems
to fix that. The great advantage of nickle is
you can find them in the grass.

"In general the answer is - no do not reload nickel plated cases"????
I have never heard of that and routinely reload lots of them; many thousands of 44 mags and 357s testify to that 45-70; more. I have no problems with them except as stated, sometimes the nickel flakes off.
My original answer stands; load them as you would brass.

I use them same as brass when I find them or someone gives them to me. I don't buy them as I don't believe the cost is justifiable.

+1
I have loaded 1000's of nickel cases and never had to do anything different with them.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
"In general the answer is - no do not reload nickel plated cases"????
I have never heard of that and routinely reload lots of them; many thousands of 44 mags and 357s testify to that 45-70; more. I have no problems with them except as stated, sometimes the nickel flakes off.
My original answer stands; load them as you would brass.

I have sized and loaded a lot of .375 and 6mm Rem cases.

They are harder to size because the nickel has more friction. I made sure my brass was super clean to protect my die. I also used a spare sizer in case there was a tendency to scratch my dies. I had not problems with scratching.

However the inside of the neck is very frosted and produces a lot of friction and grabbing when the bullet is seated. When you pull a bullet it is really scuffed up by the nickle case.

If I had a lot more nickel cases I would buy a carbide expander ball to burnish the inside of the case necks.

And yeah I have loaded and shot a lot of nickeled revolver cases.

quote:

And yeah I have loaded and shot a lot of nickeled revolver cases

Was just thinking rifle cases but I too have load tens of thousands of nickeled pistol cases

I have shot some federal .375 cases 5 times without issues.

They are now in the practice only pile, just because I have used them that much, but they still work fine.

Lots of Imperial sizing lube and making sure they are clean each time helps. I have been loading them on the higher side- 300 grains at 2500 FPS, so they are pretty durable. Strangely, some factory winchester stuff split necks after 2-3 loadings, so the Federal stuff seems to be pretty good.

I use nickel-plated 223 cases for my 6x45mm reloading, color-codes the cases so I don't put them in a Mini-14...

I love nickel cases and use them in every caliber in which I've been able to come by some. If someone is able to damage a die with a nickel case then they have a butter-soft die since nickel is considerably softer than tool steel.

One brand -- Remington -- has marketed some nickel cases which are inexplicably rough on the insides of the necks. This is not true of all Remington nickel cases, but I had one batch of 7mm Rem Mag which exhibited this phenomenon. I successfully honed that batch of cases with a patch of steel wool wrapped around a bore brush chucked in a power drill. I have not found any rough necks on any brand of nickel case other than Remington. I have a batch of 200 nickel Rem. .222 cases that have cycled through a dozen or more trips to the prairie dog town and are still going strong. I use nickel exclusively in a .270 (Remington brand), extensively in .30-06 and .22-250 (also Remington), and am changing over to them in .308 (Winchester). I latched onto a nice supply of Federal Match nickel brass in .222 which I'm holding in reserve.

Nickel cases do tend to be stiffer than unplated cases and thus go through the sizing process with a bit more resistance. However, unless I am using cases fired in a different gun, I usually neck size with a Lee Collet die, which handles nickel cases without a problem. For that matter, full length sizing nickel cases is no problem -- and the greater resistance seems to come from case stiffness, not greater friction from the nickel plating. In fact, the nickel plating is, if anything, slicker than unplated brass.

Nearly forgot -- I necked down some Federal nickel .308's to .243 in a single stroke and they exhibited no flaking or other problems, and I didn't lose a single case in the process. Anyone who has reformed brass to this degree knows that if there were any real problem in resizing that it would show up in this process big-time.

Funny, but many of the same guys who refuse to load nickel rifle cases at the same time load virtually nothing but nickel pistol cases. They seem not to have much in the way of answers when asked the difference.

My experience is with pistol cartridges.

The 357 and 45 colt cases tend to split at the mouth from heavy crimping in just a few reloads. Using H110 loaded near maximum I have to crimp heavy to keep the bullets in place and the plated cases are brittle enough that they will split. I en up cutting them down for 38 special brass and they last a few more loads and then they have to be tossed.
I much prefer brass cases just because they last so much longer.