Can I use 22 Hornet Nickeled Brass in a 22 K-Hornet chamber without any issues?

I would like to know if the Nickel Plating on the brass chips, flakes, expands, rubs off or becomes otherwise unsightly in the fireforming process?

Does the harder Nickel Plating also cause any expansion issues or would standard brass cases give a better fireform?

Thanks.

Greetings from Seattle sir, I've had the K-Hornet now 13 years in a T/C pistol and carbine version, have loaded thousands of cases both brass and nicke, but although I encountered none of the problems you may have expected, I did deload several hundreds of regular Hornet cases destined for fireforming and found all bullet bases scrathed from nickel plated brass and none from regular brass. Probably might matter somewhat if this were a benchrest cartridge but it is not.....right now, both are good but just to be on safe side I would stay with just plain brass (Ray/Munich 1955-58)

Yo Ray,

Thanks for sharing your 22 K-Hornet Nickel/plain brass expereince with me.

I'm in the process of building a T/C Encore in .22 K-Hornet to do Battle here locally in a very specialized form of Shooting competition, DJV or German Hunting Shooting. All rifle targets (Roe Buck, Fox & Wild Boar) are shot at 100 meters and Running Boar at either 40 or 50 - depends on how the range is set up - there's two sizes of targets to compensate for the unequal range distances.

Already using a fantastically accurate German tailor-made bolt-action, single shot rifle in .222 Remington for this Discipline and there is a good level of rifle accuracy involved but certainly not Benchrest grade quality but of course, everyone attempts to get the best of their rifle/loads. The shooting is done from Offhand, Standing Supported and Prone (unsupported) positions and the smallest cartridge allowed is .22 Hornet. The split is about 85% .22 Hornet users, 14% .222 Remington users and 1% all Other catridges, mostly the odd .223 Remington. Recoil is a big factor in the game although from a Hornet it's insignificant and with the .222 Remington just about so; actually I'm pretty much splitting hairs on the issue.

I thought I'd try some R-P Nickled 22 Hornet cases to round-out my Made-in-America set-up. Why? Just because they'd match the stainless finish on the T/C Encore and set-off the Hornady 45 gr. Red-Tipped bullets although it's gonna be tough to beat the quality of the RWS .22 Hornet brass offered here anyway.

Nickel-plated brass in general has the reputation for flaking/chipping. Most reloaders avoid it because their dies get scratched by the exfoliated plating.

Yo Gerry, vie gehts (?).......take a look at what Seafire/2 has published on this forum re. reduced .223 loads using Blue Dot pistol powder.....you could load those 222's, etc. easily down to Hornet velocities or less therefore using many different bullet weights, all with great accuracy. r in s.

I've used a lot of nickeled brass in any number of centerfire rifles, including .22 K-Hornet. The only problem I've ever run into is with some lots (usually Remington) that have some deposits on the INSIDE of the neck walls. To deal with this, I simply chuck a proper size spud wrapped with steel wool into a drill to polish the insides of the necks to a mirror finish. An extra, and irritating step, but not the end of the world.

I would echo Ray's comments on Blue Dot in .22 Centerfires. I have used it successfully in both .223 and .22 Hornet, getting a five shot group of less than 1/2 moa at 200 yards with the .223 (13.5 gr Blue Dot, 50 gr Hornady, vel 2850 fps). Such loads sound like they would be perfect for your "game".

quote:

Originally posted by Winchester 69:
Nickel-plated brass in general has the reputation for flaking/chipping. Most reloaders avoid it because their dies get scratched by the ex foliated plating.

BS We've been through this argument many times before. While nickel is somewhat harder than plain brass, it is no where near hard enough to scratch hardened steel! Also, I've never had nickel peel, flake, chip, or otherwise come off my cases.

Hey Grizz

Never say never. While the modern nickeled brass is light years ahead of the old stuff there are some of the older ones that have done all of those things. The most common problem was that, if your dies were dirty, they would make vertical scrathes in the nickle which then could get dirt and powder fouling in them which in turn led to scratched dies. And those scratches also could lead to the plating peeling off, sometimes in big pieces.

But, most of that sort of thing is in the past. Younger shooters have it so much better in more ways than one.

Ray

quote:

Originally posted by grizz:

quote:

Originally posted by Winchester 69:
Nickel-plated brass in general has the reputation for flaking/chipping. Most reloaders avoid it because their dies get scratched by the ex foliated plating.

BS We've been through this argument many times before. While nickel is somewhat harder than plain brass, it is no where near hard enough to scratch hardened steel! Also, I've never had nickel peel, flake, chip, or otherwise come off my cases.

Funny how no one ever disses nickeled HANDGUN brass, which seems to be much preferred with handgunners. For the most part, unlike rifle brass, it is sized without any lubrication at all in carbide dies. Funny that it doesn't seem to "peel, flake, or chip" despite the much rougher treatment.

I have some handgun brass so old and used so many times that the nickel has WORN off to some degree near the mouth, but this doesn't affect its performance. It never peels, flakes, or chips.

If you get grit in your sizing die, it will scratch the cases (and maybe the die) regardless of whether the brass is plain or nickeled -- and it's easier to keep the nickeled brass clean to begin with.

Nickel plated brass does tend to be stiffer than unplated brass, and perhaps has a little more springback when resizing. So what? I've reformed .308 nickel to .243 in a single pass without losing a single case. Works like a charm.

There are not too many advantages to being really old, but one of the few is that you have seen things that no one else has.

When it comes to nickeled cases I have to say, again, that some of the old warnings are true. Here's an old case that shows the nickle plating chipping and peeling in the shoulder area. I'm sure you've all seen old nickle plated items with the nickle chipping and peeling. Everything from guns to jewelry to car bumpers (well maybe not bumpers). Maybe it's a thing of the past, now that Al Gore has perfected nickle plating beyond what it was before, but all of those bad things have happened.

Ray