Gentlemen: I recently acquired some nickel cases
in .270 win and I have never reloaded nickel in
rifle calibers. I used to reload .38 spl. and .357
magnum nickel in pistol cases and I was wondering
how they compare in rifle reloads in brass. Any
particular problems in reloading nickel vs. brass?
Is nickel harder or softer than brass? Better or worse? BLR7!

Some Love it and some Hate it.I love it and use it mostly for Hunting Loads.
Nickle cases is said to be Harder than Brass cases and Harder on the Gun and Dies becasuse of this.I haven't had any complaints about it.

Reload it as you do Reg Brass Rifles Cases.

Some companies nickel plate their premium case ammo.However I don't know for a fact that the brass is any harder ( some people don't understand that they are just plated ).There is also a myth that nickel wears out steel dies ! This is crazy since hardened steel is far harder than brass or nickel. What wears out and scratches dies, steel or carbide is dirt, sand etc. The only thing that is a fact is that nickel corrodes less than brass. You could use it to color code your ammo.

Nickel...ptuii!

I've tried them in 444 and 7mm Mag and have gone back to brass. Always wound up tossing a bunch of the nickel ones out due to various problems/defects, each time I loaded them.
I used to love the way they looked with the blue moly coated Barnes X bullets. OK, it's a shitty reason, but goddamnit they were beautiful!

I use nickle cases when I can get them. Have never noticed any difference, except in one area: Cleaning. I wipe them down and use them.

Nickel plating cases was introduced because of lazy LEOs and others who didn't clean or service their revolvers regularly and found the brass cases "grown" into the cylinder. If you plan on leaving one "up the spout" then nickel is a good idea.

I use Nickel cases when I am hunting to identify my hunting loads visually. Such as I will carry a 260 Remington, and I will carry 125 grain partitions, and 140 grainers, for when I am in heavy brush for close shots. ( That situation I use the less expensive Hornady or Speer bullets) One will be in Nickel brass for quick identification and one in regular brass.

I usually will also load up some 105 grain Nosler Partitions for long range open country at 3350 fps. That is why I had load for versatility of the firearm. One rifle, but 3 loads and three scopes, depending on terrain and environment we encounter as we are out hunting.
Rifle is a Ruger 77Mk2 so the scope changes are quick and easy. three scopes are for the different zeroing of each load.

In Oregon we can get some highly diverse terrain, so this may seem overkill for eastern hunters.

The Nickel brass always has worked well for me, I load it just as I do regular Brass. I think it comes with Premium factory loads, strictly because it looks "pretty", and gives the illusion of " all weather protection" just like they sell stainless steel barrels for.

I use nickel brass in my 7mm Rem mag. I actually like it. Other than cleaning off the brass with a cloth, no tumbling is needed. At least, so far.

I reloaded 7 rounds this morning in .270 with 140gr Nosler BT's and they waiting for me to shoot them. Case trimming is harder but maybe these won't need much trimming when I get back.
I ran them through the chamber and each fits perfectly for feel. Seems like they sized pretty
easy with the Rockchucker press. I did not have to
pre clean the cases and that would be a time saver. I'll chronograph them and see how they
compare to brass. I want to know how fast they
heat up in a hot chamber. Just overall they seem
a little harder than brass. Later...BLR7

I use nickle cases whenever I can get them {many cases donated from someone shooting premium ammo at the range] and doesn't reload or they have "Heard" bad things about them.
I never had one case experience the "Flaking" disease, never had one scratch a die or chamber either!
Having owned a 270 WSM for about year now, I have been doing my own side-by-side comparisons. The first few boxes of ammo I shot were Winchester premium stuff [Nickle Plated]. Through all my load work-ups through this past year, I have been splitting each load 1/2 & 1/2 brass and nickle. I have seen virtually no difference in velocities, POI, primer-flattening, or anything. Some claim that Nickle has less case capacity. While I haven't done a water-capacity test, I can't dispute this claim.
I think where that problem lies is when people fail to take into account that there is a certain amount of powder residue build-up on the inside of the case. As long as the outside still looks bright and shinny they don't tumble them to clean the inside too! After every third firing my nickle cases go in the tumbler along with the regular brass cases to get a thorough inside cleaning!

I like to load solids in Nickle if possible, then I can tell at a glance a solid from a soft in my belt or my hand....handy!

I have never had any problem with nickle..I have some that have been very slightly outside necked reamed and that gives you a tri colored cartridge, very pretty for what its worth,not much I don't guess....

I use Starline nickel cases to ID my 44-40 High Velocity loadings from the regular ones. That way they stay with my Marlin 1894 and out of my pistols.
And as mentioned above, they clean easier and with a 210gr Win Silvertip crimped in place, they are pretty.

I've been using them for 34 years with no problem with dies, guns, or trimmer. IMO, people who blame nickel for damaging guns/dies are just looking for a scapegoat rather than blame their own poor housekeeping. We've all heard the stories about "my smith said..." or this or that "die maker said..." but then we all know of dozens of stories of something a smith said that was 100% wrong, so we do we believe them on this BS? More than likely, if a smith/die maker did say it, he just did not want to offend his potential customer by telling them it was their dirty brass and poor housekeeping that screwed up the dies or rifle, not the nickel. JMO

Check out the reply for EXPRESS on Nickle Cases

I use nickel cases a lot. And I use plan brass a lot. I never had any problems with it. I buy Nickel cases when I can find them. My last batch was a 500 case lot of 7x57's That whole bunch belong to a ZKK 600. For a few years I been stuffing that rifle with 175 gr Nosler Partitions and killing just about everything I ever put the sights on. Also the Nickel looks good in the ammo pouch. Now that a 300 WSM has become the apple of my eye, I'm shooting Norma brass in it. Oh and I cooked up a load of RL-22 and a 180 gr Woodleigh SP. I'm sure its going to become a favorite.

I think that nickel plated brass came about because people left cartridges in leather ammo belt loops, and the bare brass corroded and turned green.

I have a bunch of nickel .45 cal, and it sure looks purty w'dem cast bullets.
As for reloading them, same variances as you'd expect between any brands/lots.
Load as usual.

I have been using nickel cases in three rifles at the moment and I have run into problems. All with the Winchester cases.

The first nickel brass I started loading was from Win Supreme factory loads for my 25/06. The first loads I tried to do left the primers not seated deep enough. They were sticking out and the shells wobbled when you stood them up. The problem went away after loaded them a second time and agressively cleaned the pockets. That was two firings and I had 80 of them. Now after loading them six times I can see the nickel flaking around the edge of the shoulder. Time to toss so early.

I bought 50 casses for my old man's 280 and was disapointed to find out that they ordered me Win nickel. I thought I'd give it a second chance because I had to wait so long. Same primer seating problem so I sent them back.

I have been loading Federal nickel for my 7mm rem mag and it has had no problems yet. Primers seat perfect from day one and I've yet to see any flaking. My conclusion is that the plating is on much thinner than the Win. It allmost cleans off with steal wool with ease. Stay away from Win nickel.

Well gentlemen the concensus seems pretty favoable
for reloading nickle cases except for Winchester.
As luck would have it mine are Winchesters but I
found them easy to load and shoot. I can't really
tell yet but they seem to group a little tighter
than Winchester or PMC brass loaded the same.
I reloaded some of the once fired nickle cases
this morning and the necks seemed to stretch a
lot more when resizing. ( 2.32" becomes 2.45" after sizing) No problem with primer seating but
I always clean out pockets anyway. Just a lot of
trimming it seems. I'm gonna continue reloading these cases and see how many times before flaking appears. I'm thinking about annealling the other
nickle cases and comparing them. I'd like to try
some Federal nickle also. Nothing wrong with the way nickle reloads and shoots so far. Many thanks for all of your replies and information. BLR7

I'd like to ask those of you that have been reloading Nickel plated RIFLE cases for a while - how many reloadings do you typically get out of a Nickel plated case?

Many years ago, Federal offered their 308 Match Brass in Nickel plating. The one difference between plain cases that stood out was that I had a lot of necks splitting after the 2nd reload. I didn't know whether to attribute it to Fed Cases, Nickel cases, or just the Fed Nickel so I stopped using Fed, Nickel and Fed Nickel.

Any thoughts?

BLR7 (Texas Cactus Shooter): I have been using nickel plated brass for decades in both Big Game Rifles and Varmint Rifles. I have never noticed a problem with the brass, loading dies I use for them or the arms I shoot them in. I do notice they are easier to keep clean, they look better and they are very easy to distinguish from brass cases that I use in other Rifles of the same caliber. I have used nickel plated cases in calibers 308 Win., 22 Hornet, 280 Rem., 222 Rem., 223 Rem., 22-250 Rem., 243 Win., 30/06, 17 Rem., 25/06 Rem. and probably some others I have forgotten.
I am a notorious non hotrodder when it comes to my handloads so I can not comment on the merits of one or the other when one loads them hot. But in my moderate loads they seem to last equally!
The nickel plated brass are also much easier to find in the field when retrieving ejected cartridge cases.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

The only place I use nickle anymore is in my 45acp, only because it makes finding them in the grass much easier
As for case life differing between them and std brass in these "straight wall" cases, I seem to lose them before they wear out. I have found nickle rifle brass to be thicker in the past then the plain stuff and in some chambers the plating will start cracking in the necks with a few sizeings. I`ve only seen this in a old 708 I had that was a bit over polished in the chamber.

I've been using Nickle Brass since Federal introduced their Match Brass in the early 70's. In fact I am still shooting some of that old .222 Rem brass today. I have 5 boxes of Herters / Norma .222 Mag. Brass but thats another story.

I have found no real longevity diffrences between the two as long as reasonable loads and Std. Cal. are employed. If you have to fire form or resize to a diffrent case, stick with brass, the Nickle will flake. Keep Nickle brass away from all solvents especialy ammonia based and Hoppes types they will cause the nickle to flake! Mose people don't know that and I think that's where a lot of problems come from. As for die wear, mine are still 100% and over 30 yrs old in some cases.

But to each his own, that's what makes it interesting.

Scout Master 54

One of my .300's is a .300 Weatherby and the load development was all "hot rod." Not my ususal modus operandi but it just turned out that way.

Tried regular brass and nickle plated. I found that the OD of the belts of regular brass expanded significantly faster than the nickle plated stuff. This was true even with neck sizing and headspacing off of the shoulder.

Based on these measurements and observations, I concluded that the Nickle plated stuff was tougher and less prone to wearing out as fast as regular brass.

This was based off of a load that spits out 150gr bullets as 3600 fps and change.

I like the nickle stuff, I am sure there are some benchrest types that will tell you that the Nickle plated brass is not as consistant weight-wise as regular brass. I would use it on everything if I could but, there are some things that I shoot that just doesn't have Nickle plated.