[Helix]

I purchased several hundred rounds of 9mm Federal hydra shoc a few years back that came loaded with 124gr bullets and a +P+ charge. Can these nickle plated cases be reloded like brass cases? Are there any special consderations when dealing with them?

 

[warnerwh]

Yes you can reload that brass the same way as unplated brass. Nothing special needs to be done.

 

[recoil junky]

Make sure your dies are the carbide ones or have the carbide ring, otherwise the nickel will scratch the crap out'n your regular dies.

RJ

 

[Helix]

thanks RJ. I did invest in a set of carbide dies for 9mm. seemed like the way to go for an extra $10 instead of steel.

 

[Tom W.]

Make sure your dies are the carbide ones or have the carbide ring, otherwise the nickel will scratch the crap out'n your regular dies.

RJ

That's the kind of manure that comes from the male gender of cattle.

 

[Marshal Kane]

That's the kind of manure that comes from the male gender of cattle.

Au contraire mon ami! I still have the ruined steel sizer die that was totally scratched by running Remington .357 magnum nickel cases through it. First, the nickel started shedding at the casemouths. Next, the nickel started blistering along the sides of the cases. Pieces of nickel finished the job on my sizer by scratching the walls of the die. Oh yes, ALL of the cases were carefully lubed prior to resizing.

Which leads me to suggest that anyone contemplating resizing nickel handgun cases to consider using carbide dies. At least if the nickel starts to peel, it won't total your sizer die. YMMV and other opinions certainly welcomed.

 

[[email protected]]

Even with the carbide dies, CLEAN them regularly. This will ensure that even if you do not ruin your die, you will not ruin a perfectly good case, either.

Remember what "Pigpen" from Charlie Brown said "Cleanliness is next to Godliness. And like Godliness, next to impossible"

 

[pfoxy]

Au contraire mon ami! I still have the ruined steel sizer die that was totally scratched by running Remington .357 magnum nickel cases through it. First, the nickel started shedding at the casemouths. Next, the nickel started blistering along the sides of the cases. Pieces of nickel finished the job on my sizer by scratching the walls of the die. Oh yes, ALL of the cases were carefully lubed prior to resizing.

Which leads me to suggest that anyone contemplating resizing nickel handgun cases to consider using carbide dies. At least if the nickel starts to peel, it won't total your sizer die. YMMV and other opinions certainly welcomed.

I'm having trouble figuring out why anybody would have anything BUT carbide dies for pistol cases...

 

[recoil junky]

Marshall, I said that because I too have a .357 sizing die that was ruined by sizing nickel cases in it.

And here I thought I was the only one

RJ

 

[Marshal Kane]

I'm having trouble figuring out why anybody would have anything BUT carbide dies for pistol cases...

An excellent question. I should have mentioned that some of us old f**ts have been at the reloading game since BEFORE the introduction of carbide dies. The only steel handgun die at my reloading bench today is that ruined .357 sizer.

 

[Marshal Kane]

Marshall, I said that because I too have a .357 sizing die that was ruined by sizing nickel cases in it.

And here I thought I was the only one

RJ

Nope, been there done that too!

 

[horseman 1]

The Nickle plating has a different springback ratio than the underlying brass case. After several reloads the plating will begin to disbond from the brass. It is not really a problem but the case life will likely be a little shorter. At least this has been my experence with nickle plated 357 mag brass.

 

[warnerwh]

The nickel plating comes off after a while but it's so little it's nothing to be worried about for quite a while. All the brass lasts a very long time for me. However 98% of what I shoot are moderate loads. The only problem I see is the occasional mouth starting to split. I started purchasing nickel plated brass because I like the way it slides through the sizer.

 

[pfoxy]

An excellent question. I should have mentioned that some of us old f**ts have been at the reloading game since BEFORE the introduction of carbide dies. The only steel handgun die at my reloading bench today is that ruined .357 sizer.

I started reloading in about 1980. As a matter of historical curiosity, when did carbide dies start appearing?

 

[wildhobbybobby]

I started reloading in 1964 or 1965. Only steel dies were available then. I remember there was quite a hoopla about the introduction of carbide dies...don't know exactly when they came out but it was sometime between 1968 and 1972 I would guess.

 

[Tom W.]

While I do have carbie dies for all of my pistol / revolver calibers, I also use Redding dies for my bottleneck
cases, and a lot of those are nickle plated. I must be lucky or extremely anal when I handload, because I have yet to ruin a die on a plated case. Then again, when the plating starts to peel, the case goes to my recycle bin, too.

Nickle brass is 99% of what I shoot from my Ruger #1 7mm Rem Mag. and about 50% of my .308 loads are Federal plated brass.

 

[recoil junky]

Tom, are you full length resizing or just neck sizing? I shoot a goodly amount of nickel brass in a couple rifles as well but I only necksize these using Lee collet dies.

I've heard nightmares about rifle dies getting scratched as well. I've got to be really careful with new nickel brass as it does nasty things to the mandrell in the Lee collet dies.

RJ

 

[Tom W.]

While I have the Redding Deluxe die set, whether I F/L or neck size depends on how many firings the case has had. With the 7mm Rem Mag I'll also use the collet die offered by Larry Willis to squeeze the whole case back to factory specs. I get a lot of good from my brass with his die.

My .308 I generally F/L size all of them, and the '06 A.I. is mostly neck sizing.