Nickel plated rifle brass

[Sevens]

…specifically .223 Rem brass.

I’ve recently come in to quite a bit of this, Winchester head stamp nickel plated .223. Now like most of us, I’ve got many years of experience with nickel plated pistol and revolver brass but I have a full pure zero experience with nickel plated bottle-neck rifle brass.

I know what’s good about nickel plated (it cleans easily, it stays clean and it’s slick in & out of chambers) and I know what can be bad about it… shorter case life, splits faster than yellow brass, and can be sketchy when sizing.

Who has hands-on experience with this stuff?

Here’s really the question…
I have tons of .223/5.56 yellow brass, is it worth my time investment (F/L sizing and trimming) to choose this nickel plated over just grabbing the tried ‘n true?

 

[9MMand223only]

Hello, I have a lot of both. I like Nickel plated brass a lot. I don't think it has issues sizing or splitting brass, I just finished shooting several times, and it looks good still. If I could have all my brass be nickel, I would.

 

[blackhawk44]

Practice with brass but load nickel for hunting season. Much easier to find in the grass and brush.

 

[stagpanther]

I use custom 280 AI NI plated brass, I like it a lot, it seems to me it is less work than all-brass (I don't anneal or fireform it).

 

[jetinteriorguy]

While I have no experience with nickel plated rifle brass, I do with pistol brass. Generally I can load pistol brass at least 10-12 times before any splitting, and that’s belling and roll crimping which puts a lot of stress on it. So figuring rifle brass doesn’t get belled and roll crimped you should get a lot of reloads before any splitting may occur. This is purely theory of course, be interesting if it plays out in the real world.

 

[Unclenick]

My experience with nickel-plated rifle brass is just the opposite of Blackhawk44's. I bought 500 Remington cases in .308 Win about thirty years ago on the theory that when the line officer gave the call to police brass at Camp Perry, I would not only lose fewer cases to invisibility, but it would be easy to distinguish from anyone else's brass since I'd never seen anyone else use it on the line. Well, it turned out the white reflective surface is like a mirror that reflects the color of grass with great fidelity, so the cases look like……wait for it……GRASS! Perfect camouflage. Lost twice as many as usual in that first match with them.

There was a second problem with the nickel-plated Remingtons: Rifle cases need to be trimmed. Not only is the nickel harder on the trimmer's cutting edge, but where plain brass forms a burr, the nickel will often start a flake of a peeled edge where the cutter last kissed it, so it can come off the neck near the mouth more easily. Once that starts, the case's ability to score dies and turn them into scratchers goes up significantly.

In the end, I set the rest of that lot of cases aside for field ammo to use once and throw away. I've worn out a lot of nickel-plated handgun cartridge brass and between carbide sizing rings and no need to trim, a lot of it causes no special problems except earlier neck splits when roll crimping, so it's as good as other range foundlings for that purpose. But for rifle, I found it problematic for reloading.

 

[Paul B.]

I've been running Winchester .280 Remington brass in my custom 1909 Argentine Mauser since the rifle was finished. Some of that brass has been reloaded about nine times now and is due for its second annealing. No neck splits, no peeling in the plating on trimming or any of the other problems associated with nickel plated brass. I think the reason behind this is it's not really a plating anymore but some kind of a nickel wash. First, the "plating" looks quite thin. I remember plated brass had a shiny almost chrome plated look. Not the lot of Winchester brass I bought. Second, while it feels slightly stiffer when resizing, a little bit more case lube, Imperial sizing wax in my situation, seems to alleviate that problem. Third, much of the time I may have .270, .280 and 30-06 brass in the tumbler at the same time so the plating helps when separating the brass after tumbling.
Paul B.

 

[9MMand223only]

My experience with nickel-plated rifle brass is just the opposite of Blackhawk44's. I bought 500 Remington cases in .308 Win about thirty years ago on the theory that when the line officer gave the call to police brass at Camp Perry, I would not only lose fewer cases to invisibility, but it would be easy to distinguish from anyone else's brass since I'd never seen anyone else use it on the line. Well, it turned out the white reflective surface is like a mirror that reflects the color of grass with great fidelity, so the cases look like……wait for it……GRASS! Perfect camouflage. Lost twice as many as usual in that first match with them.

There was a second problem with the nickel-plated Remingtons: Rifle cases need to be trimmed. Not only is the nickel harder on the trimmer's cutting edge, but where plain brass forms a burr, the nickel will often start a flake of a peeled edge where the cutter last kissed it, so it can come off the neck near the mouth more easily. Once that starts, the case's ability to score dies and turn them into scratchers goes up significantly.

In the end, I set the rest of that lot of cases aside for field ammo to use once and throw away. I've worn out a lot of nickel-plated handgun cartridge brass and between carbide sizing rings and no need to trim, a lot of it causes no special problems except earlier neck splits when roll crimping, so it's as good as other range foundlings for that purpose. But for rifle, I found it problematic for reloading.

That post made me laugh.

That is why you rich folk should stop practicing in your "grass" and come to the dirt like us regular folk. Nickel much easier to spot in the dirt.

(im kidding) I would invest in brass catcher, then get as much Nickel as you can. I seriously do think the nickel is hard to spot in the forest or grass, it camo's itself with the mirror reflections. Really hard.

 

[markr6754]

I picked up 1k of .223 Rem nickel 2 years ago. At the time my sole interest was in cutting it down for .300 BLK. It is definitely harder on cutoff saw blades and case trimmers, but I do like the other benefits. It forms well, it sizes well, it cleans well, and it chambers...well. No complaints. I expected a shorter case life, but as yet, I've lost cases but I haven't split any.
After building a .223 Rem AR I started loading these for it's headstamp. I figure if I ever do get a case neck split I'll just cut it down to .300 BLK size.
I haven't had Unclenick's problem when shooting in grass (infrequently). Easy to find because it still glints in the sun. Even if it's a green glint.

 

[Sevens]

Great feedback guys, it’s much appreciated.

 

[std7mag]

I've messed with some nickle plated rifle cases.
Biggest thing to keep an eye on is for flaking.
I'd rather throw a case away, then have to buy a new die.
It's harder on the trimmer cutter. But that's to be expected.
Make sure your trimmer is good & sharp.
If not, get a new cutter.

 

[Unclenick]

That is why you rich folk should stop practicing in your "grass" and come to the dirt like us regular folk. Nickel much easier to spot in the dirt.

The rich folk would have to be the government, as they're the ones keeping the grass healthy at Camp Perry. But as to the brass catcher, the service rifle match rules don't allow anything attached to the gun that makes it stop resembling an as-issued gun, with the exception of sights. So, alas, the impoverished and, thus, the brass-miserly competitor is left to work out how to keep or recover the stuff. I considered maybe a spotting scope stand mount to hold a cell phone would help so I could video where the brass made groundfall, but I realized it would take longer to watch the video than the few minutes usually allowed for policing brass. A lot of guys move their shooting stool or bag into position to intercept most of the brass. You just don't want it bouncing off and back onto you, where it inevitably goes down the back of your neck or lands between your brow and your shooting glasses (yes, actually had that happen once). Some folks get a square frame fishing net and mount one side of it onto a couple of pieces of 2×4 and set it to the side. Others will stone down their ejector (don't mess with the spring if you don't want to risk a jam) tip until the cases fly out at 3:00 instead of 1:30 to help with the shooting bag or net interception.

 

[Scorch]

I had a bunch of nickeled brass given to me, so price has nothing to do with why I use it. I like it, it sizes easily, and it's slick so I don't worry about stuck cases. It looks different enough so that I can find it on the range when shooting, and it stands out against the dirt when it falls in the dirt. As far as how it looks in the grass, it makes no difference to me, I lose brass cases in the grass all the time. Would I buy nickeled brass to shoot? It depends on how much of a price premium I have to pay, I wouldn't pay much extra for it.

Instead of a brass catcher, try a brass deflector. It will pile all your brass up nice and neat (or nicely and neatly for grammar police)

 

[gwpercle]

Free cases ...reguardless of color / plating is good cases .
I reload them just like they are unplated and like them .
I don't mix the plated and unplated ...I'm sorry to admit I segregate the silver colored ones from the brass colored ones ... it may be wrong but I like to keep them seperated .
Other than that I treat / reload them all the same and other than some well used cases having a little flaking ... they all act the same .
Gary

 

[RC20]

I tried to size Nickle in 9mm and it was a battle.

So, I quit tring to use it.

But then I also (latter on) quit reloading 9mm as none of my stuff was any better accuracy, 9mm is fiddly and factory rounds are fairly low cost (and I don't shoot it a lot, just enough to keep my hand in)

 

[akinswi]

I tried to size Nickle in 9mm and it was a battle.

So, I quit tring to use it.

But then I also (latter on) quit reloading 9mm as none of my stuff was any better accuracy, 9mm is fiddly and factory rounds are fairly low cost (and I don't shoot it a lot, just enough to keep my hand in)

RC20,

Why did you have sizing issues? I agree with you on Reloading for 9mm , but it is fun pumping them out on a progressive press.