Nickel Plated Brass

[Orangethunder]

I have been using some of the above mentioned brass and had some good results. I was warned that it was pretty hard on dies and also it had a reputation for not being as accurate as the regular brass which apparently expands at a more uniform rate. Anyone else have thoughts or input on this one?

[Mighty Peace]

I use to shoot Winchester Supreme Ammo in my 300WM for years and 270WSM for a season, and I saved the cases for reloading. I never had any problems with them. I use the nickel ones for my hunting loads and use regular brass for load developement.

[ruttinbuck]

It is a "to each's own" arguement.
When I started working with the 280AI I wanted to use WW brass as I have had great luck with it in all other calibers I have worked with.
WW only makes 280rem brass in nickel and I heard all the arguements-nickel scratches your dies,nickel is very brittle and won't fireform as well as regular brass.
I ended up working with remy brand regular brass and had zero issues with it.However I talked to guys that use the nickel WW brass and fireform for wildcats etc... and they don't see any of the problems reported with the nickel brass.I guess try it out and if you have problems you can always switch back to the old stand by regular.
My $.02RB

[Orangethunder]

I have been using the nickel stuff for a while in my .280 and had no issues at all, mind you I dont know how hard it has been on my dies, I am thinking not all that hard as I usually neck size and I keep things pretty clean but who knows. I do find it much easier to clean or so it would seem. I personally cant blame the brass for any accuracy issues, I think the guy on the trigger is to blame there.

RB: What kind of case life have your buddies experienced with the nickel stuff?

[Cariboo]

I have reloaded a lot of nickel plated brass and have never had a problem. The "scratching dies" problem is one that gets a lot of lip service but the fact remains that the steel of a good quality set of dies is harder than nickle.

Flakes of brass - plated or not - that are left on cases after trimming and /or chamfering and then run into dies or a rifle chamber can adhear to the steel and cause scratches on any future cases run into the die or rifle. The best defence is to ensure all your brass is clean before it is sized or chambered.

[Gunner]

There is a thread running on 24hr Campfire talking about nickelled brass.Apparently the older Federal and Remington nickelled brass flaked badly.I have been using the WW nickelled brass in my .280's for several years without any problems,and will be fireforming it in my .280AI. Gunner

[savagewsm]

X2 on the Winchester brass. I've been using nickel brass for my 300wsm and have had nothing but good results.