Reloading Nickel Plated Brass

[Troutslayer]

I have heard some conflicting opinions on reloading nickel plated brass. Pros and cons?

My reloading adventure starts this week. Expect more stupid questions.

 

[EddieHarren]

This has been "beat to death" on this, and other forums, for years. There are those who believe that the nickle is harder than the die and will damage the die if, the nickle chips or flakes. There are those who have been using nickle brass for years without any problems.
I'm one of the latter group. My theory is, if the nickle is harder than the die, then it is REALLY harder than the barrel and, would scratch the chamber worse than the die. Regardless of what kind of brass you use, just remember to keep it, and the dies, as clean as possible and you should have minimal problems.

 

[anachronism]

And I'm from the other side of the fence. I've had problems with nickel flaking around the case mouth. It probably got it's start when I chamfered the case. As a result, I only load brass cases for rifles, but will reload nickel handgun cases that don't require chamfering. I have found little pieces of nickel on cleaning patches in my limited rifle usage with them, and gave up on using them after that point. Now when I accumulate a decent amount of nickel rifle brass from factory ammo, I sell it at gun shows. Once fired.

 

[britz]

I looks cool, but it is harder to work with... harder to trim, resize deburr.... it just plain is harder to do. I dred when I have to prep nickle casings. I would never purchase it new just for reloading, but that's just me.