Henry Rifle Forums

Do you load it or toss it ?

The subject came up earlier today in Franks thread about his new 44.
I know that it usually won't take as many reloads as reg. brass.
That being said, if they end up here I load 'em til I can't just like any other brass.
It all gets checked after sizing and expanding, before I prime.
I have some Win. 357 brass that I don't know how many times it's been reloaded.
I really don't keep up with it like I do some of the rifle brass.
I have some in 45 colt that I'm not even sure where they came from, but
I know I've loaded them a few times in the past year.

I bought some Underwood 444 ammo year before last, it preformed well in the 2 Marlins, I need to try it in the Rossi Trapper I picked back in early Feb.
It is nickle and looks to have come from Starline, didn't know they made it, but the stamp looks like their's.
I'm going to start loading those and see how many times I can.

So what say the rest of you reloaders here, scrap or load?

RP

I have maybe a couple hundred of the silver stuff in .357 that I haven't loaded yet, but will soon.

I'd say try it and see how it goes, since you're closely inspecting every round anyway.

I don't buy nickel cases but if I happen upon some once fired factory stuff it gets used. I've always been OCD about segregating headstamps and recording how many trips around the block my brass has made. The nickel cases just don't hold up as well as brass and after I get a neck split or two it's time to scrap that batch.

Two calibers where nickel case life seems better for me are low power .45 ACP and .38 special for button nosed wadcutters. The necks aren't getting worked with those like they are with a magnum roll crimp.

Ive got some nickel 357 and 38 special brass Ive had for years. Not sure how many times they have been loaded. I don’t actively go out looking for it but if someone gives me some into the rotation they go. Have no issues at all using it.

The crap ones I have are Starline .380 cases from factory Liberty Civil Defense ammo. Bought during COVID ammo shortage.
Since then I've avoided buying any nickel/brass cases or ammo.

I use nickel cases for my Sako 222 to identify 222 Rem. from 223 Remington. Years ago I had a 222 get mixed in with some 223 rounds in Wyoming shooting prairie dogs. The extractor held the cartridge tight enough for the round to fire. Blew the extractor from the bolt and ruptured the case. I would have been finished on that trip but I took the bolt from my other 700 Remington and smoked the shoulder with a match on a 222 case and chambered it in the 222 rifle and the head space was right on. Used one bolt in 2 rifles and saved my trip from being a spectator after shooting up all my 223 ammo. Other than that incident my nickel casings have been very good. Mine is Remington and Federal match cases.

The Sako is the rifle I have now in 222 Remington. The rifle I had the 222 case rupture in was my Remington 700 Varmint. Good thing they were both 700 Rems. so I could make the bolt swap and shoot until I ran out of ammo. 2000 rounds between 2 rifles on that trip. The great years of prairie dog shooting.

My experience with nickel plated brass is predominantly using .38 special brass. I found that the nickel plated brass would develop cracks or splits at the case mouth much more frequently than regular brass.
My use of it was mostly back when I shot a lot of that cartridge in bullseye type shooting, and it was very low pressure/velocity reloads, 2.6 grains of Bullseye. I reloaded it on a Dillon Square Deal B, and adjusted the case flare to an absolute minimum to prevent overworking the brass. I have brass that has been reloaded well over 20 times, and I do get case splits with regular brass too, but in my experience, they came much more frequently with nickel plated brass.
That said, I do reload nickel plated brass, but I do it for loads that are not as frequently recycled. I try to keep those cases segregated and use them less frequently.

5shot wrote: ↑

Sun May 11, 2025 10:22 pm

I've always been OCD about segregating headstamps and recording how many trips around the block my brass has made.

I do that, too. I keep headstamps in their own boxes of fifty. I also prime them as soon as they've been tumbled and store the primed cases in their boxes for reloading later. On the end flaps I record the number of times the brass has been fired. The loading information for each session is recorded on the cigar-ring label that slips around the boxes. Yup. OCD.

A bit late, but I got here as soon as I could.

I really like the nickel cases, especially in .38 Special and .357 Magnum. I have several hundred in .38, which tend to get loaded first. Plus another few thousand in normal brass cases. Though now that I have the Henry BBS, I may relegate the nickel cases to +P loads meant for the rifle only.

For .357 Magnums, I only keep the nickel cases. Normal brass cases I don't bother to collect. I probably have a couple thousand in nickel, so if one splits the neck on belling, or I notice it when sizing, I just toss it and move on.