222 nickel remington brass

[Swift220]

Hello. I'm brand new to Saubier & I'm seeking advice on using and/or prepping nickel brass. I was given a box of 500 new Remington 222 nickel brass made in the '80's. I've never reloaded nickel brass but have been told it is hard on your dies. Is that so? If I use it, what steps would you use in preparing the brass? Any different from regular brass? I will not be turning the neck. Thank you for the information & your opinions.
JD

[Bill K]

They are somewhat harder on the dies, but nothing to be alarmed over. However, with that said, be sure and lube them good, with a good case lube i.e. One Shot, Imperial are two good ones. They will stick in a die quicker than the brass one's will. Bill K

[Teancum1]

Nickel is harder than brass, but generally isn't going to affect the tool steel of your dies. I have no qualms about nickel plated straight-wall brass, but I don't like it for bottle-neck cases and will absolutely never use it again for anything that requires fire-forming. I found that the load that worked well for forming .257 Imp. cases in brass was only about 50% successful on nickel. As the previous post said, don't scrimp on the lube with nickel.

[dungheap]

A stuck case is a stuck case, whether it's brass or nickel plated. So, what's been previously said about lube holds true all around.

I've reloaded nickeled bottleneck cases with no issues. Not a whole lot of them, but I think they're OK and surely clean up easier than brass.

[df06]

I load in in my 222 and several other cartridges. My purpose is to make it easy to identify and dedicate it to a specific rifle, when I have several rifles chambered in same cartridge.
I don't load a lot of it but have seen no issues with die wear.

[charlesasmith]

I have 1,000 of the Federal. No problem in my 222. The only strange part is not being able to see an annealing mark on test brass. I would not hesitate to use them again.

Chuck