If memory serves, annealing nickel plated cases is a bad idea purely due to the risks involved with changing the basic metallurgy of the cartridge brass.

One of the reasons that I stopped using the nickled cases was their brittleness. they did not anneal well. At one time I had about 200 I got rid of most of them. I kept a hand full for making breech seaters they are pretty. 

40 Rod

Cat_Whisperer wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2010 at 6:23am:


I have been told there are things that between the nickel and the brass when you heat the cases as hot as it takes to anneal them.  Not sure what all is involved, or even completely sure if anything does actually take place, but it would make since as when you alloy metals you heat them to get a chemical change.

Is there a possibility that the brass softens and the nickle hardens?  Don

I've been using plated 32/40 brass with BP. No problems. Dont anneal, dont resize the cases.  Boil in water and dish soap then use a bronze bore brush to clean the crap from the inside. Dry them in the oven at about 250F.

               Joe.   

                 

That batch of factory loaded nickel-case 357 rounds that gave me fits were just like case head separations, except that the cases all parted from about 1/16" to 3/16" behind the seated position of the bullet base. 

I'd fired numerous rounds from standard brass cases before the incident, and more than I can remember afterwards without any problem whatsoever. 

Reloaded case life from plain brass has been perfectly normal. The chamber is good, no marks on the fired cases, even sectioned some brass to see if a thin spot developed in the same area after repeated firings....NADA.

But it was enough to make me decide to stay away from nickeled brass.

Out of the 200 nickel plated 32/40 cases fired at Butte a couple weeks ago, only two separated completely. One burned through partially at the center. It's Duke nickel  plated brass. Biggi was using that brass. I noticed she wasnt inserting the blow tube all the way in the chamber. This making the chamber wet. She corrected the problem and the case separations stopped. 

My opinion is that new manufactured cases whether nickel plated or not are made cheaper and thinner from lower quality materials than in the past. Like most things these days. A few years ago I purchased 100 new 308W Federal match cases. My usual mild load of AA 2520 swelled all the primer pockets so that they wouldnt hold a primer. That is a quality issue. If they could make high power cartridge cases from toilet paper they would do it. They make a few bucks to keep up with rampant inflation and we suffer the consequences.   

                        Joe.