Reloading Nickel Plated Brass

OK...Seeing that I have not gotten into reloading yet I think this question is not too rookie...

Can you reload nickel plated brass...i.e 40S&W?

I want to pick up a Glock or Springfield XD 40 cal in the future and I was wondering about reloading in 40cal. A couple police friends of mine can get me all the 40cal brass I want but it is nickel coated.

Can any of you reloaders out there give me a heads up?

certainly, I reload bottle neck nickel cases and straight wall cases, I have read that because the nickel is harder, it is tougher on your dies, but you couldn't prove it by me. I try to keep my cases clean, regardless whether they are nickle or brass. I don't see an advantage either way. In bottle neck cases, nickle usually costs a little more.

I've reloaded nickel .44Mag. cases for awhile and haven't had any problems with my RCBS carbide dies. I do have a little harder time getting them clean in my tumbler, but it's older and isn't working as well as it used to. I like the brass cases better though because they aren't as shiny as the nickel ones especially for hunting where anything shiny is to be avoided.

I have read that because the nickel plated brass is harder it is more prone to neck splits. I have not found this to be the case, and since you appear to have an almost limitless supply of brass this would not be an issue even if it were true. Like others here, I have not found it to be any harder on the dies than standard brass.

Nickled plated straight wall cases reload very well and I have noted no wear problems with carbide dies. Standard bottle neck cases are also not a problem as long as you lube your cases well ( I like imperial sizing wax) because remember standard sizing dies are not as hard as the carbide straight wall dies. One place where nickle cases can cause some problems is when you wildcat a bottle neck case into some other extreme case size. The plating inside the case is not as smooth as the outside containing sand like pieces of nickle deposited during the plating process. This is especially true in the body of the case. When a parent case is severely shortened to the new case (i.e. 30-30 to 30 Herrett) the neck of the new case is now made up of the body of the parent case. I have had problems with friction during sizing and bullet seating with nickle cases so formed. I actually had to add a step and inside ream the necks of 30 Herretts that were nickle. None of these problems exist with brass case. Hope this helps

I've never had a problem. As a matter of fact, that's how I sort my .44 mag ammo. I use the nickel stuff for my hunting loads, & everything else is brass. No questions that way.

Nickel-plated brass is very hard, and difficult to resize . The case necks will split and ....just send them all to me and let me deal with the problems!! Actually, I use brass cases for my Encore 30'06, but use Nickeled '06 to make my 338-06. That way I can't mix them up. I do the same with 308 and 7-08. It's just a very easy way of not mixing, esp the '06 brass. The only thing I reall see as different is that after many resizes, the nickel strats to wear off the necks and shoulders. I read once that Nickel is supposedly thinner to allow for the plating. I don't know if it's true. Never had a problem with it, and I shoot my 338-06, 7-08, and .357 maggie a lot!

This all sounds good...I'm feeling pretty well about reloading 40 S&W now...Seeing that it is a straight walled cartridge the stress factor should not be too great. I think the cartridges will last a long time.