Has anyone tried annealing nickel plated rifle brass?

I have not.
I HAVE successfully annealed 1.6" revolver rounds using the Hornady system which works very well BTW.
I suggest trying a case or 2 and see what happens.
You are going to want to use Tempilaq indicator fluid.
No idea what the nickel is going to look like at 700-750F.
The Hornady system uses 450F and you put it about a half to an inch below the area you are annealing.
I found this works much better than trying to look at 700F Tempilaq thru the flame.
Let us know what happens as I, for one, am interested in the results.

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Nemo

Attached Images

Annealed30USA-445SM.jpg (39.0 KB, 47 views)

Thanks memo. Your question of how the nickel would look like, or even separate, is my main question. I have some 450 deg. tempilaq. I'll give it a try this weekend and post it here.

Good luck with that.

Just hope the nickel does not peel like a banana when things
cool back down.

Hope it works.

I just traded off a neat little rifle, cal 22 Ackley Jet. Cartridge
based on 357 necked to 22. The first 50 I annealed, the nickel
stratified and cracked, got 4 good cases out of 50. Thought I
was doing something wrong. Second batch,same. Switched to
brass, same anneal process, 50 good cases out of 50. I don't
know what you are making but I won't was my time on nickel
again. I have Federal 222 match brass that is nickel that will
hold up to annealing, the 45/70 and 375H&H I have won't. The
magnum pistol brass I have not annealed, except the 357s to
Jet, they were Rem and Fed.

I'm annealing Federal 300Win Mag. Love to shoot that caliber. Have a varmint load, 110gr. Sierra #2110. These are some of the best flying bullets I've ever tried the poor BC not withstanding out to the limit of our 200yd range. Very much sub MOA. If anyone is interested in the load I'll PM you.

First, it anneals just like plain brass. I have annealed Nickel .416 Remington, fire-formed to .458 Winchester, fired and re-sized them. Not a hint of problems. Because the Nickel doesn't change color when heated these were heated to a dull red in subdued light, hotter than would normally be used for annealing. If you don't consider this an extreme test I don't know what to tell you!

Pictures to follow. Yes, these look like brass, it's the lighting. The necks were polished with Mother's or Blue Magic after fire-forming so they don't show discoloration. They were nearly black! The one showing the head stamp was to prove they really started out as .416s! Cell phone pictures, too lazy to get out the digital SLR!

Attached Images

Annealed .416 Remington.jpg (62.0 KB, 41 views)

__________________
Gunsmithing since 1961

Thanks for the post ALK, I'll be out in the shop this weekend and will post the results I get.

These are some 338 range brass, Federal. Used the 750 deg Tempilaq and a Ballistics Edge machine. The nickel did darken up a little.DSCN3165.jpg

DSCN3163.jpg

These machines are great. Can anneal 100 brass in under 10 minutes. The Height adjustments are a little cumbersome being such course threads but all-in-all great units.

I gotta thank you guys.
I have read every piece I could find on annealing.
Maybe 10 or so articles including possibly the most detailed reloading book published: McPherson's "Metallic Cartridge Handloading".
I can't remember any of these mentioning nickel plated cases.
This maybe some of the only real testimony on the subject ever made public.

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Nemo

I was in the same boat Nemo. Could not find anything which ever mentioned nickeled brass. I was appreciative of yours and ALKs posts. Heard too many stories like DRMs where the brass was ruined.

This is what I love about this and other forums where many people are approaching the same problem many times from many different angles.