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Gentleman I have a question about necking down 357 nickel casings to 256 , what my question is when I heat neck to size being harder will I have trouble with cracking and will I change structure, if some of you aren't familiar with this process I believe it is recommended to help sizing , or should I just stick with brass casings, any input is welcome.

Others may have more experience than my self but I tried a few times with the nickel cases with zero luck but, the brass worked well.
J/S

I haven't done much necking down in my 30 plus years of reloading, but I will say this. Nickel plated brass cracks much, much easier and sooner than plain ol brass cases. I have had .38 Special nickel plated brass, loaded with just standard pressure loads, crack after as few as 2 reloadings. I have brass cases that have been loaded 20 times and still going strong.

Thanks guys for info I came across about two hundred rnds of nickel casings and was going to try but will probably move on to the brass .

Ironhawk, pretty much what gunman42782 said. Nickel is much harder than brass and does not conform to the stress in the necking down process. Even with annealing the heat required will soften the nickel to the point of ruin. Use brass cases and anneal as you would for any brass case being careful not to heat the case head making it soft. This will give you a uniform ductility when you are sizing cases down to .256. Some brands of brass case form better than others and some will form without any annealing at all. You may have to try different manufactures to find the most ductal brass.
dct454

Awesome thanks for information , I don't normally mess with nickel but I have such a pile of it don't have much use for it never liked it ruined a couple of dies trying to load, if anyone has a use for it I would give up cheep .