Spin Relaxation of Cold Atomic Iron and Nickel in Collisions with $^3$He

We measure the ratio of transport to spin-projection changing collision cross sections ($\gamma$) in the Fe-He and Ni-He systems. $\gamma$ for Ni [$^3F_4$, $m_J=4$] is found to be $\gamma = 1.1 \pm.5\times 10^{4}$ at 1 K in a .8 T magnetic field. $\gamma$ for Fe [$^5D_4$, $m_J = 4$] was low enough such that only a bound could be measured, $\gamma < 5\times 10^{3}$. The Ni result extends the notion of submerged shell suppression of inelastic loss in non-S-state atoms to this group of transition metals.