Brass vs Nickel Plated Cases

[Netherwolf]

Hey guys. I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question because it has to do with an issue that comes up on Swapping & Selling but I'm neither swapping or selling so..., here goes. When selling brass on Swapping & Selling some of the guys make a point of stressing 'all brass', 'no nickel', 'some nickel', etc. My question is, what's the importance of one vs the other? After 40+ years of reloading both, have I 'missed' something? Personally, I've never made a distinction, i.e., as long as it loaded & shot I've always been happy. All input & opinions welcome.
Netherwolf

[NuJudge]

Nickel plated usually lasts less firings.

[Zymurgy50]

The nickel plating generally tends to chip off when trimming cases, not a problem with most handgun calibers.
Some people will claim that nickel plated brass tends to scratch steel (not carbide) dies faster than brass.
I have 45acp nickel brass that is at least 25 years old, most of the plating has worn off but it still loads and shoots just fine.

[Bonz]

Very common now to wet tumble brass with stainless steel pins. This process ruins the nickel coating on the brass if it tumbles too long. So when I wash brass, I sort out the nickel and just wash & load brass

[Netherwolf]

Well, call me a dinosaur/'knuckle dragger' but I've never been concerned with how it looks more so than if it loads/is loadable & goes BANG when I drop the hammer (the plight of a high-volume shooter, I guess vs the bragging rights of how pretty my fodder is).
Netherwolf

[Shiloh]

Nickle cases clean up a lot faster than brass cases in the tumbler. This would be a corncob or walnut media tumbler.

They are usually the first to crack. They are harder on dies. Steel dies that is. I have a container for nickle cases. They are there for a rainy day. U prefer brass and have all I need.

Shiloh

[TMenezes]

I suppose Nickel plated may or may not be as durable as regular brass. I tend to really like the way it looks. However since it stands out I use it to help me sort my brass. My 44 Mag is regular brass, all 44 Special is Nickle. 45 Colt is Nickel. Makes for much easier quick identification.

[NSB]

I'm still shooting nickle plated 357mag brass I got in the 1980's. I know some of it's been loaded twenty-five or more times. I haven't cracked any yet. I'm not saying it doesn't crack, I'm sure it does. As soon as mine starts cracking I'll start complaining about it. Maybe in a couple more years......?

[Shiloh]

I have some long lived as well. More often than not, it is the nickle ones that split. I have 38 special brass older than me. I'll be 58 in August.

Shiloh

[mdi]

Not every nickel plated case splits. Some have trouble with them, but I have not. I have only reloaded .38 Special, .357 Magnum (with some Magnum loads), .44 Special (few), and a bunch of .44 Magnum (with both mild and Magnum loads). Some have 15+ reloadings and I have some .44 Magnum nickel plated cases that have 11 reloadings (I use these in my Puma with heavy loads). I have some .38 cases that have been reloaded enough to wear the plating thin (see through in some instances). My dies are fine (Lee and Hornady) and no flaking...

Sometimes you'll get responses parroting something that was read, not actual experience. While I have read some reports of flaking and low case life, I have not experienced this...

With so many answers on both sides of the issue the only way to find out for sure is to get some nickel plated cases and count the reloading cycles and see for your self.

[bedbugbilly]

Netherwolf- I'm with you. I use both and have no issues with either. I load a lot of 38s as well as 9mm. I actually prefer the nickel for my 38s - mainly because I'm not in to making brass shiny each time. I shoot it, de-prime it, wipe it down and load it. I've never really kept track of the number of times a nickel versus brass case can be reloaded. If one splits, it gets tossed.

I will admit that when I buy "range brass" and it's been tumbled, it looks pretty. But it really doesn't bother me if my casings get a little tarnished along the way. The only thing I try to do is keep nickel casings and brass casings separated - both in empties and loaded. I have given some thought to getting a tumbler "just because" but really don't see where I'd use it that much.

When I see range brass advertised - if either is offered, I usually go for the nickel. I'm just a "pinker" though and most of the time, I don't even sort head stamps on range brass.

[trapper9260]

I know that the nickel plated dose a job on steel dies when resizen them.I know it happened to m 38/357 sizen die. I gotten a cabide set now to do nickel also steel because my steel is scratch up.

[tazman]

I load both indiscriminately. I crack both types about equally since a lot of my brass is old(30 years). Never worried about it as long as it shoots.

[Stonecrusher]

I too use both indiscriminately, for pistol calibers. I do not want any nickel bottleneck rifle cases.

[Garyshome]

I'm prejudiced, I load/store/shoot them separately.

[upnorthwis]

Bought a couple gallons of mixed .38 special in the mid 90's for CAS. Never noticed any difference in brass life. I load the nickel for the pistol. That way when there is a one shot reload, I insert a brass one and can quickly position the cylinder to the firing position.

[sigep1764]

I load both nickel and brass cases. They are all range pickups. I have noticed that my nickel cases are all +p+ stamped from Speer. Don't know if the initial firing of +p+ loads initially weakens them, but most of the cases that have cracked on me are the nickel ones. I just dump them in with the spent primer stash and take them to the recycler when I pick up more wheel weights. If anybody is in St. Louis, Arch Metals is a good place to get wheel weights. Not all are lead, but you can just trade back in what isn't when you go back for more.

[Petrol & Powder]

Pretty much all been said. I use both but the nickel cases typically don't last through as many reloading cycles as the brass ones. However I also have some that have been reloaded so many times the nickel plating has worn thin and they're still fine. For factory loaded self defense ammo there is some old school preference for nickel plating. Nickel cases are less susceptible to corroding and may feed/extract in dirty chambers better than brass. Back when we knew the world was flat, ....spare revolver ammo was often carried in leather belt loops, dump pouches or speed loader cases. The chemicals used to tan leather would often corrode brass casings that were stored for long periods in that leather, particularly if the leather got wet from sweat / rain. Nickel casings are a little bit more resistant to that type of damage. As an added benefit, the nickel plating offers a slicker surface to help overcome the problems of dirty chambers. In semi-auto pistol applications, nickel plated casings are still preferred for self defense ammo. Some of that preference is practical due to the slicker surface offered by the plating and some of it is just marketing.

[srd]

I guess I am still old school Petrol & Powder like you stated. My carry gun is a 44 Special and all the loads are in nickel cases. Just easier for me to identify my carry loads as compared to practice rounds. I have used and own nickel cases in various other calibers and the only ones I had problems with are in 7 mm BR when pushed to its limits and the necks would split after about 3 firings. As Stonecrusher stated I will not use any more bottle necked nickel. They sure do go through the sizer dies like butter I will give them that !

[mold maker]

The nickle plating, and brass have different hardness, and malleability qualities, thus they stretch and contract at different rates. If fired in a generous chamber with a heavy load, the nickle plating tends to form hairline cracks because the underlying brass outstretched it. After several firings under these conditions the edges of the cracked nickle plating releases from the brass and flakes off.
Under lesser harsh expansion/contraction, the nickle plating last almost the same as plain brass.
I have 38 (nickle plated) brass fired over 40 years, that has the plating worn away except the web area just ahead of the rim. I have 357 brass that fails (plating cracks and sheds, or the brass splits) much sooner, due to being under much harsher firing conditions.

[USAFrox]

When I sort my fired brass, almost all of the splits occur in my nickle cases. My brass cases just last much longer. YMMV.

I was told (hearsay alert!) that the process that they use to plate the nickle onto the brass is an acid-involved process, and it weakens the case, which is why the nickle fails much sooner.

What mold maker said makes a whole lotta sense, though.

[bob208]

back about 74-75 a friend of mine dumpster dived and pulled over 1000 nickeled .45acp. I am still loading some of it. they say it is easier to find then the brass cases. I have lost an equal amount of both. nickel cases are a little harder to push though a sizing die. I like nickel cases for keeping in a leather cartage belt.

I do now separate my nickel and brass .38 cases. my skeeter skelton loads go in the nickel .38 loads go in the brass.

[dragonrider]

I won't use nickle plated brass. Any that I get goes into msrb and when it is full I give it away.

[BABore]

I've seen pressure test data, done by Hodgdon's lab, for max loaded 45-70 ammo. IIRC Starline brass & nickle plated cases were used for a side-by-side comparison. Same load in each case type and capacities were virtually identical. The nickle plated case pressure was several 1000 psi higher do to the hardness difference. Enough so that a load reduction was required.

[Jailer]

Only case I have ever stuck was nickel 223. The increased amount of lever pressure required to full length size a nickel 223 case compared to a brass 223 case is enough to swear me off from it. I recently gave all mine away.

[dondiego]

I won't use nickle plated brass. Any that I get goes into msrb and when it is full I give it away.

Ok, I'll bite - What is an "msrb?

[USAFrox]

I'm pretty sure he meant MFRB (Medium Flat Rate Box) that you get from the post office. Just my guess, though.

[fecmech]

A good friend of mine was a commercial reloader who loaded millions of rounds of ammo from the 60's through the 80's. His scrap brass container was about 80% nickle brass. The .38 spl for some reason seems particularly hard on nickle brass. In that time frame I loaded the same 400 .357 WW nickle cases way more than 30 times and rarely had a split and I only loaded max loads back then. My .38 spl PPC wadcutter loads split cases all the time and were mostly nickle. My .45 ACP and .44 mag loads were all brass so I never ran into it there.

[rintinglen]

I once took 50 38 Special WW cases, half nickle and half brass, and proceeded to load them over and over for 4 months, roughly 16 reloadings, before I got my first case neck split. I continued, but at a much reduced frequency (marriage does that to a lad) until I got down to 37 cases. The nickle cases cracked worse, but IIRC, the number of failures was nearly the same, 6 brass and 7 nickle. I mistakenly dumped that brass in with a bunch of others and thus could not continue the test. These days I separate them and use brass for standard loads and nickle for +p loads.

[Petrol & Powder]

"...........These days I separate them and use brass for standard loads and nickel for +p loads. "
/\That's a good idea !

I've been thinking about a simple way to distinguish heavy loads from standard loads that use the same bullet. Never occurred to me to use nickel plated cases for one type.

[koyote]

I separate my nickel plated brass and save it for special projects. It's nice and shiny after sitting in a box for a while, so it's good for rarely used hunting loads.

I also use it for the "friends can't find ammo" loads. *sometimes* it comes back, but since I do range pickups and bulk buys and whatever, I can tell people I'm at 20 cents a round cost for components, or they can buy components (I keep the extra) and I assemble for them. (still cheaper than production when you can find it these days) and toss them a couple hundred rounds.

Other than that, I've generally avoided sorting pistol brass except for starline when I buy it. Lately I've started sorting out R-P .38 brass because it likes missouri bullet company cast lead a lot better than all the other brass.