papaSR9
Single-Sixer
I have been seeing more and more of these types of rounds being offered for sale by online ammo dealers. I am not familiar with this type of casing. Anything different or undesirable with these?
Nickel-plated brass
- Thread starter papaSR9
- Start date
Nothing undesirerable what so ever, use to be years ago all good quaility hand gun ammo was nickel plated before ammo makers went cheap and just gave you plain old brass, I wish all brass was nickel plated, goes through actions better and smooter, way easier to clean, goes through my reloading dies far easier, and also don't turn green in ammo belts.
A couple of common problems with nickle-plated brass is that after a few reloadings the plating may start to separate and peel off, and the cases also seem to get brittle and split earlier than the plain brass ones.
We all tried it back in the day but returned to "conventional" stuff.
They do "handle" nicer, but the long-term success rate is less than marvelous.
JMHO
:)
We all tried it back in the day but returned to "conventional" stuff.
They do "handle" nicer, but the long-term success rate is less than marvelous.
JMHO
:)
There seems no middle ground when it comes to nickeled brass. I've got 100's of nickeled WW .357 brass that have been loaded upwards of 19x's with no flaking or split necks. It was bought back in '77 or so. Not all the loadings have been max., but the 1st 5 or so were. I believe I'll be tossing them due to loose primer pockets before anything else. I've no doubt that some have had nickeled brass problems, I havn't. For new brass I only buy Starline now. They'll make a batch nickeled, but you'd have to buy a bunch of it :wink:
http://www.starlinebrass.com/order-online/nickel-plated-brass-cases.cfm
http://www.starlinebrass.com/order-online/nickel-plated-brass-cases.cfm
Ale-8(1) said:
I have never had that problem exept with Starline, I have thousand of rounds of Winchester, Remington, Federal and a few others that have never had a single problem, there is nothing better than good quaility nickel plated brass, the day for nickel brass has never ended ammo companys just went cheap on us, charge you more and drop the nickel for bigger profits then spread the myth's that something was wrong with nickel like pealing and getting briddle, that is not true, they just want to get away with selling us cheap un- plated brass to fill their pockets deeper.
protoolman
Service-Sixer
I'd have to say I prefer the nickel plated brass. I have several thousand nickel plated range brass in .38 that has been used who knows how many times. The nickel seems to have a shorter case life but I'm not totally sure of that since some of mine have probably been loaded over 25 times. I would say I see a split neck more often in the nickel than brass but i don't really find it a problem. The nickel cases don't stain so bad like the brass and clean up a lot faster.
6gun said:
I beg your pardon, but I related my own personal experiences with nickle-plated brass, and the same was true with all the rest of the guys in my club. We all ran into the same deficiencies I mentioned, and we all ceased using plated cases. This was almost exclusively with Winchester .38 Special and .357 plated brass. It had absolutely nothing to do with any "myths" from any manufacturers.
This was several years ago, and current plated brass may be OK, but I have related the truth. I resent the implication that I'm blowing smoke here.
protoolman
Service-Sixer
While I have never looked specifically at the headstamp on the "bad" nickel plated brass I have noticed that some wear off and look pretty bad. Since I have huge amounts of mixed range brass I've always just grabbed the bad looking ones and thrown them out. Maybe i should look at them and see what brand they were. I know in this day and age none of us would throw away once fired brass we found laying on the range whether it was nickel or brass!
Ale-8(1) said:
I never ran into any deficienceies, except for Starline in 357 I've been using nickel brass for the last 40 years and never stopped using it, myths are not from manufactures, they are from people who think lots of manufactors stopped using it do to problems rather than profits.
Ammo manufactors don't care how reloadable their brass is anyway, they don't want you to reload it they want you to just buy more new loaded.
So that's why they sell brass over the counter to us?
Sorry, not buying your conspiracy.
;)
Sorry, not buying your conspiracy.
;)
Hey, if you're happy, I'm ecstatic!
:mrgreen: :) :mrgreen: :) :mrgreen:
:mrgreen: :) :mrgreen: :) :mrgreen:
OP
papaSR9
Single-Sixer
Thanks for all of the information about this type of casing. The online ammo seller had these for just a little while and they now have regular brass casings again but now I won't be in the dark after reading the comments.
Thanks again.
As always, happy and safe shooting.
Thanks again.
As always, happy and safe shooting.
rdf009
Single-Sixer
I agree with Ale-8(1). I HATE nickel plated cases because I don't get anywhere near as many reloads out of them before they crack or split. I have some .38 brass cases that I've reloaded 25 times. I'm lucky to get 8 times out of a nickel case. Hate them. I usually reserve my nickel case reloads for my lever action rifles. That way I don't feel so bad about it if I lose some of them.
TN.Frank
Bearcat
Yep, they do tend to split more then a standard brass case. Must be something about the process used or the nickel being harder and not stretching as much.
Back when I use to load range ammo for Caswell's Shooting Range in Mesa.AZ. I'd sort out the cases before I'd tumble them and 99 times out of 100 if I was "ringing" cases and heard a bad one(i.e. split one) it'd be nickel.
P.S.
"Ringing" cases involves spreading them out on the ground and running your hand over them so they'll ring or make that tink sound. You can actually hear a difference in a bad case that's split compared to a good case. Give it a try sometimes and you hear what I'm talking about. :wink:
Back when I use to load range ammo for Caswell's Shooting Range in Mesa.AZ. I'd sort out the cases before I'd tumble them and 99 times out of 100 if I was "ringing" cases and heard a bad one(i.e. split one) it'd be nickel.
P.S.
"Ringing" cases involves spreading them out on the ground and running your hand over them so they'll ring or make that tink sound. You can actually hear a difference in a bad case that's split compared to a good case. Give it a try sometimes and you hear what I'm talking about. :wink:
My opinion is that none of the reasons or purposes for nickel plating are beneficial for reloading. After bad results with some nickel Remington 223 cases that had little flexibility and drug the mandrel of my Lee collet die and scored it, I concluded nickel plating makes brass more brittle. This may not be true for all batches or plating processes.
Nickel plating can improve feeding and improve corrosion resistance. Except for some 10MM cases I got a deal on, I avoid nickel plated.
Nickel plating can improve feeding and improve corrosion resistance. Except for some 10MM cases I got a deal on, I avoid nickel plated.
I get a lot more case splits with the nickle 357 Mag cases than I do with plain brass. I usually loose 10 nickle plated cases for every 1 brass case.
The loads are quite different though. The brass cases I'm using (357 Mag PMC) are 16.5 grains of LilGun and a 158 plated truncated cone bullet from Berry's. The nickle plated cases (mix of Federal, Winchester, Remington) are 6 grains of 231 and a 125 grain truncated cone Berry's plated bullet.
I don't have any other nickle plated brass to make a comment on (in other calibers).
The loads are quite different though. The brass cases I'm using (357 Mag PMC) are 16.5 grains of LilGun and a 158 plated truncated cone bullet from Berry's. The nickle plated cases (mix of Federal, Winchester, Remington) are 6 grains of 231 and a 125 grain truncated cone Berry's plated bullet.
I don't have any other nickle plated brass to make a comment on (in other calibers).
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