Any reason not to use nickel cases?

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Trey Veston

Trey Veston

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Was ordering some new 9mm Starline brass online and saw that nickel was only a couple of bucks more. Figured it might make it easier to track my virgin brass and pick up my specific casings at the matches for inspection.

Any reason for not using nickel?

I know for my .45 Colt loads, I have around 100 nickel cases that I use only for light cowboy action loads so I can readily identify the loads safe for my Colt clone.

These would be used for everything from match loads to +P defensive loads.
 
Posted too soon.

Was able to search online and find the answers immediately.

Apparently, +P cases are just marked differently; at least for 9mm and from Starline. No difference in strength or capacity.

And nickel can flake and scratch dies and needs to be inspected closer when using to avoid said flaking messing up things. I figured I'd try 100 of them just to see.
 
Trey Veston said:
Posted too soon.

Was able to search online and find the answers immediately.

Apparently, +P cases are just marked differently; at least for 9mm and from Starline. No difference in strength or capacity.

And nickel can flake and scratch dies and needs to be inspected closer when using to avoid said flaking messing up things. I figured I'd try 100 of them just to see.
Click to expand...

I've never had nickle cases flake, but I don't use them that much....also cant see nickle scratching a carbide sizer, but I don't know much about it.
They can be harder to size.
 
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Nickel is certainly easier to see, and doesn't corrode (which is why nickel cases were ever made).

In a handgun I wouldn't worry about the flaking, but I really don't want that down a rifle bore!
 
In Cowboy Action Shooting nickel cases would show cracks much sooner than Brass reloads. But we’re are talking multiple reloadings. Often folks would only use nickel plated brass in there revolvers because on a very rare occasion old reloaded nickel cases would have a head separation in the chamber of their rifle and man, what a pita that is to correct at a match.

If you are going to reload nickel plated brass just inspect well and look for cracking before using. It would help if you ran it through the cleaning process before depriming and sizing. Also, on a few occasions the nickel plated brass would crack when depriming/ sizing. I can’t explain the sound it makes but if you are using a single stage you can hear a difference in the sound when a case cracks while resizing.
 
most of my 7wsm brass are nickel, i don't load hot so they don't seam any different the the brass on extraction. they are harder to trim and dibur the brass. i am at the point with most the brass i have, that it should be annealed but don't think u can do that with nickeled. i would like to get some nickel 45/70 brass to use for my class 4 loads.
 
I have loaded a lot of nickel cases and I have had nickel cases flake. They seem to be harder and it seems like mine crack sooner than brass cases. They are also harder on cutting tools like case trimmers. The plus is that they are also a little more corrosion resistant if that maters to you. Harsh conditions, leather belt, ect. While I have loaded a lot of them, I prefer brass. I won't even keep a nickel rifle case.
 
Trey Veston said:
And nickel can flake and scratch dies and needs to be inspected closer
Click to expand...
Way back when that was a bit of an issue, but rarely is these days. It doesn't react to leather and turn green like raw brass cases. It is slicker (Does it really help?) It can be easier or harder to find depending on the surface area. I use it for full power .357 Mag just as an easy identification tool as you mentioned. As posted, it does tend to split a little more often than raw brass, but not a big issue, and eventually if you tumble it a lot it can wear the nickle off the case. Takes quite some time, but I have done it to some nickle .38 Spl cases. If one is having case head separations, it isn't because it is nickle plated.
 
Besides being less likely to corrode, and being more visible, nickel is also "slicker" so they cycle through a gun more reliably. I had a friend that bought some nickel 9mm brass from me once, since he had just had a case separation in a 9mm carbine. He had heard that the nickel cases extracted easier in blow-back actions, so that is why he wanted them. During the exchange, though, I started asking about the particular case that separated and we discovered it was one of the internally stepped cases (FM headstamp). They are known for doing that in blow-back guns, where the extraction starts before the pressure has dropped.

In my normal rotation of 9mm brass, I have probably 5% nickel plated cases mixed in. I have not noticed any problems and see no reason to sort them out. I also see no reason (for my application) to buy nickel plated brass.
 
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Another voice here saying nickel-plated cases are nice. I have not found they fail any faster than brass cases (at least in handgun cartridges... I have no experience with them in bottleneck rounds). I have some very old 38 special and 45 acp cases where the nickel is worn away in some places, but have not generally found that it comes off in big cracking flakes. I'm puzzled by the notion that it will scratch dies... I wonder if this is one of those things that goes back to the days before almost all retail die sets were carbide? Nickle is not a particularly hard element.
 
Trey Veston said:
Posted too soon.

Was able to search online and find the answers immediately.

Apparently, +P cases are just marked differently; at least for 9mm and from Starline. No difference in strength or capacity.

And nickel can flake and scratch dies and needs to be inspected closer when using to avoid said flaking messing up things. I figured I'd try 100 of them just to see.
Click to expand...
The only cracking or flaking I have seen is with 38 or 357 because of roll crimping. But I didn't track which headstamp they were.
 
I'm making up more 38 special with old brass, not sure how many times fired. All the cracked ones are R-P nickel plated, the rest seem ok.
 
The very first cases I reloaded when I started this hobby, were once fired Winchester 40 S&W nickel! No issues with them. After I started acquiring more new brass, I slowly stopped using the nickel.
 
glc24 said:
The very first cases I reloaded when I started this hobby, were once fired Winchester 40 S&W nickel! No issues with them. After I started acquiring more new brass, I slowly stopped using the nickel.
Click to expand...
The few nickel plated in 9 and 45 that I have reloaded were only taper crimped. Just enough to remove the bell mouth.
 
I haven't had any issues with cracking. I may have seen it once or twice.
I have some .38 special brass I've loaded so many times, it's basically brass with nickle bases now.

The only thing I don't like is if you're using nickle rifle brass, it will dull your trimmer quicker. But I mostly use cheap Lee trimmers, so not a big issue.
 
kcofohio said:
The only cracking or flaking I have seen is with 38 or 357 because of roll crimping. But I didn't track which headstamp they were.
Click to expand...

Most of the failures I have had have also been 38 and 357 nickel brass. And to a lesser extent with 44 nickel brass. And I agree, it probably has to do with a heavy roll crimp. Mine was mostly RP brass. Not necessarily due to quality, just because they made up the majority of my cases at that time.
 
I reform brass for several calibers. Nickel cases definitely get neck splits more often than brass. If you use any improved rifle case or use .30-06 cases for reforming to .338-06 or .35 Whelen, don't use nickel.

I try to use nickel 9mm Luger cases for my 9x18 cases because my p-64 likes to launch them 20+ feet away. The nickel is easier to see.
 
I don't get as many reloads per case with nickel. My 357 nickel cases split around the mouth after 4 or 5 reloads. Not consistently, but more often than brass.
 
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The only nickel cases I have bought was for .38 specials and .38 + P loads. In my opinion, they take a little more effort to resize than the brass cases. I mainly use the nickel cases now for defense loads. My personal preference is the brass cases.
 
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