beag_nut
Member
Came to me in a flash
There I stood, running my well-used .357 cases through my Lyman "M" bellmouthing die. Weeding through all of them for mouth cracks, and discarding about 10% of the nickel-plated ones, as usual. When it hit me: all the cases (both plain and plated) must conform to both of the industry-specified ID and OD dimensions (at the factory before being used), for obvious reasons. Therefore, the plated ones MUST have a thinner wall than the plated ones, to accomodate the extra added by the plating (both inside and outside). The nickel plating adds nothing to the wall strength, so the nickel ones have less brass material. Therefore the plated ones are weaker than the all-brass cases. Ta-da!
There I stood, running my well-used .357 cases through my Lyman "M" bellmouthing die. Weeding through all of them for mouth cracks, and discarding about 10% of the nickel-plated ones, as usual. When it hit me: all the cases (both plain and plated) must conform to both of the industry-specified ID and OD dimensions (at the factory before being used), for obvious reasons. Therefore, the plated ones MUST have a thinner wall than the plated ones, to accomodate the extra added by the plating (both inside and outside). The nickel plating adds nothing to the wall strength, so the nickel ones have less brass material. Therefore the plated ones are weaker than the all-brass cases. Ta-da!