The plating process for adding nickel to brass makes the brass more brittle, so it splits sooner. We go through about 8,000 to 10,000 .38 special rounds per year, so I'm loading a lot of it. All the nickel brass splits way before the yellow brass. That's not to say the brass isn't any good. It's just that it doesn't last as long.
I like the feel and "slickness" of nickel plated. 40 is the only caliber I have where the ratio is somewhat even, 3 of every 10 I would say. Failure of the case, cracking, splitting at the mouth, etc seems to be just about the same. I think this is blown out of proportion and the manufacturer seems to be just as important as the color. Some brass is just better than others.
Don't let the color stop you from loading either.
I am a little OCD when it comes to reloading and like to load Lead with Brass and Jacketed/Plated with Nickle. I just like the looks not other reason. Lucky for me I mainly shoot lead and have a lot more bare bare brass to go with it.
I don't shoot a lot of full power loads so both brass and Nicole seem to last a long time for me. I tend to loss them before I wear them out. Now that I am shooting revolvers more hat may change and I could start seeing the difference.
Nickle is preferred if you carry the ammo in a Leather belt, corrosion resistant. Now I have some Ni 357mag brass that is close to 40 yrs old. The plating is wearing through but not flaking like the newer brass. None have split, lost count of how may times they have been reloaded.
if you don't want to run the brass though a tumbler Ni wins. Just wipe clean and go.
I like using Ni for test loads at the indoor range. It's a lot easier to ID, recover and inspect the casings when I use nickel for the tests. Otherwise I just load and shoot it.
I actually like nickel brass. It seems to last just as long as yellow, and it resists tarnish and corrosion. But eventually it will start to flake around the mouth, which doesn't matter as long as the case has still retained it's integrity in other aspects.
Ive steered away from hardcast lead in rando-nickel cases. Between OAL and neck tension/roll crimp pressure, Ive found that it get larger groups than similar testing with just plain mixed brass. I have not had the same issues with mixed nickel and brass jacketed ammo to that degree.
I prefer nickel. As others have said it is about 1 or 2 shots earlier to fail than yellow brass but it runs through my full length sizer more smoothly than yellow brass. It's almost like it's naturally slicker. Cleans easily too. Yellow brass seems to be a better fit in rifles but probably because nickel rifle brass is more rare than yellow.
I prefer the nickle but it is much harder to find the empties at the range as they seem to pick up/reflect the surrounding grass and dirt and become invisible to my eyes. Bill
I never give it any thought. I pick up range brass, tumble it, size it, load it and shoot it. In my Garand clips I will have a heinz 57 variety of cases all mixed in together. At one time I'd separate cases by headstamp and yellow brass and nickel. Found out that in a service rifle it made only a small almost unnoticeable difference for the work involved.
I like to use them to help distinguish my pistol loads. All my range plinker stuff gets loaded in plain brass. On the occasions that I brew up some hotter stuff, often with a premium bullet, like to use nickel. Not a substitute for clearly labeling boxes of reloads, just an additional heads-up when the time comes to end them down range.
I use nickel for .357 and brass for 38 Special. Easy to tell them apart that way. I too think that the nickel necks split sooner, maybe in my case it's because I load a handful of 296 in em compared to 3 grains of BE!
In .44 Magnum and Special I prefer yellow brass by a small amount since it seems less prone to splits.
In .45 ACP I've found that it doesn't matter as much.
In fact, if you don't like nickel .45 cases, just keep reloading them long enough and they'll magically turn into yellow brass after enough cycles...
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