Speer silver +P .38 special cartridges

[mack69]

Hi all, after a trip to the range over the weekend and as usual sweeping up the brass....I noticed as I was separating it that there were alot of Speer silver +P .38 special cartridges. Can these be reloaded?? As +P's or regular .38 spl?? Just wonderin what to do with a bit over 100 of the critters. They are not steel cartridges (non magnetic) are they plated? Nickel???? Not that I load too many .38 spls these days, since I enjoy shooting the .357 mag much more but not sure what to do with them....thanks as usual...mack

 

[steveno]

the cases are good to reload. +P cases are normally a little heavier so there is a little less case capacity so if you are using a max load you might have to back the load down a little bit. if you have a chronograph you might load up your load(10 to 15 rounds) in both the standard and +P cases to see how much difference you get in velocity.

 

[RON in PA]

They are nickel or cadmium plated brass for resistance to corrosion. They are fully reloadable.

 

[stans]

Nickel plated brass can be reloaded. Nickel plating does tend to make the brass brittle, so you will see case mouths splitting sooner than you do with plain brass. Also, I have found that little bits of nickel will flake off the case mouth and hide in reloading dies. The next time you run plain brass through the dies, the bits of nickel, being harder than brass, can leave some nice, deep scratches the full length of those plain brass cases. I now always clean my dies thoroughly after reloading nickel plated brass. :banghead:

 

[Matt G]

Those are most likely Gold Dot cases, which are nickel-plated brass. They're good cases.