Why Nickel For .38 Spcl?

[ljnowell]

Over the decades, I have just a few nickel cases that the nickel flaked off the case. Maybe less than the fingers on one hand. But, it does happen.



I have a number of nickel cases where the nickel is wearing off, I assume from tumbling during the multiple reloadings.



They shoot and reload fine and they get transferred to my yellow case pile.

I had a whole batch of Starline 45 colt that flaked on me. I still load it anyway, no big deal.

I like nickel for my carry ammo. It doesn't tarnish as bad being loaded in mags in my pocket for a year at a time.

 

[ljnowell]

Conventional wisdom is that nickel cases are brittle and will split or crack sooner than unplated brass. This is not always true. I've had nickeled brass that split on the first reload but I also have nickeled Speer .44Mag brass that has been used so many times the nickel was worn off. Like the others, I don't think pressure plays a role. I've got nickel plated rifle brass and 100rds of plated .480 brass on the way.

I have had nickel flake off and get embedded in a carbide sizer die, which required replacement.

I agree, some are brittle and some are not, just like plain brass.

 

[Sky King]

Nickel plated cases were originally for law enforcement, for an officer during a reload, the cases would extract easier and faster from the cylinder than brass cases.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Nickel plated cases were originally for law enforcement, for an officer during a reload, the cases would extract easier and faster from the cylinder than brass cases.

Sky King to the rescue.

The nickel plating makes extraction easier. There is less friction between the case and steel with the plating. The corrosion prevention helped, too, kept the cases from turning green and getting stuck in the cylinder. Yes, I have seen it.

 

[BSA1]

I am a coffee can reloader. Fired, dirty brass goes into one can, cleaned ones into a second can and reloaded cartridges into the third one. I don't segregate my brass and don't bother to keep count of number of times I have reloaded them. I have not noticed a difference in the cull rate.

I will say I have nickel 9mm brass that have been fired and reloaded so many times all of the nickel has worn off the back of the round. Usually my brass lasts until the primer pockets become too loose to hold the primer.

 

[bfalcon00]

Yeah I have half a 5 gallon bucket full of nickel 38 special. Been tossing the nickel stuff into that bucket thinking I would find something creative to do with it one of these days. Any ideas?

 

[ljnowell]

Yeah I have half a 5 gallon bucket full of nickel 38 special. Been tossing the nickel stuff into that bucket thinking I would find something creative to do with it one of these days. Any ideas?

Sure, send it to me!

 

[gamestalker]

In both handgun and bottle neck, including 7 mag and 300 WM, I run them at the same full pressures / loads as yellow brass, haven't noticed any difference, not even accuracy seems to change, maybe a little. If I could find nickel on a regular basis, I'd probably use nothing else for handgun, such a low maintenance brass IMO anyway.

I do recall the older days when i was using steel handgun dies though, nickel did have a propensity to scratch it seems. But that's a thing of the past since carbide dies replaced my steel one's. Gotta love progress.

GS