Brass vs Nickel

[Evil Dog]

Personally I prefer brass rather than nickel for my handgun loads as it just seems to feed smoother and with a little less pressure through my carbide dies.... yes, I still use an ancient Pacific single stage "O" press.  Used a Dillon for a while... both a 650 and a Square Deal.  Either would crank out a bunch of ammo in rather short order but somehow I still prefer my old single station press.

How about you?  Brass or nickel?

[stimpylu32]

Brass all the way , i have even given away some nickel cases just to be rid of them , aside from looking silly then tend to be harder than the plain brass .

stimpy

[wncchester]

The ONLY reason brass was  originally nickled was to prevent corrosion of pistol ammo in police leather belts.  Of course others thought it looked cool so the makers responded to that whim, even eventually to doing it to rifle brass. 

There is no advantage to nickle plating to a reloader and some definite disadvantages.   First, it's much less malleable than brass so it flakes off during resizing.  Second, it adds a bit of thickness to the brass and gets reworked more during sizing.  Third, the flaked coating may scratch the sizer.  Forth, "old" plated brass looks grungy. 

I use it only when it comes to me for free and then mostly for serious defense ammo that I rarely fire.  (Never fired a round in need but do check it for accuracy occasionally.)

[Siskiyou]

I prefer loading nickel handgun cases and I have not encounter any flaking or peeling problem.   Back when I was reloading .38 Special and .357 cases a number of times.  I felt that nickel case last more reloads.  I have been loading the .38/.357 for about 40 years.

I have also read that Federal and others load safari ammunition in nickel cases to facilitate extraction in warm climates.  I have chosen to make limited use of nickel, centerfire rifle cases to identify or segregate certain loads.

When I loaded a pet load that used the end of the WW785 supply I used nickel cases.  The load produces high velocity, very good accuracy, and effective on deer.  I also use them to identify other pet loads.  I have reloaded a number of nickel cases four or five times without lost during the load development process.  I have not gotten that many loadings out of some brass cases.  Except for special purposes I do not purchase nickle centerfire rifle cases.

[PaulS]

Siskiyou,
My experience with the 357 and plated brass was completely opposite to yours. I got neck splits with the nickel plated brass after just three loads in a case and some of them didn't make it to their second reload. I know that crimping is what caused the splits but my brass cases had no such problems. I load nothing but brass now.

[Lloyd Smale]

nickled cases allways loaded easier for me but the life on them is about half what brass is. Only thing i use them for now is i load my comp ammo with once fired nickle and it just is an easy way to seperate the comp ammo from the blasting ammo. In competition i leave my brass on the ground so im not conserned with how many loadings i get out of it.

[Questor]

I like nickel plated brass for one particular 45ACP load. It  helps me identify my brass at the range so I can collect it and reload it for my match ammo. I also use nickel plated 223 brass to distinguish it from my 221 fireball cartridges.  So for me, it's a visual thing. Nice to have as an option.