Why are they still doing this

[beagle]

Was sitting in the shop today priming a bunch of .357 Magnum brass. Nice thing about priming, it don't require much thought. Ki.Inda like the man employing a crew of blondes to lay sod. No great knowledge just keep shouting out the window, "Green side up".
I was thinking about .357 brass. Just dug into my stash and sent Ben's grandson some. It's amazing to me that most .357 is nickel plated. A lot of .45 ACP is too as is a large percentage of .38 Special. I wondered why?
Okay, my dad ran a prison in NC when I was a kid. I was use to being around guys carrying shotguns and .38 Specials. Back then the brass was nickel plated because it got wet and rode in leather holders which caused corrosion. The nickel still corroded but not as fast as the unplated. My dad inspected and regularly replaced the .38s and paper shotgun shells. I got the 12 gauge buck for my SS 12 gauge. Worked well for turtles and feral dogs at the dump. In those days the Highway Patrol carried the .357 Magnum and used plated ammunition for the same reason other LEOs did. Protection from the elements.
When Law Enforcement fell in love with the 9mm, then .45 ACP, 10mm and finally the .40 S&W 20 years ago, this trend continued.
My thoughts today is why do the ammunition makers still make so much nickel plated ammunition. Carrying spare magazines is the thing and no exposure to the elements.
The cost to nickel plate brass cases seems to me that it would be a huge drain to the manufacturer's bottom line when it's not needed. For sure nickel plating shortens the life of brass caase as it makes them brittle and splits.

Just wonder if anyone can explain this to me./beagle

 

[Jeff H]

I think the reason why we do many things today is lost to history, so now it's just habit - affectations of savvy thinking/experienced insight. Could have always been just so much marketing hooey as well, which would not surprise me.

I always thought it was because it was less prone to corrosion for carry ammo, as you mention and that's how I use it - only for the 357, only for lighter loads and only for the loads I carry in a pocket, a butt cuff on the carbine or in a vehicle console, where it might be left for a year and exposed to various cold - warm/moist periods where everything condensates. The milder loads I use for this don't seem to take quite the toll that real 357 loads do on the case life.

 

[fiver]

just me but i see it as more like rough duty type stuff.

it doesn't have to be carried on a belt or anything, but it seeing the outdoors a lot is enough to make many customers pick it up if they have the option.
i see a bit of big game ammo in nickle, it kind of makes sense to me.
the ammo is gonna ride in the truck, get thrown in a pack, or maybe carried in a pouch and left there in the garage for god knows how many years until it gets called into service,,,
just a little insurance in the mind of the owner.

on the other hand it kind of don't make sense too.
the military hauls ammo all over the planet, dumps it in piles here and there and lets it sit till needed or until someone remembers it's there, then it gets issued.
i've never seen any of it in nickle..

 

[Petrol & Powder]

This may be one of those questions that is overly broad. It’s unlikely that there is a single answer that absolutely applies across all situations.

The first possibility is just marketing. Most manufacturers of self-defense ammo use nickel plated casings for their high-end, hollow point cartridges. It may be for no other reason than what customers expect to see in those types of loadings. Tradition plays a role even when it is no longer needed.

Then there’s the dirty gun / dirty chamber argument that in a poorly maintained firearm, a nickel-plated casings is more likely to feed and chamber. Not sure if that has any merit but if in doubt, refer to the first possibility of marketing.

There is the corrosion resistance factor. While spare cartridges are seldom carried in leather loops and dump boxes these days, there’s a strong argument that nickel plated cases are just more corrosion resistant in general.

There’s the rapid identification of duty rounds verses training ammo, maybe a factor in some organizations or just tradition.

If I had to pick one of the above, I would opine that ammunition manufacturers simply use nickel plated casings for their high-end self defense cartridges to help those products stand out from the pack.

 

[L Ross]

Y'all are missing out on sumptin'. It's purdy!
Yes indeed, the nickel contrasts especially nicely with jacketed bullets. It stays attractive, doesn't get dull, looks clean.
I just gave a buddy a bag of nickel Star Line .44 spl. brass and his eyes lit up like kid at Christmas.
When I was a kid the cop from the neighboring small town carried a 6" nickeled Colt Officer's Model with nickeled Western .38 spl. ammo with those big old 200 grain Lubaloy coated round nose bullets proudly on display in belt loops, purdy!

 

[Jeff H]

Yeah,...

"D) All of the above" sounds like about the best answer to me.

 

[Thumbcocker]

Shiny

 

[Glaciers]

A few years ago when prices and availability increased the prices of all reloading components I did a purge of excess components.
So brass was certainly pared down to reasonable levels. Which means I had to do a couple reality checks. One, space was a factor. I had so much brass which I would buy at shows, mainly from a friend who sold used brass in lots of 500 to 1000 at reasonable prices. Less common cartridges he had in original boxes or trays always cleaned and not mixed brands. So I always bought a few boxes of 308, 30-06, 9mm, 45, and others of course. But it was easy, buy a box of 500, labeled and just toss it in the garage. After 20 years or so I was tripping over boxes of brass. So about that time I started a purge which was fueled by the decision to build a new big reloading casting room. In the clean up I discovered I had a LOT of brass.
So reality check one, how long was I going to live. Reality check two, space, couple that with selling excess brass will provide $$$ for reloading and cast (molds) that I want and it was a win, win.
So I coupled that purge with the dislike of nickel plated brass and guns and everything nickel was sold off. Don’t have a corrosion problem in the interior of Alaska. Just to damn cold for 7 months. No freeze/thaw cycles.
So I don’t have any nickel plated brass and I sure it helps me sleep better at night.

 

[Dusty Bannister]

In practical use, the nickle plated cases show up easier at indoor or public ranges with a hard clean surface. Easy to see your nickle and not mix with someone else's plain cases. Some get a little testy when you pick up "their" brass along with other stray brass cases.

The down side is using nickle plated cases where a lot of shooters leave their CCI aluminum cases. Not a lot of difference in appearance til they get some oxide on the aluminum.

 

[Cadillac Jeff]

Yup
I always run the nickel ones though first, whether it's the dies or the gun !
Perty!!

 

[JWinAZ]

I find nickel plated .223, and the boxes it came from, at the range. Winchester Q3340, the boxes are purple and marked "FOR TRAINING USE ONLY". The cases also have a purplish wash of some kind. The range is used by DHS, and others, for training and qualifications.

 

[KeithB]

I note on the Starline website that they do not recommend using brass +P cases of several types in titanium cylinder revolvers because of possible ejection problems. Is it because it adheres to Ti? That doesn't explain why a lot of non +P brass is plated but there is a difference in the frictional coefficient of brass vs nickel.

 

[quicksylver]

When Hi -Vel ran their first batch of ammo they gave some to my then go-to LGS, who was also a distributor for S&W, they in turn gave some to me to try, the cases were brass,thank God at the time i was into single actions, so I only loaded 5 rounds into my Model 27, I say thank God because those rounds welded themselves to the cylinder chambers. I reported this to my LGS,who reported it to Hi-Vel. , they must have decided to get rid of their brass supply 'cause they sent me about 10 boxes of primed cases.for my trouble. I concluded that nickle must handle the higher pressures better and makes extraction easier. I still got a couple of those boxes. I've also found that the old non carbide dies would eventually get scratched as the nickle wore off, those dies would them start to really scour the brass cases.My experience from the late 60's early 70's

 

[Tomme boy]

I don't see a lot of nickel cases. I pick up A LOT of brass. 40 go to scrap bucket. 9mm goes to a friend. I keep 38/357 cases. I pick up a bunch of 3006 cases during deer season.

I really don't care for them as they like to stick in my powder dies

 

[todd]

my dad (RIP) had like 500 pcs of 7-08 nickel plated brass that he got in the early '90s. i don't like them, the 7-08 nickel plated have a problem of the nickel plating coming off in small pieces.

 

[shuz]

Beagle never used to postulate these conundrums when Miss Penny was alive!
I think he needs looking into getting another Dachshund or two!

 

[JonB]

I don't see a lot of nickel cases.

Same with me...in south-central MN.
.
I wonder if it's a regional thing?
The local police use our range, if I am lucky with my timing, I get to pick up all the spent cases after a Qual shoot. It's mostly 45acp and 223/556...just about all brass, and a few nickel 45s from every shoot, maybe they are blasting/replacing ammo they carried?
.
...and I have bought a lot at gunshows over the last 25 years. I can only think of one time when I got a bunch of nickel, it was a large batch of used 38spl in boxes.
.
Oh yeah, another time, I bought out a local guy's casting stuff and he included two five gallon buckets of used cases...38 Spl, 357Mag, 41 mag, 44 mag, about half were nickel. I was so happy with such a big score, but as I started a visual sort and sorting them, there was a lot of culls. I wondered if those two buckets were his cull buckets? I think I found 1/4 of them worth reloading. I would have called up that guy and questioned him about those, but he was kind of a old crank, and I got such a good deal on the rest of the stuff, I felt it best to leave that dog lye, in case he found more goodies in his basement.

 

[JonB]

my dad (RIP) had like 500 pcs of 7-08 nickel plated brass that he got in the early '90s. i don't like them, the 7-08 nickel plated have a problem of the nickel plating coming off in small pieces.

So, I've damaged two FL dies from flaking nickel rifle cases. So I do try to avoid nickel rifle cases. I wonder if the flaking has to do with triming? or maybe the the bottle neck shape and the actions of expansion, FL sizing, bumping shoulder has more to do with that? Because I rarely see flaking on nickel straight wall pistol cases.

 

[fiver]

different expansion contraction rates of the two metals.
it all blows out together easy enough, but not so good when it's reshaped back down.

 

[358156 hp]

Nickel plated brass serves some very useful and important functions. It is very popularly used in defensive loads, and in some law enforcement agencies training ammo is in brass cases while duty ammo is in nickel cases. This helps the officers be able to tell at a glance if they have training ammo, usually with non-expanding bullets or duty ammo in their magazines. Also, nickel is a slicker and harder finish that plain brass, this helps with feeding and ejection. Harder, slicker cases improve cycling.

Nickel is also more corrosion resistant than plain brass as noted above. The process for plating cases has evolved over the years and the newer cases are supposed to resist flaking far better than the brass of long ago. I originally avoided nickel cases because I too had issues with flaking, but now I can't even recall the last time I saw a plated case flake. I used to toss all my nickel cases in a bag and sell them at gun shows, but anymore I hold on to them the help identify specialty loadings that I totally screwed up on recording the load data for.

I've also reloaded plenty of nickel pistol brass that I've worn almost completely through the plating over the years. Still, I don't necessarily seek it out, I seem to still get plenty of it anyway.