Nickel Plated Cartridges

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When comparing nickel coated cartridges to regular brass cartridges are their any advantages or disadvantages or pro's and con's between the two? Is there a specific reason why some cartridges are nickel coated?



I guess I should have put this post in the Ammunition category, if a Mod would move it for me it would be much appreciated. Thank you.
 
It is an anti-corrosion feature.

If my range pick up brass has a lot of it is sort it out and use it for a particular application -say max power loads.

An ammo make can use it to make 2 similar calibers look different say 270 vs 280.
 
Nickel plated cases are good to reload. I find the plating makes them harder and cases mouths eventually split before a normal brass case will. My 45-70 cases did this and I now anneal them, surviving brass has 8 more reloads on them. My 38 special nickel cases the coating flakes off but 22 loads of target wadcutters. Life expectancy of nickel plated brass is less than regular brass but you still get a lot of use out of them.
 
Trimming to length raises hell with a carbide cutter.
Cleaning the necks with solvent and resizing in a Lee Collet die is pretty quick and simple.
Nickel plated brass was all that was available in 1998 and it still functions but when time to trim comes due it is recycled.
Have annealed some but have yet to split a neck.
Switching to brass eventually.
 
For me, other than being pretty and easy identification of a specific load, nickel plated cases have only disadvantages for actual reloading. As a result, my experiment with them ended years ago, and now I use only brass cases.
 
Snider shooter said:
Nickel plated cases are good to reload. I find the plating makes them harder and cases mouths eventually split before a normal brass case will. My 45-70 cases did this and I now anneal them, surviving brass has 8 more reloads on them. My 38 special nickel cases the coating flakes off but 22 loads of target wadcutters. Life expectancy of nickel plated brass is less than regular brass but you still get a lot of use out of them.
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Great info, never knew this
 
I keep my 9mm nickel range brass separate, no real reason. So one day all I had was full length resized nickel cases to do our 929 loads. Turns out it’s a real tight fit in either DAA or TK moons. So tight using a demooner isn’t possible and they all need to be pressed into the moonclip checker when loaded on a mooned. Mixing them with brass cases makes them usable.

No idea why this is so. Most are WIN, but brass WIN is fine along with Blazer and FC. Yes I sort my brass. Revolver loading is SO much work.
 
Nickel plating prevents growing green vertigris in leather cartridge loops.
Tumbling in SS pins seems a little hard on the plating after two such cleanings the brass is showing through. I’ll clean in corn cob media next time.
 
I have read also that nickle plated casings have a lower friction coefficient than their brass counterparts, theoretically resulting in smoother feeding into the firearm. How much this effect actually comes in to play in reality I am dubious about.
 
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