Nickel plated .500 S&W cases

01 March 2016, 22:17

Hi all,

what I have read some reloaders prefer nickel plated cases because of easy cleaning and easy extracting from cylinder. Is there any real advantage or disadvantage of nickel plated cases? Especially in .500 S&W caliber. I have never used it in my rifle or pistol reloads.

Jiri

01 March 2016, 23:22

carpetman1

I like to use nickel when I have two similar cases so I can easily tell them apart. So I use a lot of nickel and I like it.

02 March 2016, 02:08

p dog shooter

I use and like nickel handgun cases I also use a lot of brass casings also.

02 March 2016, 02:51

wasbeeman

I like nickel in a pistol round, I think it's first use was so the cartridge wouldn't discolor in a leather ammo belt. And too, the pistol cartridges I reload are straight walled cartridges so there isn't any crazing as the neck is reformed. And that brings us to why I don't like nickel in a rifle cartridge. After a couple of re-sizings, the plating around the shoulders starts to craze and flake off.

02 March 2016, 03:10

Dulltool17

Can't speak to the .500 S&W, but I load a fair amount of Nickel plated in .40 S&W. The club I used to belong to hosted the FBI every month, so I got to collect quite a bit of Nickel Winchester cases. I haven't really kept track, but I'm pretty sure I've loaded some over 10 times without issue.

02 March 2016, 04:02

LeonardC

I guess I'm all alone on the other side of the fence. I hate nickel brass. When I first started reloading it was with WW .357 nickel brass. Over time the nickel would flake off the mouth and stick inside my sizer die, scratching all brass that followed. I have very very little nickel brass on hand and I don't reload it.

I can see where the nickel brass is more "weather proof" and may stay "pretty" longer when exposed to the elements. I certainly don't want green ammo, but I'd like nickel only slighty more.

02 March 2016, 21:46

MuskegMan

quote:
Originally posted by LeonardC:
I guess I'm all alone on the other side of the fence. I hate nickel brass. When I first started reloading it was with WW .357 nickel brass. Over time the nickel would flake off the mouth and stick inside my sizer die, scratching all brass that followed and stick inside my sizer die, scratching all brass that followed. [I]and stick inside my sizer die, scratching all brass that followed. and stick inside my sizer die, scratching all brass that followed. I have very very little nickel brass on hand and I don't reload it.

I can see where the nickel brass is more "weather proof" and may stay "pretty" longer when exposed to the elements. I certainly don't want green ammo, but I'd like nickel only slighty more.

Haven't made the jump to a carbide sizer I take it.

03 March 2016, 00:32

buffybr

I've never had any problems reloading nickel plated cases.

I separate the .38 spl and.357 magnum nickel and brass cases, and load them with different bullets. It's then easier to tell the difference in loads.

As for .45 acp, they all get thrown together, and I can't tell any difference shooting them.

After multiple firings, I've seen the nickel begin to wear thin on some cases, but I've never had any issues reloading them.

03 March 2016, 04:17

Steve E.

I know it's not 500 S&W brass but I had some R-P 444 Marlin brass that I reformed to 309 JDJ and I reloaded them so many times most of the nickel wore off of them and still had tight primer pockets.

Steve........

03 March 2016, 04:33

mete

Looks like some companies know how to nickel plate brass better than others !!

03 March 2016, 12:47

Jiri

Hi guys,

thanks for you advice. But what do you think about easier extraction from revolver cylinder with higher pressure loads? Do you think it could be any benefit?

Jiri