Nickel cases - sources?

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Third_Rail

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Okay, what's the best source and brand for nickel-plated cases, in both pistol and rifle calibers? I know, blanket question, but I recently bought some from Kittery that were the only nickel-plated I could find, and I don't even remember the brand, but I only got two reloads out of "new, unfired, nickel-silver" cases..... is this normal?
 
Nickle cases are nice for ammunition that might be stored for long while or in a leather case etc, but they are terrible for everything else. They will crack and have splits in just a few loads.

Nickle cases are worth less than half of brass cases to me if I have to go out and buy t hem, and to most others.

For your normal ammunition needs use brass cases.

I have managed to come up with a surplus of 40S&W and 38 Specials in nickle that I would trade for brass cases if you must have nickle.
 
That's actually just what I need, cases that I can reload and store in rather less than optimal conditions... not reloadability. I have brass for that. Are there any suppliers of good (will not corrode even in salt spray, for example, and could still be fired if sealed) primed or primerless nickel plated cases??
 
There's a fellow over on Glocktalk , in the 'Reloading' section, that has .40S&W Federal nickle casings for sale for about a penny a piece, plus shipping. Quantity is reported at between 1500 and 2000.
 
I found nickel plated brass on MidwayUSA.com, but what can anyone say about it??

The Remington nickel plated brass, for example. Would I be able to load all the cases I buy or are some going to be cracked, etc?

How about the Starline nickel plated?

Are Norma/Lapua brass really worth it in terms of life (but they aren't nickel, but still, I wonder)?

Anyone here reload the 454 Casull?? If so, are there any "best" brands for it?
 
Strangeley enough - I have always favored nickel plated cases .... my old stock that served for countless reloads for compo' use ... well, could have gotten 20 reloads I expect ... and then yeah, some split but - for me no worse than brass .. the opposite in fact! Maybe tungsten dies have some bearing . don't know.

I think my most common ones used to be WW +P stuff ... once fired from police range. Or maybe Federal .. too long ago!
 
I have generally had no problem getting 10 loads out of nickle cases IF I am carefull not to flare the mouth too much and don't go crazy on the crimp. Which means medium loads. For heavy loads when I have to apply a deathgrip crimp I'd expect a lot less life.

I have also found that older nickled cases are more brittle than newer ones.
 
Nicer solutions are used by some comapnies to plate brass than others, and I think Starline uses the best of the best... I'll probably be buying a hundred nickel plated cases of each caliber I need from them. I'll report here how it goes, in maybe a few weeks to a month.
 
I believe brittleness is proportional to the thickness of the nickel plating... IE the amount of time the brass company leaves the cases in the plating solution. Perhaps newer nickel brass uses less plating?
 
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