.38 Special Brass or Nickel Plated Cases - Pros & Cons?

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il.bill

il.bill

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I have a buddy who walked out of an estate sale with hundreds of cleaned .38 Special cases from a deceased reloader and he has offered me my choice of either bag. I will be reloading these with only moderate loads, using 158 grain semi wad cutters (both plated and coated) over 3.5 grains of Bullseye, 4.5 grains of CFE Pistol, and 3.5 grains of Titegroup. One lot is brass and the other is nickel plated. What are the pros and cons of each?

I suspect that the brass cases would tend to last through more reloadings for my purposes, but the shiny nickel cases sure would look pretty, especially after pulling out the less than 1% that I see have the plating starting to deteriorate.

What can you tell me and my buddy about brass and/or nickel cases for reloading .38 Special? Thanks for any info you can share.
 
You will get more loadings from the yellow brass cases. The nickel cases tend to split sooner. My wife and I load and shoot around 10,000 rounds of .38's per year for our SASS shooting. I relegate the nickel cases to the revolvers and the yellow brass cases to the rifles for that reason.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
Nickel splits faster, but will still last a dozen or more loadings, especially if you ddon't crimp and flare too aggressively. It also seems to load smoother and is prettier. Easier for me to find in the ground too.
 
I use nickel plated and xtreme lead bullets to make my "Lone Ranger" silver bullets, or werewolf hunters. I primarily use the brass, but the nickel plated makes fun looking "silver" bullets.
 
I haven't seen any significant difference in case life between brass and nickel-plated brass cases. IMO, the only functional difference is that the nickel-plated cases won't tarnish nearly as quickly as brass if you carry and/or handle the rounds often.

It also helps to quickly separate similar rounds when you're at the range. Picking up my 38Super cases from the 9mm cases laying around is much easier when they are nickel plated. I also load all my defensive loads in nickel cases to quickly separate them from my milder, target level ammo.
 
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Nickel stays prettier longer, and cleans quicker and easier. I prefer it. Other than that, I can't tell you of any differences I've noticed, including case life. Yellow brass varies greatly in case life so much that I can't say that nickel doesn't last as long. It takes a long time to reach the end of life of most .38 spl cases.
 
ColtPythonElite said:
I agree that nickel splits first. I don't bother to sort them. I just toss the splits as they turn up.
Click to expand...

My experience as well.

These days, I only buy factory new cases and only buy plain brass cases. But, when I was scrounging for cases, I'd take either non-plated or plated.

Sometimes, it is nice to have plated to easily identify special loads

If one carries cartridges in leather loops, nickel plated cases will resist corrosion from the tanning chemicals left behind in the leather.
 
Nickel plated cases load and extract easier, giving some unknown amount of tactical advantage - especially if your revolver has one or more tight chambers.

No free lunch. The process of plating the brass causes embrittlement. Therefore, the number of reloads on nickel plated cases will be lower. Other than that, they are perfectly good parts until the nickel starts flaking off or you see signs of splitting. Nickel plating is not recommended for +P and magnum cartridges in my opinion.

WM
 
Older nickel cases , 50's - 70's , were just fine. I have reloaded some until the nickel plating started to wear off in places , these never flaked off any plating. R - P were the head stamp on these "vintage" cases. The newer factory brass , they must have changed the plating process because after several reloadings the plating sometime starts to flake off in places, usually around the mouth. Some report they start to crack at the mouth also.
I would go ahead and use them , sounds like they might be old school and perfectly fine.
When / If they flake or crack...toss them, not dangerous .
Gary
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I pulled out any flaking or nasty looking ones, decapped and resized the nickel plated cases, and ran them through my tumbler with crushed walnut shells. They feel slick and look great. I decap and prime each of my cases individually by hand, so I usually catch any splitting or blown primer pockets. For my loads I expect that I will have a number of 'purdy' silver cases in use for years.

I had never bought any nickel plated new ammo, but most of the range pick ups I have acquired seem to be head stamped for +P loads. A plated SWC in a shiny silver case looks mighty nice. I usually reserved the 'silverware' for special occasions where a bit of glamour and glitter seemed appropriate (did I just type that line?). Now with a couple of hundred 'silver' cases available instead of 20-30, I might just have to grow my mustache longer or something.
 
I inherited my grandmother's .38 Special S&W revolver in 1993 with three boxes of ammunition (one partly filled). When I decided to start reloading for it, I bought 500 RP nickel plated cases figuring that they would last me a lifetime. So far they have.

I like the way a 158 grain Nosler Hollow-Point looks sitting atop the shiny sliver of the case.

Of all the calibers I reload, .38 Special scares me the most. The powder charges are all around 3 or 4 grains and when you put that in the case, it's almost like the case is still empty. The potential to double (or even triple) charge a case is very high. I've had to adjust my procedures to compensate.
 
The nickel will split sooner than the brass. The nickel cases also often times have a cannelure in the case just below the original bullet seating depth to prevent bullet setback(?). These wont fireform out of the cases with 38spl loadings. If you are seating your bullets past these case cannelures, your bullets can be damaged.

Nickel look pretty, but brass is all around better.
 
All my Ni cases are from the 70's. None have split, with some having over 20 cycles. A lot of them have the plating wearing off but none has pealed. I think the newer brass is just cheaper made the reason for the shorter life span.
 
For some reason, stuff that isn't available anymore is seen as higher quality or more desirable. The fact is that plating can be done correctly, or not as the case may be. Regardless of the plating quality, nickel plating causes embrittlement as has already been stated. Plated brass will have a shorter reloading life, but that doesn't mean it should not be used.

I recently had a whole box of .357 magnum nickel plated ammo. It was marked as special self-defense ammo. Every one of those cases threw off 50% of the plating upon firing. That jammed up the gun, since I couldn't eject the cases. That won't happen all the time, it just shows what can happen when a case really does expand to fill the chamber under heavy pressure.

WM
 
Wireman said:
Nickel plated cases load and extract easier, giving some unknown amount of tactical advantage - especially if your revolver has one or more tight chambers.



No free lunch. The process of plating the brass causes embrittlement. Therefore, the number of reloads on nickel plated cases will be lower. Other than that, they are perfectly good parts until the nickel starts flaking off or you see signs of splitting. Nickel plating is not recommended for +P and magnum cartridges in my opinion.



WM
Click to expand...


Yet a very large amount of +p loadings are in nickel cases. There is no reason not to load +p in nickel.
 
It's already been said but:

Either/Or is the best choice. I don't sort em, I just load and shoot them. When they split I toss them in the recycle can.

Have a blessed day.

Leon
 
personally i will not use nickle plated cases if i have brass. they have scratched my forster 300 win mag fl sizer. and don't know what they do to the bore of a rifle, one thing for sure is the nickel cant help it.
 
I guess I'm the odd man out on this one. I have about 200-250 nickel plated 38 cases and mebbe 500 nekkid brass. I have found them to have the same life, that nickel splits no sooner than plain brass cases. I started reloading with 38,and most of my brass was range pick up from the local police range so I got about 50%-60% nickel. I haven't experienced any difference (no early splitting, no flaking) with the 38 Specials and I've only reloaded the .357 nickel cases mebbe 8-10 times. I have reloaded some 38s enough times to wear through the plating down to the brass...
 
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