Hi all, Ive been sorta curious about how many loadings a .45 Colt nickel plated caseing can take. I purchased some brand new Remington Peters nickel plated .45 Colt caseings and had at it. Kept 50 caseings together for the duration useing the same load of 8.0gr of Unique, Federal 150 primers and Remington .455 dia. LRNFP bullet. Case belling was kept to a miminum and a medium roll crimp was used. Wanting to give them the worst case possible, all fireing was done with one of my Colt SAA's. The Colts not only have oversized cylinder throats but are also known for out of spec oversized chamber dimensions as well, this will overwork a case. Well, after six fireings sixteen of the cases had been discarded along the way due to large cracks in the case mouth or caseing splits, some had failed in as little as three fireings. Inspecting the surviving caseings reveiled about a third of them had small mouth cracks and I deemed the whole lot unserviceable and they were disposed of. Now I know that results will not be the same with other calibers and brands of caseings and different loadings and firearms used, but I think Im going to stick to plain old non plated brass caseings for my handloading needs.

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Stay safe people!

I've decided to only order non-plated cases because I find the force required to resize is less. However, I just disposed of some nickle plated cases from the first box of .357 ammo bought in 1974. The nickle had worn so thin that you could see the brass under it. I have no idea how many times they had been reloaded, but it has to have been dozens. Apparently, YMMV.

I will be interested in this also. I just bought 350 357 magnum nickel cases that I will be loading with 6.5 Unique. I was planning on making this my go to load. I read somewhere that the brass case is thinner because of the nickel coating being applied. I can't really buy that as the reason they crack. I do know that nickel is hard and to be subjected to full crimps will crack because of its brittleness. Glad I caught this post before I get at it and load the works. I think I will do a little experimenting also with a few rounds.

Never had any issue with nickel, they get mixed in with all the other brass. Not a concern.

Vulcan Bob,

Good post, I don't think that there is one of us who hasn't wondered about the "re-use" factor of nickel plated casings no matter what caliber you are shooting.

I have an S&W 357 mag, model 28-2 w/6"barrel, I have put several factory brands plus my own reloads to the test some time ago. Performance-wise they all seemed to work great, as far as longevity compared to non-plated... my failure rate was almost 2 to 1, perhaps others have had better results. I know that when it comes to reloading them that I have to inspect them FAR more closely than non plated, not a real big deal but it does tend to slow things up quite a bit.

I have to say that i'm with you MichiganScott on this one.

Good article on cracked nickel 45 cases.
Carteach0: Reloading tip: Cracked nickel cases

ruger-p94,
Your observation about old nickel plated cses jibes with mine. I have some old nickel plated 38 Special brass from the 1960's in which the nickel plating is worn off the brass and they are still functional. Meanwhile i have had nickel plated brass on current manufacture split after ca 5 reloads. I wonder if the nickel plating technique has changed and produced a more brittle product.
Given EPA/OSHA requirements I would not be surprised if there were some "dangerous" chemicals employed in earlier days. I do remeber that cyanides were used in plating operations.

I sure hope they were not made in California. If they were they would be made of biodegradable wood products and non leaded nickel paint. More than likely like everything else they are made now from the cheapest technique and lowest quality metals. I usually always bell mine as little as possible and with the least crimp I can get away with. I load the 158 Lee tumble and I have had not one move on me....knock on wood.

same here. Ive got some 45acp nickel cases that have been loaded at least 18 or 20 times. I have no scientific data to support my oppinion but I believe auto cases hold up better than revolver cases due to the taper vs. roll crimp.

Your observation on 45ACP nickel plated brass is similar to mine. I get more splits with 38 Special/357 Magnum nickeled brass.

For ease of separation, 38 Spl is brass and 357 Mag is nickle. Some of my 357 mag brass is tumbled enough that the nickle plating is wearing off. Don't have any premature brass failures but with 2,000 pieces of nickled brass how would I know? Range brass is the best free brass you can get.

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S&WHF 366