.....you gots to grab what you can now.
Ain't that the truth!!! Fortunately I have, literally, thousands of cases in many calibers, around 1000 in several other, and no less than 2-300 in some of the really obscure ones I shoot, so this isn't a concern for me.
Why Nickel? This started at least by the 1930s because of corrosion (Verdegris) experienced by police, and anyone else, who carried ammunition in leather cartridge loops. This is what turns brass green. First it is an appearance issue, and second, it is a practical matter. The reaction of the residual chemicals in tanned leather reacts with the Copper in the brass alloy and actually leaches the Copper from the alloy. This leaves the brittle Zinc which can crack when the cartridge is fired. The Nickel plating does not totally prevent the reaction as the Nickel is affected too, but at a much slower rate than the bare brass.
Scooter,
Vinegar blackening Nickel? That's a new one, I will try it and see. So far as 2-3 loads from Nickel cases this is pure BS, unless you are shooting only Remington. I have, as mentioned above, literally thousands of Nickel plated .38 Spl. cases, some I have had since the 1960s. I have no idea how many times some of them have been reloaded, but they have been cleaned enough that many have most of the plating worn off of them. Yes, I have experienced a few dozen neck splits and body splits over the years, but from probably 6,000 cases some probably fired 20+/- times, this is a pretty low failure rate! My recollection too is that the majority were Remington cases too, especially the ones that had body splits. I have had new Remington factory loads split on the first firing, both Nickel plated and plain.
