The catch with nickel cases:
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Nickel-brass cartridge cases were invented to prevent corrosion from exposure to leather in cartridge belts. The leather in the shell loops will corrode the brass after a time and prevent perfect feeding, ejecting and sometimes the brass can fail when fired with this corrosion. I'm a lowly zoomer but i can remember one of the old boys in the local sheriffs department that carried a .357 mag revolver. he carried two speed-loaders in a pouch and had a line of 6-12 more shells in loops on their belt. and to my best recollection they were nickle-brass.
I use them to differentiate between my standard pressure .45 colt loads and my +P loads.
My Observations:
- they stay clean and shiny. any fouling wipes right off, and they look factory new if tumbled for a few minutes in a case cleaner.
- They do not expand as well as brass to the chamber walls. often this leads to gas blow back on the case walls. Brass cases with the same loading fully expand and seal the chamber. this is largely harmless but might lose some velocity, I wager.
- Case life is short. The above case was loaded 4 times to magnum pressures before splitting. nickel rifle brass case life may be shorter even still. this is because the cases work harden faster than normal.
- Nickel cases cannot be annealed. brass and nickel have different annealing temperatures.
- Nickel cases feed and extract very nicely. "slick" is the term i would use for them.
- more expensive.
Overall, for plinking and general shooting they aren't worth it. however, if your cases spend days and months in contact with leather they have utility. if you are going deep into the back country hunting I'd also consider them for their general corrosion resistance. it's a high performance solution to high performance problems.
is now homeless and lost essentially everything.
