Brass or Nickel

[PT7]

Try some Black Hills if you get a chance.

I have shot BHA, RR, and still have 80 rounds in my stash of Black Hills 250gr RNFP, which is rated at 725 FPS. It is a really cool ammo to shoot, and I like it. The only hold up on getting more is of course the cost. Higher yet than the S&B ammo I just ordered. That's why BigAl suggested that as long as I'm not a reloader, get the "cheapest for plinking." That will be a good way to go; but from time-to-time, I'm certain more rounds of BHA will sneak into my ammo cans!

BTW, I'm attentively following your Lyman thread, and rooting for you all the way, Cowboy!

PT7

[RanchRoper]

Ya might just jump into reloading...courage is being scared and saddling up anyway....so they say

[fortyshooter]

PT...all off the shelf .45 Colt ammo will be loaded to SAMMI specs of 14,000 psi. or less and your Uberti .45 is built to handle that.
Now some .45 Colt ammo by Buffalo Bore could exceed that and will be labeled as a+P or Ruger only load.
If you get into loading .45 Colt a long time standard is a 250 gr. lead bullet over 8-8.5 gr. of Unique which I use in all my Colt type revolvers
and smaller frame Rugers.

[clovishound]

Nickel cases have their upsides and downsides. If you aren't going to reload them, then don't worry about it.

On the positive, carbon doesn't seem to stick to them, so they come back from the range very clean.

On the down side, many of them are brittle and will only withstand a few reloadings before they start to split. A few years back, I just started tossing any nickel .38 cases because of so many failing. The brass cases last for many, many reloadings. I don't seem to have the same problem with .45 ACP. But then, I don't think I've lost any .45s to splits. I get the occasional one in .38 brass.

[Mags]

.
For sure with aluminum cases. But first I've heard that 'confirmed' about nickle plated brass.

Nickel cases have their upsides and downsides. If you aren't going to reload them, then don't worry about it.

On the positive, carbon doesn't seem to stick to them, so they come back from the range very clean.

On the down side, many of them are brittle and will only withstand a few reloadings before they start to split. A few years back, I just started tossing any nickel .38 cases because of so many failing. The brass cases last for many, many reloadings. I don't seem to have the same problem with .45 ACP. But then, I don't think I've lost any .45s to splits. I get the occasional one in .38 brass.

[clovishound]

.
For sure with aluminum cases. But first I've heard that 'confirmed' about nickle plated brass.

I have seen a few threads about nickel cases on reloading forums. I hear a lot of anecdotal reports about excessive failures of nickel plated brass. I get the impression it may vary by manufacturer and caliber.

Just to expand on my experience, When I bought my first .38 revolver, I didn't have any brass and bought a bag of once fired nickel plated brass. I started getting mouth splits right from the start. The unplated brass I picked up at the range did not split until years later, and even then it was very occasional. As soon as I got a sufficient quantity of brass, I started weeding out the nickel, even that which had not failed. I had several nearly full case splits, which did not give me warm fuzzies. There is no question in my mind that something about the plating process embrittles the brass. Depending on the exact process each manufacturer uses, and perhaps the exact alloy of the brass, that brittleness may vary.