Why Nickel Coated?

[Rack Grade]

Why is some ammunition nickel coated?

[TreverSlyFox]

Much Russian Ammo is Nickel or Zink coated. Why?

Most Russian ammo is Steel Cased ammo and had a green Lacquer coating on the case. They went to the Nickel and some Zink coating on the steel cases to avoide the "mess and gunk" the Lacquer caused in some actions IE: AR-15/M-16.

In fact some AR-15 manufactures state the warrenty is voide if you use Lacquer Coated Ammo like Wolf.

[JA]

With revolver ammo this was done for police officers. Back in the day when revolvers were standard issue extra ammo was carried in leather pouches or belt loops. The chemicals used to tan leather would react with the brass cases turning them green and furry after being carried for a couple of months. Also the officer sweating would do the same thing. This could result in making the ammo hard to chamber and the fired cases hard to exstract from the green furry stuff on them. Besides it looked funky on a officers belt having his extra ammo green and furry. So the ammo mfgs. started nickel plating the cases to prevent this.
Some 38 Super,9mm,and 45acp ammo had nickel plated cases for police use also.

[C. M. Wolf]

Nickle plated cases withstand tarnish better than plain brass because it's harder,(and cheaper than pure brass or copper). It's also one of the alloys that's used in the cosmetic chome platings and some stainless steels.
I won't use nickle plated cases or bullets in my firearms simply because it is harder and that makes it harder on the chambers, bores, and actions of the firearms also. If you reload your own rounds, you'll get less 'life' out of the nickle cases because it's also less maliable and wears the resizing dies out quicker too.

As far as storing good brass and copper component rounds and slowing the tarnishing factor, I've found that leaving a very slight coating of the resizing-die-wax on the round and then double bagging the loaded rounds keeps them cleaner and 'brighter' longer. This slight resizing-wax coating certainly isn't going to hurt the firearm and even acts as a lube for when the rounds move throught it.

IHTH

Michael