The effects of nanosecond visible laser on metallic materials have been studied experimentally. High laser energies (>10(13) W/cm(2)) created a hydrodynamic regime, where the ablation pressure and the ensuing shock wave are the main mechanisms for material expulsion. Plasma shielding caused a constant material removal despite the increase of energy, while the increase of number of pulses resulted in an almost linear increase of the crater volume, despite the lower depths reached with every subsequent pulse. Our results show that there is a correlation between ablation efficiency and material properties, namely ablation efficiency decreases with melting temperature and bulk modulus. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.