I reloaded once fired Winchester 38 Spl +P 158 gr LHP nickel cases with my standard +P loading 5.6 gr Power Pistol and Speer 158 gr LSWCHP. At least seven had case mouth splits to varying degree.

Never had that problem before after the first reloading with any brand's cases, nickel or brass.

Welcome to the wacky world of nickel plated casings....some go forever and others split right away.

Randy

I've never found any nickel plated handgun brass that lasted as long as unplated.

Don't recall the headstamp but I found a whole grunch of split nickel .38 brass in my pickups one time. Forget the technical term but the plating process makes the brass brittle. Not sure if annealing would fix it but why bother?

I've always thought it was the plating that makes them more prone to split. And that's my experience, they are much more likely to split than plain brass.

I have-it was RP but it was also 40 years ago. Back then brass was electro-plated. Today, brass cases get electroless nickle hence the case neck splits.

Bruce

Take note of how much you're belling the case mouths before seating a bullet. Bell them no more than necessary to start the bullet in the case. That will reduce the mouth splits.

Nevertheless, like everyone else has stated, nickle cases just won't last as long as unplated brass.

Hank M.

So you found that out did you.....? !

I load Winchester nickel just one maybe two times maximum.
I then put them in the "Old folks home", blue 100 pak for just
light target loads only.

I have some old nickel cases that are so old the brass is showing all over them.
Many have light mouth splits but not enough to harm a light crimp on a 148 wc.

Nickel casesjust split sooner than later. Is what it is.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I've been lucky. I can't remember the last time I found a split case in my reloading. I load both plain brass and nickel. I use the nickel for identification of "different" loads (up or down).
After 40 years of this, maybe I'm doing something wrong. Or just plain dumb luck. I'll cop to the dumb.

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and what his trumpet saith

Please clarify. When you say the cases were "once fired" is this a known once firing because they were factory rounds that you shot and were relaoding for the first time or are you applying the term "once fired" to previously used brass in a generic sense?

All of my nickel plated brass is Remington and I don't load to +P pressures, so I don't have any WW nickel brass with which to compare it, but with WW brass brass, I have had no problems with splits at the lower pressures.

Can't add much to this, but my nickel .38 casings can be reloaded anywhere from 3 to 7 times if charges are kept at "bunny fart" levels. Yes, nickel plating makes them more brittle and less susceptible to stretching under fire and later under resizing. Using a 125 gr. cast and 2.9 to 3.0 of Titegroup seems to allow a longer life without splits.

But I love loading those purdy shiny things and they seem to go through the resizer more smoothly.

Like Hand stated above, keep belling and roll-crimping to minimum because this aids in the beginning of the end.

To go a bit afield here, the only nickel cases I seek anymore are for those rounds meant to be kept in leather belt loops. They earn their pay by preventing verdigre (the green crud/ corrosion).

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Stay safe people!

I have only been able to get about three reloads from most nickle brass compaired to 5-7 reloads on just plain brass.

I guess we can all say it...."They just don't make them like they used too ! "
I have old cases where the nickle has worn off in places they have been reloaded so many times. One reload doesn't sound like quality.....but we live in a disposable society with planned obsolescence ....the quicker something fails , the company can sell you more and they make more money !
Shame it has to be like this,
Gary

Yes, I had plated cases years back that lasted much longer. The WW batch gets an "F" (however, their load (WW 38 Spl +P 158 gr LHP) gets an "A" just don't expect to reload it!)