When I bought my first .38 revolver, I picked up a hundred cases at a decent price. They were all nickel plated. I started having failures almost from the beginning. Always been mouth cracks. I now have a fair amount of .38 cases and the number of nickel among them has been dwindling. The other day I was at the range and my daughter said she was having trouble extracting a case.

I managed to extract it without much trouble. It was a nickel case with a split starting just a little down from the mouth and continuing almost to the head. Not sure how dangerous a split like this could be, but decided not to take any chances. The odd thing is the crack did not go all the way to the mouth.

I am currently depriming and cleaning all my .38 cases. I am tossing all the nickel plated I run across. Not all that many left.

I've had the same trouble over the years. I won't buy nickel brass for handloading because of mouth splits. Any factory ammo that comes nickel plated, I'll reload but I rarely get more than a few uses before it cracks. Seems that processes have changed or it's a roll of the dice - I have one lot of nickle .357 that has been resized so many times the nickel has worn off.

When I sort range brass, I put nickel plated 9mm brass in a separate jug, when it's full, I give it to a buddy who likes them. I won't use them because of the splitting.

I've seen nickel cases that are thinner walled than normal and don't hold the bullet well after sizing, but not all. I chuck them too but I do buy them for my woods and waters loads which may not get shot for years.

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Foster Positivity.

Having never seen any damage to a revolver from a split .38 case, I use only plated Federal +P for my IDPA .38 loads and just toss out the splits as I sort them. Bought a huge box of them back when they were cheap. For the mild load I use, the split rate is maybe 1 in 500 after using them over 10 times.

For high pressure semi auto loads, I mostly use ordinary brass because it is plentiful and cheap (or free after a big match). I discard(recycle) up to 25% of range trash pickup brass.

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Science plus Art

[QUOTE=Krogen;138973788... I have one lot of nickle .357 that has been resized so many times the nickel has worn off.[/QUOTE]

I have many 44 mag cases (multiple lots) that have been resized so many times the nickel has worn off and I am still reloading them. For the record I do not load anywhere near max in my 44 mag since I only have a 629 4" barrel. Max is just way to painful for me in my "older" age now.

Just shoot them until they split. No big deal. I have some that are 40 years old that haven't split yet. They probably will soon, and when they do, I'll toss them. Now if I were loading up max loads for serious purposes, I probably wouldn't use them.

Sorry to hear you're having problems with the nickeled brass. I've been using it for years now for all my 38Super reloading and also for my 38Spl defense level reloads. I think I've lost more nickeled brass cases than I've ever had split on me. In fact, I don't think I've ever had one split, but so far, they've all only been reloaded about 15-20times. Pretty much stick to either Federal or Starline nickeled cases, maybe it's a brand issue?

I've had mouth splits on nickel plated cases, but not at a higher rate than with plain brass cases. Toss them when you see a split. It isn't that big a deal. Nickel sure goes through the sizing die smoother.

Probably just me, but these are my findings:
1) pistol cases last almost forever--unless they are .38 Spl or .357 Mag
2) about 2 out of every 100 .38 spl or .357 Mag brass cases will split.
3) about 5 out of every 100 .38 spl or .357 Mag nickel-plated cases will split
4) I have had to clean sizing dies to remove the nickel flakes stuck in the carbide to eliminate the racing stripe scratches on the cases
5) I don't shoot nickel-plated .38 spl or .357 Mag cases any more.

No problems here with nickled, in any caliber. Don't notice any difference between nickel and brass. Some of my .38 and .45acp cases are 25+ years old and have been reloaded scores of times with no splits. I get little tiny splits at the case mouth once in a very blue moon, nickel or brass.

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

I also have not seen such a problem. Once loaded they all have their own box and by the label I keep track of how many times they have been loaded. I have tons of such brass in 38/357-9mm,40S&W-- more than I can ever use. Last 38's I was given was a CASE of nickel Federal classics-- with their boxes. have only use about three boxes of those so far as I am down to a couple guns in 38-- I have 10/15 boxes of 38's I loaded and as of yet haven't been required to toss more than a couple pieces. As with all my brass loaded, when I get down to 1/2 a box, for any reason, I toss them. This rarely happens when you rotate your shootings. My brass is treated like the treasure it is. Just last night I was checking something and found 800 pieces of 357 from Midway bought in 1986-- The bill said 67$--

I have something over a gallon of nickeled .38 brass. I use 'em for top-end loads in .38-44, then discard.

Larry

Can't say I've had the same problem. I load them last, but I load them. I haven't found they fail any more often than other cases. I've got plenty that I've loaded so many times the nickel is worn off.

I avoid nickel too.

My cowboy rig has nickeled cases and silver bullets in the belt strictly for show.

I won't buy anything nickel. Paying a premium price for something less malleable doesn't make sense for me.

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

I bellmouth them heavily, shoot them till they crack, toss them and don't think anything of it. It's a part of shooting.

I think you have struck the heart of the problem... it is very easy to over-bell cases, and nickel cases are nowhere near as forgiving as brass cases. If you over-bell them just a few times, they are going to split. It is that simple.

I made it a practice when I started loading back in1980 to bell only the absolute minimum amount required to start a projectile without it shaving lead or copper. To this date I have never had a nickel case split. Not a single one...

Over belling is probably the root cause, but it seems like any
belling stresses nickel cases and causes splitting. I to have some
nickel cases that are fairly old and have been loaded many times.
The brass on these seems to be of a softer nature, the new Rem
stuff is hard/ brittle. I just don't use it to prevent aggravation. I
also found it to be worthless for case forming such as 22Jet. I
think main reason for nickel cased ammo was to protect it from
corrosion that occurs in leather cartridge loops & urban Cowboys.

I have to go with those who say that nickeled and brass cases are both OK. I load both types interchangeably in all calibers without any problems. I prefer nickeled cases for semiautos as you can find the fired cases on the ground more easily. Different story with nickeled rifle cases - they seem to require somewhat more force to full-length resize, and I have found that some are extremely difficult.

My first .357 magnum case were nickel and I reloaded them until the nickel was nearly gone and you could almost push primers in with your thumb. Got those in the late 1970's and they had the Remington headstamp. I bought some Remington nickel .357 magnum cases about 10 years ago and immediately began having problems with the necks splitting. I believe that the old cases were originally manufactured with the old traditional pickle and electroplate process and currently, cases are plated with electroless nickel. The change in the plating process apparently leads to the splitting problems in many cases.

Just $0.02 worth and about that much in actual value.

Bruce

Cases will get old and tired after giving you their most........
it just does not happen to only nickel cases.

Yes they may hang up but after all it is with just old "Target cases" right....??

I can live with that.

Over doing the case mouth expansion will shorten the life of any case. I can assure you that my disdain for nickeled cases is not due to excessive case mouth expansion.

I first had issues with bottleneck rifle calibers and shorter service life. No case mouth expansion involved. I've also found them to be more of a pain to trim and debur. More than 30 years of handloading has lead me to my own conclusion. Nickel is prettier, pretty longer, but more trouble than it's worth.

My two cents.

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

Over the years I've had numerous case failures with Nickle Cases. I believe it's do to belling too much. My answer was to discard all nickle and I've never had another problem.

They look good but aren't worth the hassel. Since they are sticking in the cylinder when they split just get rid of them instead of shooting them up.

I have carefully adjusted my die to expand only as much as needed to seat a bullet. The brass and nickel cases get the same amount of expansion. There is no doubt in my mind that the nickel cases I got failed at a rate much, much higher than the brass. I never worried too much about it until I had this failure. The others only had small cracks in the mouth. I doubt the failure I had the other day would create a real problem, but it definitely made me nervous about them.

It would not surprise me if some manufacturers cases are less brittle than the ones I have been having trouble with, depending on the manufacturing process.

I've used them for a while had two that were cracked before I loaded them but no failures while shooting the only advantage I see is that they clean up nicer than brass.

"...currently, (Remington?) cases are plated with electroless nickel."

Are you sure about that? I do not know what Remington uses now but I'd be surprised if it's electroless nickel for several reasons. It's been about 15 years since I've been in Remington's Lonoke plant, but they were using barrel plating back then.

Don't forget the .357 and .44 too! I've not had problems with Ni rifle but I'm not replacing with neither.

I always crush my split shell cases flat with a pair of vice grips before I toss them just to keep someone from reloading a bad shell casing. Yeah, I know, it's not my job to save the world, but it makes me feel better. Like Cdog, I do reload dummy rounds for practice, or for "show" in a gunbelt. Otherwise, I use them the same as a brass shell casing and toss them (crushed) when they start cracking.

Regards,

Dave

My nickel .38 brass will split from the mouth down about a 1/6'' or so. But these brass have had target loads and have been reloaded God knows how many times. I pick up about 500 hundred at a garage sale once fired. I lost maybe 50 so far and these were bought around 2005 so they been good to me. Would I buy them again hell yes never heard my gun complain once.

I'm pretty sure or I wouldn't have mentioned it. Having said that, I've been wrong before. Why don't you double check for the heck of it.

Regarding case neck splits; any case will develop neck splits if you over-expand and then roll crimp because you work harden the brass. That definitely was NOT the problem in my instance.

Bruce

All my 38 spl brass is brass, and all the 357 mag brass is nickel plated. Makes sorting really easy. I bought 2 boxes of 357 mag brass when I got my Ruger Security Sx in 1975. I have some of that brass left, but its been tumbled so much that the nickel plating is wearing off.

Range pickup brass is free so I don't care if I get 3 reloads or 20 because it didn't cost anything. I swap brass with a buddy so that I keep bras 38 spl and nickeled 357 mag. We're both happy.

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S&WHF 366

For what it's worth, the vast majority of my case splits occur with nickle cases. I alway assumed some part of the plating process made them more britle.