Life Of .38 Special Brass

[chief38]

I still have most of my Brass .38 special cases from when I first started out in the late 70's. I load my 38's on the light side and they seem to last forever. The only splits I ever get are with Nickel cases. The Brass will outlast most Nickel by many times - Nickel is just more brittle and thicker.

 

[varmint243]

38 cases seem to last an unusually long time

I reload them until they split all the way down to the base
It doesn't happen very often but it makes a really strange sound when that happens during the sizing operation.

I have come across several people that didn't realize the nickel was just a thin plating. They actually believed the case was nickel. I do not believe the plating changes the life of the brass any. I prefer nickel because it cleans up a lot easier and stores well for long periods of time.

One of my friends at the range got a lot of some work hardened 38 brass that would no longer resize properly. I have no clue what it takes to make that happen.

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

My brass cases last longer than the nickel plated. Hot loads will wear out the nickel cases even faster.

John

 

[Clovishound]

The nickel cases I bought several years ago when I first started loading started failing after the first loading or two. I started weeding them out as the mouths cracked. They were the majority of the failed cases, even though they were perhaps only 5% or less of my cases, and I would often avoid picking up the nickel cases when loading. A month ago or so, I had a nickel case split nearly to the base when my daughter shot it. No unusual recoil or report, but the case was difficult to remove from the cylinder. I don't believe it was overloaded, I'm sure the hard extraction was due to being split. I have since tossed every nickel .38 case I have. By that time, it wasn't many.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

I think the newer plated cases do not last near as long, maybe an EPA inspired change in the process perhaps? I have noticed that using a heavy roll crimp also affects them as well. With my mild to medium loads I use a taper crimp and that seems to help a lot.

 

[Nevada Ed]

I see a lot of SD ammo in Nickel ..........

might be for the corrosion resistance..?

There is also an old wives tale that was going around my years ago that they were easier to see, if dropped on the ground at night.

Really ? !!
Anyone ever do that ?

 

[X Ring]

A lot of variables involved here. The thickness of the brass. The size of the gun chamber. The thickness of the nickel plating. The load used. The amount of crimp. If you have thick brass and a nice smooth tight chamber and use a light load with little crimp your brass will likely last a long long time. If you have thin brass in a sloppy chamber with a heavy load and crimp your brass will likely fail much sooner.

 

[AlHunt]

Hi:

I have begun to reload a little again.
My brass cases seem to last longer than the nickel cases ?
Anyone have this experience ?
Thanks,
Jimmy

Yep. I hate nickel cases. They split at the case mouth.

 

[ACP230]

I've seen nickeled .38 cases split before brass.
Usually get several loading out of them before seeing signs of
splitting. The same for .45 ACP cases.

I have one brass case that was bought as part of a box of military surplus
.38s in the late 1970s. It was scratched by a Lee Loader at that time.
So, with the scratches and the headstamp I can ID it for sure.
Loaded it again the last time I made .38s. Might be time to think
about retiring it, or not.

 

[glenwolde]

On the one hand it seems to me they do not last as long, but on the other hand I have nickel cases I've loaded so many times they aren't nickel anymore except around the base where the resizing die does not touch the case. Could be it's manufacturer related, I've never really tried to track it.

I lose more cases from the manufacturer's case cannelures than anything else. They'll blow out on the sidewall at the cannelure where the case is thinner. Sometimes it's just a small black spot. Sometimes a split on the sidewall that does not reach the mouth.

There's some Remington nickel cases (from lead bullet loads) that have a very deep case cannelure. These seem to blow out quickly and I tend to just toss them after one loading.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

In about 1976 I started shooting in the Practical Police Competitions. Used a new Model 19 with 6" barrel. Started with 2000 rounds of once-fired R-P brass cases, trimmed & chamfered. My load was a 150-grain SWC (cast of wheel weights, lubed with NRA-formula Alox in a .358" die on the lubri-sizer), 3.0 grain Bullseye, moderate crimp.

Those cases were loaded at least twice each season for more than 10 years. I haven't been competing for the past few decades, but those cases remain in use to this day. Don't recall ever having a failure.

So does the revolver, and the bullet mold, and the lubri-sizer, and the old fart doing the work.

 

[DEG]

Nickle plating is considerably harder than brass and more prone to fatigue cracking due to being re-sized and crimped.

 

[e3mrk]

I seem to only get two to three reloads with the nickle plated Brass before they start to develop cracks but I have brass cases that are on their fifth and sixth reloads with no signs of giving up.
It seems the nickle plated brass is more brittle than the plain brass.

 

[AtomHeartMother]

Yup, my nickel plated doesn't last as long. I just load plinker loads though and all my brass for 38 has lasted a long, long time. Too many reloads on my cases to count and I bell the **** out of my cases to take care of my cast boolits. I fire and reload around 400-500 38's a month. I own about 1k, 38 cases... I don't really worry about how long they'll last. Easy for me to replace.. Of course if I were losing cases to splits, etc., every week that would be a different story. I admit I do take better care of my 45 colt cases as they are a little more spendy.

 

[R. G. Amos]

I only shoot nickel clad ammo in my pearl-handled SAA.

 

[sunnyd]

Nickel splits for me. I only use nickel brass if it is dirt cheap or free. I much prefer brass.

 

[JLM]

Going strong since 1962.

 

[Kframerbluvr]

I have been reloading mixed .38 brass since 1981 when I started in LE. I just scrap a case whenever a crack appears. Never thought about it much until reading this thread. All of the ones I have pitched over the decades have been nickeled.
One of my pending projects is to work up a 38-44 equivalent handload for my .38 GP-100. I was going to use nickled +P marked cases but I should spring for some new brass cases.

 

[Goldstar225]

Early in my .38 special loading days I noticed that nickel plated cases split at the mouth after 1-2 loadings. After that I have stuck to brass for volume loads. I'm still using most of the brass I started with 35 years ago. I don't know, maybe I caused the splits by flaring the case mouth too much as a new reloader but the brass cases held up just fine.

 

[patrickd]

As long as loading them at low pressures and not crimping them they will last a VERY long time. If you're crimping every time you may want to give the very top edge of the mouth a couple seconds of flame from a hot propane torch every ten or so loadings to keep them from getting work hardened and cracking. Other than the occasional cracked mouth with light 38spl loads you'll probably never stretch the primer pockets like with .357's..I have .38 cases that I have lost track of how many times I have loaded them. They're like EverReady batteries. Just keep on going.