I am a long-time handloader with experience with nickel cases in many calibers. Nickel cases do seem to crack sooner than plain ones. However, a contributing factor seems to be pressure of the load. A friend bought a large amount of virgin nickel cases in .40 S&W. The cases cracked and peeled from the second loading and got so bad he threw them away. I suspect another cause is poor plating quality. I bought a thousand pieces of virgin .38 Super cases to keep them separate for revolver ammo. The nickel-plating began to peel during the first loading....had to be crummy plating job.
My .357 Magnum nickel cases crack way sooner than .38 Special cases from the same maker.
