Nickel Brass?

[BrokenolMarine]

When I was shooting PPC, I preferred nickel cases. To me, they seemed slicker and seemed to load and eject easier. Obtaining brass wasn't an issue since we had carried the model 64 Smiths for years, and both our practice and duty ammo came in nickel cases. Even after we transitioned to the semiautos, I still had five gallon buckets of spent nickel 38 brass.

So, I only the nickel cases for the 38 for my revolvers. If a case was questionable, I'd toss it, but I was loading LSWC at mid range and saw few failures.

Didn't seem critical for the 45 or 40 caliber semi autos feeding from magazines, and that practice and duty ammo came in brass cases, so... I loaded those rounds in brass to shoot in the service auto classes.

[220]

I have about 2000 nickel 38spl, started with about 3000. Some may have been loaded 20-30 times with light WC & SWC loads.
I loose 2-3 out of every 100 with split mouths each reload, failure rate does seem a little higher than brass.
Splits in the mouth are to be expected given how much is it worked each reload between sizing flaring crimping and firing the case mouth gets a lot of work.
I dont know if a taper crimp instead of a roll crimp would extend case life at all, I have a feeling it might simple because it would reduce the amount of work the case mouth gets.