Nickle plating peeling

[Dudemeister]

A few weeks ago, I got a couple of hundred brand new nickle plated .45LC cases which I loaded a shot last weekend.

On some of the cases, the nickle plating started to peel from around the mouth of the cases.

Could this be a result of over crimping? I use a standard Lee crimping die, not an FCD, and I do put a crimp on my bullets, not excessive but snug. I've never had any problems with the brass cases ever splitting or anything, but this is the first time I actually loaded nickle plated cases so I don't know what to really expect.

 

[Walkalong]

Heavy roll crimping is hard on nickle brass. Without pics it is hard to tell.

 

[gamestalker]

I load some of my .357 mag with nickel and I do use a pretty heavy roll crimp, H110/296 jacketed loads, they don't peel. I can see the brass color at the mouth after I trim, ream & chamfer, but once they are reloaded there is no visable brass color, and most of those have probably been loaded 10 or 12 times too.

It might be a manufacturer quality issue? Mine are primarily R.P. and Winchester, and a few Federal.

 

[Dudemeister]

Here is a picture of 4 cases. The one on the left looks perfectly fine, the next one looks OK, unless you look real close at the edge of the mouth, where you can see the nickle beginning to "bubble up".

The next one, with the SWC, already has some of the nickle flaked off around the moth, and the fired one has quite a bit of nickle gone.

All the brass is brand new Starline. I inspected the mouths of all the loaded cartridges, and out of 200, about 25-30 show some minor bubbling or peeling around the mouth, the rest look OK. I have already fired 12 rounds out of this batch, and 2 cases look like the one in the picture.

Should I be worried bout this, is this a sign of possible future failure of the case?

 

[Walkalong]

I would contact Starline. I have never had any nickle plated brass do that. I have some Starline nickle brass and it works just fine with no flaking. As gamestalker posted, I have had it where the nickle would be scrubbed off of a small spot and the brass show through if crimped heavily.

 

[FROGO207]

I have some random 38 SPL brass that the nickle has worn off the case until only the head stamping remains filled. That said it rarely flakes off at the mouth on mine, it generally will wear thin over the whole brass evenly due to cleaning in the tumbler. I would contact Starline also, they may have an answer to why this is happening. I would guess the plating is thicker than needed and therefore more brittle than other brands. I have some of theirs in 500 S&W that have no problems with the plating after 10-12 reloads. This happens with my 300WSM cases mostly just before the neck splits as a rule.

 

[wingman]

I don't use nickle plated cases, tried some years back and found it to be thin/weak in 38 special can't remember brand know it wasn't starline. Just don't see the point of adding another equation to the reloading mix.

 

[Seedtick]

A few weeks ago, I got a couple of hundred brand new nickle plated .45LC cases which I loaded a shot last weekend.

On some of the cases, the nickle plating started to peel from around the mouth of the cases.....

Dudemeister,
Did you get those from Midway? I hope not. I picked up 500 from them a few weeks back but I haven't gotten around to messing with them yet.

Does Starline actually do the plating or is the vendor the one who has it done. They only sell the nickel brass in dealer quantities, that's what has me wondering.

I like their brass, yellow and nickel, and I've had really good luck with it.

Seedtick

 

[Dudemeister]

No, I bought this brass from one of the members here, along with a bunch of XTP bullets.

The brass was brand new, and I have no reason to believe it was some kind of seconds or rejects. The weird flaking and edge bubbling did not appear until after I loaded the rounds, and it appears to have been caused by the crimping.

I'm in the habit of checking the mouths of every case almost immediately after I eject it, so when I noticed 2 with flaked of nickle I stopped shooting the stuff. AT home, I inspected all the remaining rounds, and a found 26 with what appears to be slight bubbling around the case mouth edge, and 3 more that have the nickle already flaking off like you can see on the semi-wadcutter. The rest look OK.

I don't think the nickle flaking poses any kind of danger, so I plan on shooting all the remaining rounds. I presume that the ones showing the bubbling will probably develop full flaking, but it would be interesting to see if the ones that look OK, will also show problems.

I also plan on contacting Starline about this to see what they think.

 

[BYJO4]

I think the nickel plating is defective. I have seen nickel wear as the cases are tumbled a number of times but nothing like your photo.