I have this problem. I have been reloading 45 Colt for about 30 years. A couple years ago I bought 500 rounds of Remington nickle plated cases. They are splitting at the rate of 8 or 10 cases for every reloading 'cycle'. I haven't split that many brass cases in 30 years. Same loads, same proceedures. I load 8 grains of unique with 250 lead (wheelweight) bullet. Been using it for years. For some reason these nickle cases split alot. Any ideas??

That's characteristic of nickle plated cases. I avoid them for reloading now and I'll advise you to toss them in the garbage. They scratch non-carbide dies, which is something I learned the hard way. If you do a search here you'll find a large number of complaints about nickle cases.

Bye
Jack

Thanks for the info Jack. I sorta thought that was the problem. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't as special proceedure I didn't know about. No more Nickle for me!!

Jack is right. In the days just before carbide dies were affordable, Remington nickel plated .357 mag cases ruined my steel die. Each time I resized the cases, the nickel would peel or blister and pieces of this stuff would score my die. I understand that carbide dies are hard enough to survive this treatment but as for me, no more nickel cases for me either.

Yep, it's the nature of the nickeled beast. You can somewhat reduce the frequency of splits by keeping case mouth flare and crimping to a minimum, but they'll still split sooner, on average, than brass.

Nickled cases are hardened by the plating process. I use new ones for hunting loads as they dont corrode as easily in leather loops. You could try anealing them.