loading 38spl dewcs not flush

Shoot some and see. I personally would seat them properly.

I seat them with the crimp in the groove.

Are you using 38spc dies?

Being the thrifty soul (tightwad) I am, I modified my 357 seating die to handle 38 LC and 38 Spec by facing off the bottom of the die enough to seat and crimp 38 LC, then made washers to reset the die to the proper depth for 38 Spec and 357. I leave the die lock ring set and just swap the washers as needed.

sequins said:

Well if I get bad results off the first cylinder I'll definitely stop wasting rounds and seat deeper but I'm hoping I can get away with it as is, adjusting the zero on my micrometer will mean re-doing all my measurements for my 357 load data which isn't the end of the world or anything but a step I'd rather skip.
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this is why I bought another set of .357/.38 dies

Re-Adjust the seating die for .38 Special cases and then seat the bullet to put a light crimp into the groove. DEWC bullets are designed to seat in the groove. You can't just crank down the seating stem without properly adjusting the die first.

Not sure about your loader, but it seems like a whole lot of trouble just to change the seating depth. I prefer Lee Dies and even have them on My Dillon 650 as well as my 2 Lee presses. All I have to do to adjust seating depth is turn the screw on the seating die either up or down. Takes all of about 10 seconds. I seat and crimp with separate dies. I have one Lee Press set up for .357 and my Dillon set up for .38 Special. Crimping dies never change and the seating die is the only one I ever adjust.

I use Lee 38spc dies. Easily adjusted for 357 mag.

I have purchased several 38 SPL die sets for cheap over the years because they were not carbide. I have one dedicated to use with LWC bullets and spacers. Those should work as is but keep on the lookout for more dies in the meantime. Time spent adjusting is no fun if you can work around it.

The other alternative is to make a setup dummy without primer. Just unscrew the seater plug, screw the body in until it is firm on the inserted round,then screw down the seater and you are set back up.

If you have a Redding micrometer seating die, why not just write down the setting for each bullet? I can twirl the knob on my Hornady Microjust quicker than I can change die bodies.

Kp321 said:

Being the thrifty soul (tightwad) I am, I modified my 357 seating die to handle 38 LC and 38 Spec by facing off the bottom of the die enough to seat and crimp 38 LC, then made washers to reset the die to the proper depth for 38 Spec and 357. I leave the die lock ring set and just swap the washers as needed.

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My RCBS .38/.357 dies came with the spacer.

Jim Watson said:

If you have a Redding micrometer seating die, why not just write down the setting for each bullet? I can twirl the knob on my Hornady Microjust quicker than I can change die bodies.

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I’m with @Jim Watson, what good is a micrometer die if you can’t note the reading for a specific bullet and depth and just re-adjust when you’re running those? That is, if you’re seating with one die, and crimping with another. Obviously, if you seat and crimp with the one die, then, you’re adjusting the die body no matter what.
The other aspect of seating long as in the OP’s picture, is that how you did the load workup in the first place? My personal preference is to do the load workup for a particular round, and then try, try, try to make sure I have that recorded and an duplicate in the future.

Walkalong said:

Aren't they all?

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Yes but some people don’t know that.

I use 2 sets of dies myself, 1 for reloading 38spl's and the other for 357's (both rcbs die sets). Once the die is adjusted to do a roll crimp for their specific calibers (38spl & 357). I never have to adjust them again, the roll crimp never changes. I do and will however move the seating stem up or down along with changing out seating stems for rn/swc/wc bullet profiles.

You can pretty much seat a dewc to whatever oal you want as long as they fit the cylinders of the firearm.


Pictured above are different wc's/hbwc's for the 44cal's. The 175gr (top center) is a custom dewc that can be seated flush or use the offset top/bottom grooves to crimp with. Those grooves are setup so that you can seat the bullet with the short nose in 44spl cases or with the long nose to seat them in 44mag cases. Same powder charge, same case volume, same load with both 44spl or 44mag cases.

Myself I typically seat the h&g #50 button nosed wc's long in 38spl cases to use in my 357's. Some reloads using 38spl cases with the h&g #50 crimped in the middle lube groove and a Mihec 640 crimped in the bottom crimp groove. Both loads are used in several different 357's


Not hand/cherry picked by any means. Nothing more then the test targets used that day to test the reloads pictured above in a 686 I bought nib a couple years ago. 6-shot groups @ 50ft.


A cut-a-way of a 45lc revolver cylinder. The top reload has a shorter oal and you can see the body of the bullet is back leaving a gap .between the bullets body and the leade (angled area) of the throat of the cylinder. The bottom reload has a longer oal and the bullet is sitting in the leade of the cylinder. Doing so is better for accuracy/bullet alignment.

I have seated 148 grain wadcutter bullets outside the case when using Trailboss powder. Trailboss is a bulky powder.
Seating the WC out allows for extra room without compressing the powder load.

I have never noticed any problems with accuracy.