.357 sig

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When I wet tumble cases, it is after resisizing so no issues with the dies. I do not see any issue with carbide dies. One may need to insure proper lubrication with steel dies.

I let the wet tumbler run 4 to 6 hours, but that fits my schedule. The cases may be adequately cleaned in less time.

How wet is wet? The cases are fully immersed in water. Does that give you an idea how wet they are?

I let cases air dry. I spread them out on a towel to dry. I may stir them a bit after eight to twelve hours in case there are some drops of water in the cases. I let them dry for several days and make sure there is no water left inside the cases. I generally resize and clean cases shortly after shooting and store them away for a future loading session.

I do not oven dry them because I do not need to. Some folks do but you want to keep the temp low, I'd say 200 degrees as a max.

You do not want any water left int the cases.

Hop this helps.
You use stainless media with the water? Detergent?

Thanks.
 
You use stainless media, dish soap and a caustic agent like lemishine.
 
Getting a little drifty here on this question, but does anyone wet tumble their cases in areas where the natural water supply (whether city or well) is extremely hard 18-20 grains hard. I don't want to go into this endeavor without asking all the right questions.

Thanks.
 
That's what the soap is for. You adjust for water hardness and acidity by varying the soap and lemishine. In my area, I need two tablespoons of soap and .5cc of lemishine per gallon of water. Changing this ratio results in browned or acid etched brass. I had to run a few test batches to get there.
 
My method...Finally!

OK, I think I finally got to the point where I can actually charge my rounds. After nearly 100 cartridge re-sizes, bullet seats and taper crimps here's my method.
1. Tumble in walnut to remove most of the gunk and chamfer any new cases
2. Lube with One Shot
3. De-prime with Lee universal and re-size with the Dillon carbide size die (I set my size die by following the L.E. Wilson case gauge instructions for their cartridge die.
4. Tumble in SS rods with Dawn and Lemishine
5. Rinse several times, separate rods and dry
6. Insert into Station 1 of Dillon 550B which has no die in the toolhead
7. Rotate to Station 2 and bell to .003 over nominal OD of re-sized case (Dillon size die generally gives me a nominal .375 OD), so I bell to ~.378
8. Rotate to station 3 and seat the bullet to nominal 1.136 (Max COL is 1.140).
9. Rotate to station 4 (this was the tricky part for me) unscrew the seating die, raise the turret, screw the seating die down until it touches the cartridge, lower the turret and turn the seating die two nut faces (approximately 1/3 turn) and lock down.
10. Eject dummy round and check for brake inertia using a bathroom scale and measuring #40 of force. (BTW, this hurts the thumb, #40 of concentrated force is a lot more than I thought it would be).
11. Finally, verify COL and chamber the dummy round, cycle it through the action and re-check COL to determine amount of setback. I arrived at .005 nominal setback, which I think is OK.

Whew!

Now the next step is to charge up 10 cartridges with a 115 gr Hornady HAP and 9.4 grains of Accurate #7, head to the range and chrono. If the spread is 100 fps and the mean is within listed velocities for that charge, I'm proceeding. If not, I may need to revisit.

PLEASE...If anyone sees anything flawed with my process, let me know. I can take it, I'm a big boy. Thanks for reading.
 
I've used Speer 125 gr. TMJ and Hornady 124 gr. XTP successfully for .357SIG. I don't lube the brass at all.

Perhaps going with a longer bullet, like a dedicated .357SIG bullet (from Speer) or even a 147 gr. bullet will yield better results. I haven't loaded a 115 gr. bullet for this caliber yet, as they're a lot shorter and may cause problems.
 
Wow. I'm worn out just reading about all the effort you put in to reload these things. Oven bake! Bathroom scale! Wow. I'm impressed.

You actually tumble twice, once in walnut and once in SS! That's dedication.

But where did "brake inertia" come from?
 
Sorry,I have been out of circulation for a while. In response to moxie, yeah I'm a little anal when it comes to some things. I've read too many bad stories about this little gem of a cartridge and when it comes to variables (especially with bullet setback) I don't like to take chances.

New news. I loaded up 15 rounds using 115 HAP JHP (Hornady) and 9.5 grains of #7, headed out to the gravel pit with the chrono and all rounds came in at an avg dev of 14 fps. I had a high of 1208 and a low of 1147 with an avg velocity of 1184 fps.

I think it is interesting to note how much more velocity is gained with a little more bbl. The Hornady test gun was a Sig p229 with a 3.84" bbl and mine was a Sig p226 with a 4.4" bbl. The factory average velocity is 1105 and mine was well above that. This is more proof that one needs to start at or near the low end of reloading data. I wonder what the velocity would be with a 9" bbl?

All in all, a good experience. No setbacks and now I have 1k of that recipe loaded and ready for the range.

Thanks for reading.
CH
 
There is one site that has almost everything you need to know: www.realguns.com . In the article archive are 3 or 4 articles on loading the .357Sig and it really works.

BTW, this cartridge is confusing. It has a shoulder with a datum line, as per SAAMI, but the actual headspace dimension is at the case mouth. Nevertheless, my headspace gauges work from the shoulder.
 
I'll look at that site in more detail, later; but initial glance it looks pretty cool. Thanks BF!
 
I arrived at the AA#9 idea on my own some years ago, but one of the very best things I have learned from THR and Cast Boolets is that many 9mm and 357 Sig barrels are really larger than .355 and can benefit from a cast bullet that may be sized as large as .358.

You would be surprised how much additional neck tension you get from that extra couple of thousandths. I have practically abandoned my .356 sizing die and just size all of my 9mm and 357 Sig bullets to .358 just the same as if they were for a 38 revolver. One unexpected pleasant consequence of this is that I load the fabulous Lee 105 SWC in 9mm, 357 Sig, 38 special and 357 magnum all from the same tub of sized and lubed bullets.

That reminds me of another 357 Sig loading tip: try some straight-sided SWC revolver bullets. The straight sides contribute to neck tension. Find a picture of the Lee 105 SWC and you will understand why it is such a good choice.
 
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