.357 Sig Questions

[nelson133]

I'm thinking about buying a .357 Sig pistol and since I reload what I shoot, I'm looking for reloading advice for this caliber. Since it is a bottleneck cartridge, is it necessary to lube before resizing even with carbide dies? Does neck sizing only work? How long a life does the brass have?
Answers to these and any other questions would be appreciated.

 

[ATAShooter]

Lets see...

Yes, you must lube the cases. The only company I have found so far that makes a carbide die for the 357 sig is Dillon, and it is an expensive little jewel. I use Lee dies and Lee lube, and it ain't nothing. Full length size.

Alot of people avoid reloading the 357 sig due to it being a bottleneck, but really, it is easy as sin, I load the crap out of them. The brass lasts pretty good, of course this will vary with whatever gun you go with,... me, I have a XD in 357 sig. LOVE IT !!!

Here is a link to real guns... There is load info, and if you check out the Commentary section, you will find aricles titled "Overthinking the 357 sig " Those are a MUST read. http://www.realguns.com

Go on and do it... it's a cake walk

 

[Walkalong]

Many are using carbide .40 dies to size the .357 brass first and then their .357 die to finish sizeing the neck with little or no lube. They say it works great. AA#9 powder has a good rep for loading the .357 Sig. Bullets have to be more carefully chosen than in the 9MM as they need more bearing surface. ( I.E. - The 9MM Golden Saber will not work, By the time you get them seated deep enough the short bearing surface is practiclly down past the short neck.)

 

[nelson133]

Thanks for the replies and the link.

 

[CZ223]

What Walkalong said

I am doing it this way and I use no lube. I t realy does work well. Remember, not every 9 mm bullet works in this caliber. I just bought 2000 berrys 124 gr hp that I have been assured will work but, again many will not. The speer GDHP work well and I have loade them but, they are a little pricey.

 

[stevekl]

Wait, what do you mean they "won't work?"

 

[griz]

Wait, what do you mean they "won't work?"

The 357 SIG requires a bullet with a fairly short ogive. If you use a bullet with a long nose it ends up with the mouth of the case above the point where the bullet starts tapering down.

 

[Deavis]

Montana Gold makes a 125gr bullet that is made specifically for the 357 Sig. Load with a big powder like AA9 or AA11 and you've got a full case and a bullet that doesn't set back. My only issue was when I didn't adjust the sizing die down enough, after that, no problems. After fixing that, I have never had an issue after 15k rounds.

 

[YankeeClipper]

I had a load blow back on me and the gun smith told me it happens. I'm unloading the rest of the bunch to check if for some reason I overloaded it. I am in the expermenting stage with my p226 Sig so it is interesting to see what other prople have to say. I didn't lub the first loads and I stuck the brass in the die so hard I striped the screw on the die. Also I got a good buy on some nickel brass. These went fine but they will flake off and embed in the sizing die and scar the case. I don't know why this only happens with the 357 sig because I have loaded thousands of other calibers and not had that happen.

 

[CZ223]

To Steve

What I mean by won't work is just that. There are two reasons that they won't. Reason #1 bullet profile/ogive. Most if not all of your round nose bullets for the 9mm will not work because of the long rounded profile. The case neck must engage the bullet at a point where the bullet is straight and
.356 in diameter. Because of the long sloping profile of many 9mm bullets this cannot be accomplished while maintaining an overall cartridge length of less than 1.140. Any longer and they probably won't function in your mags. The second reason is kinda the same in that it is again associated with the design of the bullet. As far as I know this problem is limited to Golden Saber bullets by Remington but, I may be wrong. The Golden saber is a stepped bullet. That means that there is a straight section at the base of the bullet that measures .356 inch in diameter and then there is a step at which point the diameter reduces sharply. I just miked one and the length of the straight section is .22 inches app. The bullet diameter reduces to .346 just ahead of the step. When trying to load these in the Sig they would just drop into the case if there were not powder holding it up.