.357 Sig Reloading Question

[Walkalong]

BTW, I found the same problem on my Lee 400 Corbon sizing die, but even worse: the HS is too far back by 0.020" from the back of the LWD barrel for the Glock 20. It goes into battery for an unknown mfr bbl for 1911's. So big difference. I'd prefer to shoot the Glock since it cause a whole lot less bullet setback issues and resulting over-pressure problems. I've put the 400 Corbon aside for now -- too many issues. I have lots of other projects I can work on!

Sounds like a big difference in those two .400 Corbon chambers. I only have one .400 Corbon barrel. It is a Firedragon barrel for a 1911. I have been able to use my standard shell holder on my Partner press, and now the standard shell plate on my LNL to load for it. As you alluded to, I just use the barrel to set up the sizer. .357 Sig would be done the same way.

Like this

 

[igoodnessi]

Lee Dies?

I just started reloading and I'm wondering if .357 might not have been the best starter round. I enjoy the time I take to meticulously inspect, clean, deprime, clean, size, prime and charge the rounds but... I can't seem to get seating/crimping down. Every single round I press either buckles at the shoulder or is loose and allows bullet setback. I have pressed a few nice rounds but, I cannot get my Lee dies to give me GOOD, consistent rounds. I'm debating getting rid of them and just switching to RCBS or another brand. Thoughts?

 

[Walkalong]

Loose neck tension is usually from to large a sizer, too large an expander, or a bit of both. It is possible to ruin neck tension over crimping as well.

Buckling the shoulder is generally from having the crimp run down to much. I am using RCBS dies and seating/crimping with a light roll crimp in one step.

Welcome to THR

 

[benzuncle]

igoodnessi, welcome to the forum. Look around and you will find a good deal of info on this site conerning 357Sig. I use Lee dies and have no problem with them. I had several thousandths milled off the top of the shell holder to allow the ram to move just a tad more. (This was advice found here from another regular contributor and 357Sig reloader.) I use a Lee 40S&W carbide die for sizing and the other Lee dies are 357Sig. Because I use AA#9 for powder I had to purchase a RCBS Uniflow to charge the casings. For me, it's all good. I love the round and enjoy reloading it. Your guess is correct: loading straight-wall cartridges would be a better place to begin. 45ACP comes to mind. But 357Sig is definitely reloadable. Best of luck to you.

 

[djml66]

357sig reloading

igoodness, benzuncle has said pretty what i was going to say. I also started 357sig without anybody's direction, and I concur that 45acp is a Much Better round to start on--for lots of reasons. The 357sig is a high pressure round and can be unforgiving. I HIGHLY recommend AA#9 as the only powder to use (with 357sig), especially when you are still learing. The reason is that it pretty well fills the case and allows only a very small amount of setback. I have both lee and rcbs dies and there's little difference between that I can tell. The Shell holder needs to have .008 to .011" taken off to allow the result to have the proper HS. Everything you read will tell you that the shoulder does not determine HS. That is not quite correct, if the should is far enough forward. Both the Lee and RCBS sizers that I have result in that condition. That's why I ground off the top of my shell holder. (BTW, I have another Lee #19 shell holder that's ground off by a lot more, along with a 40sw sizer die that has as much ground off the bottom as I dared! This was to eliminate the Glock Bulge near the head of 40's, and also to some extent, 357sigs--I use the 40 sizer as the first step for the 357. If you don't do this you have to lube every round. I don't like to do that). If you don't push the shoulder back where it belongs you actually lose some neck length. This was about .011" in my case. I don't know if it is significant or not, but it makes me feel better to have that little bit more neck to grasp the bullet.

There is one other biggy on 357sig--that is the bullet. I have only found 3 that work well for me. Those are the Speer "357sig 125 JHP" and its TMJ counterpart. The next is the Berry 124gr hollowpoint. It is plated and not really rated for the speed, but I've not yet had a problem with it at velocity up to 1450 or so. The third is the XTP 124. (Actually there is a fourth--Montana Gold has a clone of the XTP which is a lot cheaper). Most of the other 9mm bullets I have used don't have enough cylindrical ogive--and the part that is in the neck is starting to become undersized. They are a disaster. (Although I tried some with max charge of AA#9 and got away with it due to high compression of the powder!).

The part about crumpling the cases sounds like you are not flaring (or bell-ing) the round. You will need to use a 9mm flaring die for this. You will need a die set for 9mm someday anyway, so go ahead and get that one. And when you order it, get a Lee Factory Crimp Die for the 357. That will correct mild "crushing" and otherwise make thiings chamberable that wouldn't otherwise.

357sig is a lot of fun. You can see in one of my posts that the .400 corbon has similar issues but IN SPADES.

Best of luck,

Dave

 

[hydraulicman]

after the research i have done

get the lee dies and some spray lube

use truncated cone bullets or hollow points. no nato style bullets.

and have fun.

oh don't flair the case mouth too much. you'll need it for neck tension

 

[djml66]

igoodness: You are getting some good hints. One exception to the "don't overcrimp" rule is if you have the Lee Factory Crimp Die. You can't overcrimp with it enough to crumple the case. You can crimp enough to affect accuracy, I have read, but it hasn't been noticeable on my shooting. When I was still using Unique, I crimped the crap out of them and had not setback issues and had very nice tight velocity distribution. But DON'T overcrimp with the sizer die. That ain't good.

And oh yeah. Just because it's a hollowpoint doesn't mean it will work. Examples of "no good" for 357sig is Rem std HP, Rem GS, Speer 124 Gold Dot, Zero 124JHP..... As I mentioned earlier, you can get away with these and others with AA#9. But you can't crimp them enough to prevent setback if you're using a powder that doesn't fill the case.

 

[igoodnessi]

A Few Helpful Tips

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I find what appears to be some really informed and well-intended feedback in these forums. I've heard it said that back when everyone went armed that people were much more polite civilized...

So I have several things to address, one, the machining of the shellholders. Two, I'm using Blue Dot, because I found it before AA#9, which has been overwhelmingly the most highly recommended of the powders. Three, I'm using 115 gr. remington HP's and 124 gr Speer Gold Dots, which I read negative feedbacks on in one of the last posts. I'll address these issues so I can reap the rewards of reloading this cartridge. I've read it's the most consistent, in terms of velocity and grouping and effective in terms of stopping power, of the commonly available semi-auto rounds.

 

[djml66]

357sig

igoodnessi: good luck! 357sig is a fun round.

Just to clarify a point---the 124 GD is for 9m, and the 125 GD is designed for 357sig, with a longer cylindrical ogive. Check the constant diameter portion of the 124GD with your calipers (you DO have calipers, right?) and set the COAL to keep max diameter at the neck, if possible. If the diameter of the bullet at the neck is much below .355, you could have a problem. This may require you to use the max COAL of 1.140" or even longer. Your charts may specify something smaller, but I like to err on the long side, even longer than the spec if there's a setback possibility otherwise. I would just make a half dozen, load them in the mag and manually cycle them. If they work in the mag, cycle OK and the COAL hasn't been reduced more than a couple of thousands or so after cycling, you're good to go. Sometimes the longer COAL won't make it out the ejection port, but that's no problem. It'll do fine when it's fired (no bullet in it).

best regards, have fun and be safe