They are beautiful

[vaalpens]

The reloading load evaluation has been slow lately so I decided to share some beautiful new 357sig rounds I loaded, obviously with the help of THR members.

Around January 2015 I started reloading 357sig after I received some PIF brass and bullets from BracketRacer_57. This PIF actually lead me to finally purchasing my P229 in 357sig.

Since I started reloading 357sig I have tried different bullet and powder combinations, and started refining my 357sig reloading skills. Along this path AOG sent me some 125gr V-Crown #9925 PIF bullets to try out. I was very impressed with the accuracy and expansion of the bullets. These bullets were not available locally, so I just made a mental note to one day try and get some of them and load some quality zombie loads.

A few months ago member Jell-dog decided to send me some nickel 357sig brass. I decided to just keep these to the side until I was able to get some quality defensive bullets. Last week I picked up extra BE-86 powder and found some V-Crown 125gr #9925 bullets locally. This is when I decided to finally create the zombie loads that have been in the planning stage for a while now.

Here is an image of the V-Crown 125gr #9925 bullets:

To create these zombie loads I decided to give these rounds the full treatment. Following are some pictures showing some of the steps these bullets went through:

1) Decap brass with universal decapper
2) Wash/dry the brass

Following picture shows the brass ready to be debulged and sized

3) Resize body
4) Debulge
5) Resize neck
6) Wash again to remove lube and dry
7) Tumble

The following image shows the brass coming out of tumbler. The 357sig was mixed with some 357mag brass.

8) Sort nickel brass by headstamp (FC and Speer)
9) Brushed inside of neck
10) Cleaned primer pocket
11) Sorted the FC headstamp brass (from Jell-dog) by length
12) Inspected brass and selected 25 of the same length for this load

Following picture shows the selected brass, ready for next steps.

To be continued in next post.......

 

[vaalpens]

....Continued from previous post.

After the selection process, I proceeded with the load process.

13) Expand the mouth just enough and prime. One reason why I sort by length.
14) Weigh the powder charge individually for each load and fill case
15) Seat bullet

I did not use my normal batch process of filling all and then seating. For this load I used the fill and seat one bullet at a time process.

16) Apply crimp to all seated rounds

Since all of this was done on a single stage press, I separated a few based on the feel of the priming or seating of the bullet. The couple that felt different were slated for test rounds to validate my load.

The following image show the completed bullets.

17) Plunk test each round using P229 barrel
18) Load the bullets into magazine

Following is the image showing the process completed with rounds loaded in the magazines.

The only remaining step will be to test a few of these to ensure there are no issues. Hopefully I will never actually have to use this loaded ammo, except for at the range.

 

[Robert101]

Good job. Now after you test go load 500 for the future range trip.

 

[vaalpens]

Good job. Now after you test go load 500 for the future range trip.

Thanks!

At 22 cents a bullet, It will be a bit expensive to blow through 500 of these.

My normal process is to slowly go through the stack. At the end of a range trip I normally shoot at least one of the premium bullets just to make sure there are no issues.

 

[Walkalong]

Purty!

 

[Chuck R.]

Agreed,

I made up a couple hundred a few months ago using SIG nickle plated brass, the same bullet an N350. Reloaded them to the same MV as my Speer GD carry loads. I'm using Dillon carbide dies on a 550, so I skip the body size step and just run them through the FL sizer.

Chuck

 

[Dudedog]

Nice looking rounds! Looking forward to the shooting results.

Got to watch out for that Jell-Dog
Big Thanks to Jell-Dog for all his kind PIFs.

 

[vaalpens]

Purty!

Thanks!

 

[vaalpens]

Agreed,

I made up a couple hundred a few months ago using SIG nickle plated brass, the same bullet an N350. Reloaded them to the same MV as my Speer GD carry loads. I'm using Dillon carbide dies on a 550, so I skip the body size step and just run them through the FL sizer.

Chuck

I don't know what the velocity is of the 357sig V-Crowns, but I load them to a max velocity of 1299fps and and average velocity of 1288fps out of a P229 with a 3.9" barrel. On Friday I tested one of the above loads and saw reached 1284fps. Close to average.

My loads are done on a Lee single stage with all Lee dies. I will probably try a load without the body sizing step, but for these loads I did not want to change my process.

 

[vaalpens]

Nice looking rounds! Looking forward to the shooting results.

Got to watch out for that Jell-Dog
Big Thanks to Jell-Dog for all his kind PIFs.

Dudedog, thanks for the nice words. We should also watch out for that Dudedog and all his PIF's.

I did shoot two of the loads on Friday, with one clocking at 1284fps, which is close to the average I have seen. I probably won't do much practicing with these round, but I actually use the RMR expanding JHP's for practise rounds now. I am still waiting for the RMR jacketed FP's to come out, which will probably be a great practice round in 357sig.

 

[JimKirk]

Nice looking reloads !! I still have not put my hands on any V Crown yet except factory .380 ACP ....