Just picked up a 357 sig barrel for my glock. So I thought I would load a few rounds. Didn't click in my head that you can only get steel dies since its a bottleneck. So I have to lube right? This sucks. One of my most hated jobs in reloading. Is this right?

IIRC, Dillon does make carbide dies for 357 sig, but lubing is still recommended.

Make sure you have a tight grip on the bullet since the neck is short. Also chambering a round a number of times is also likely to set back the bullet even with factory ammo . If the bullet is set back pressures will rise greatly.

Use Midway's Minute lube sparingly in Dillon's carbide dies and you're all set. I use once-fired Speer brass. Midway's got 'em for $13.89 for 500 right now.
BTW, that 3 die set is $104 plus shipping. Ouch!
But it's the best game in town.

Wow, those reloading dies prices hurt. Guess you got to pay to play. So for a guy that is tight like myself, would there be anything wrong in just getting steel dies from RCBS or even Lee and just using that minute lube on all of them? For a progressive loader I am not sure that lubing the cases/sizing, then priming/charging and seating seating a bullet without wiping off that lube is a great idea.

I got the RCBS dies.

I have an Olympic arms barrel for the Glock 22 and a 357S barrel for the Kel-Tec P11.

I have tried Starline 357 Sig brass and I have tried once fired mixed processed 40 S&W brass run through the die. I have worked up overloads to find the failure point [as I have done with 33 different calibers]. The 357 Sig brass and the mixed 40 S&W brass fail at the same point. Typically the failure is primer pocket growth that causes the spent primer to fall out. Sometimes there is a case bulge over the feed ramp too.

I have found the 357S to be wimpy compared to the 40 S&W, 9x23mm, or even the 9x19 loaded to it's real potential. My findings are not final, as I think I should TIG weld up the feed ramp on the Kel-Tec and increase the throat on the Oly barrel.

If I had known what a lousy cartridge it is, I would have paid less and got the Lee dies.

fyi I reload the 357 w/ RCBS dies and a single stage press. I am very liberal with the lube and just drop all the cases in my tumbler when I am done and let them go a few hours.

I have been using once fired Win brass, 100 gr Hornady FMJ's and 9.5 grs of Alliant Power Pistol. Muzzle blast, recoil, and case ejection are about equal to the Win USA factory loads. No problems with bullets moving. I prefer very light bullets, I think the lack of weight keeps the bullets from moving. I also do not like the flat fronts of the factory 357 Sig bullets, there have been some reported problems in converted guns.

Ok, thanks for the info. Last bit of info I need. You should use a .355" (9mm) bullet with this caliber. Right? They list some bullets as made for the .357sig that was .355". Is it is suggested to use "9mm" bullets with this round or does it have to be a certain shape like in the previous post?

Also, I was going to try to load these on a progressive. Would you recommend that with the lube and all?

thanks again.

[ 02-12-2003, 02:41: Message edited by: bigcountry ]

357 Sig is just the cartridge name; it uses .355" bullets. Some 9mm bullets have too long an ogive for the 357 Sig. Therefore you will be crimping on the curved part instead of the flat part. That bottleneck is only so long. When seated to the proper length, very little of the bullet's bearing surface contacts the case neck and the the bullet may be pushed into the case during feeding. So don't buy a whole load of bullets until you are sure they will work in your pistol.

My practice load is 125 Speer FMJ over 7.6 grains of VihtaVuori N340 sparked by CCI sm pistol primer. COL is 1.135" This a max load! Perfect function everytime in my Glock 33.

I load on a Dillon RL550B with the Dillon three-die set. Every once in a while I pull the top pin of the resize die to clean out excess lube. No big deal. Takes about as long as filling the primer tube.

Thats what I thought. Thanks a bunch for verifying. I just ordered the "357 Sig" .355" 125gr speer gold dots from Midway. I thought it was interesting on why all the rest of the 9mm bullets was marked "9mm" and this one bullet was .357Sig. I also ordered a bunch of 147gr 9mm bullets. I bet they won't work. Oh well, I also load 9mm, but never that heavy.

I bet those 9mm XTP's from Hornady will not work at all no matter what weight due to their nose.

Thanks for all the help.

I have got the Dillon carbide die. You do not have to use lube.

First off this is the probably the most difficult caliber I have found to load for. If I put a regular taper crimp, it jams and then pushes the bullet back into the shell. I chambered a round 5 times starting off at a COL:1.135" and each time it pushed the bullet back a hundreth. So then put a very heavy crimp on it. And buckled the cases. Would jam in my chamber. I find that the only way to get this to work is to crimp to right on the edge of buckling the case. And still, It will push the bullet back a little while chambering.

What this round needs is a carbide factory crimp die from lee. Maybe my barrel needs some work. Maybe this Speer 125gr gold dot (made for the .357Sig) is not a good choice. Maybe this once fired speer brass from midway doesn't have good neck tension. But any way it goes I find it to be a tough one. Any suggestions? One thing I found out, is its better to crimp on a separate operation on a single stage. Instead of crimping and seating the same time on a lee 1000 progressive.

Yes, you should lube these cartridges. Not a big deal if you use on of the spray-on lubes, a couple of quick squirts will do the lubing, then roll the finished rounds in a thick-napped towel with some solvent (Hoppes #9, rubbing alcohol etc.) on it to clean the lube off.

Look at this link for other problems (and solutions) with reloading the 357 SIG.
357 SIG reloading

Both of the newest Speer and Sierra manuals state that this cartridge headspaces on the case mouth, not the shoulder. They also caution that sizing 40 S&W cases down to 357 Sig will result in a case that is .020" too short.

Try only belling the mouth enough to get the bullet started and then don't over crimp. That worked for me. Failing that, you might try a bullet with a cannelure such as the 125 Win JHP.

I've had such good luck with Midway's Speer once-fired brass and their 600 count Speer 125 gr TMJ value packs that I bought several of each.