Anyone with any experience loading this?Will any other die set work instead of $150 RCBS set?

What rifle are you shooting?
In modern rifles, start with mid-range loads for the .358 WInchester. In older rifles of unknown history, start with .35 Remington loads or starting loads for the .358 Winchester.
Powders: N201, IMR4895, H4895, IMR4064, IMR3031, or other powders of similar burning rate should serve you well.
Suggest also you look up the Powley Computer on the Internet. It still works, at least for single-base IMR powders.
My experience with a similar cartfidge, the 9x56 Mannlicher-Schoenauer is that, for awhile at least, I could use .358 Winchester dies to neck size. Eventually, the shoulders on my fired cases needed to be sized down. I got lucky and found a set of CH-4D 9x56 MS dies for sale on this site, thanks to Dave Manson.
Good luck. Neat caliber!

I thought about taking an 8mm die, annealing it, reaming out the neck, and then re-hardening it, which wouldn't be necessary for limited use.

SS,Its a commercial Mauser sporter TypeB.I understand bores varied so will have to slug it.Seemed 358Win die is close but~1/4" too short.Anyone besides Hawk make 0.356 bullets?

how about taking a 9x62 and grinding off the base until the neck gets sized?????

When you remove the bottoms from dies, the base diameter gets smaller and will result in a smaller base cartridge. I have done it many times though. Now, in this case, the 62 uses larger diameter brass than the 57, so it might work out fine. Check shoulder diameters and angles; probably close enough to work. I will measure some later.
358 Win die won't work; shoulder is too big. I would make a die to squeeze .358 bullets down to 356 if it was mine.
Lathe turn, don't grind.

$ 87.36 from CH4D . RCBS can be a real rip off at times.

Almost 1/2 price!!Thanks.

RCBS specialty dies are priced way too high; which is why I never buy them.

Kim:

I recently began loading for a rebuilt, 1924 vintage Oberndorf Type C (restocked, and open sights removed and a Lyman SME57 receiver sight mounted; reproofed in Germany in 1961). I got Redding 9x57 dies from Tradex Canada. They still have them listed at C$74. They don't ship to the US, but you should be able to find some on your side of the border for a lot less than the RCBS dies! Note: my Redding dies do not have a tapered expander, so I first run the neck of 8x57 cases over the tapered expander in my RCBS .358 Win. die.

Before you worry about bullet diameter, slug your bore. I got lucky; mine has a groove diameter of 0.359", so is fine with regular .35 cal. bullets. I've used 250 gr. Hornady RNSPs so far.

The Hodgdon website has a page of European Cartridge Loading Data, which lists loads for the 9x57 using H4895 and Varget for 250 and 280 gr. bullets, derived from the data published by ADI of Australia, the powder manufacturer. Note that Hodgdon still hasn't fixed their typo (the loads are correct on the ADI website). The powder charges that Hodgdon lists for the 250 gr. bullet are for the 280 gr., and vice versa.

So far I've only had time to work with Varget, to 47.0 gr. (2 gr. less than max.) behind the Hornady 250 gr. RNSP, in reformed NNY 8x57 brass, with WLR primers. 15" velocity was 2040 fps, about 100 fps slower than old Kynoch 245 gr. factory loads.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Al

Al,Thanks!Now i have a good starting point.

For odd-sized jacketed bullets, contact Steve Schroeder at 619-423-3523, voice mail/FAX at 619-423-8124.

You might try Missouri Bullets to see if they have any heavier weight .356 PC cast bullets.

.358's will work for moderate loads but will probably copper foul your barrel to am extent that is VERY difficult to remove. Don't ask how I know this to be true!

Beartooth has LBT cast GC in different wts&dia also.