For those of you who shoot the 357 Max. Do you crimp or not? Also, do you flare the case mouth with and expander die or just chamfer? I have a set of Lee carbide dies but have more experience with Lyman "M" dies. Not sure I like the Lee bullet seating die. Maybe get a Hornady.

I think most people use a pretty firm crimp on the Maxi. I do,It seems to give less deviation in velocity. Maybe it has to do with the tall powder column. I chamfer my cases while doing my case prep and expand the case mouth just a bit to seat lead bullets and a little less for jacketed bullets. I'm sure everybody does it a little different. But that is what works for me.



Steve E.........

I firmly crimp because my chrony and the targets showed more uniformity and better groups with crimped vs uncrimped. I use a Redding profile crimp die and am very happy with it vs standard roll crimp dies.

I use an RCBS seater with a 350 rem mag seater plug for using pointed bullets and the standard ones for semi-wads and rns.

great round!

regards,
Graycg

I've tried various degrees of crimp. I use H4227, H110/W296 and Lil'Gun. In all cases consistent velocities are helped with a firm but not excessive roll crimp. I suppose that a good taper crimp would do as well, but my die is not a taper crimp die.

I don't use the Lyman M die but do expand as I would with any straight case. First I decap and resize, polish, trim, chamfer, expand/bell/flare case mouth, prime, load.

In the past I have exclusively used the Lee Factory Crimp Die. Would it be worth the investment to have Lee make me a custom die, cost $25, or use the crimp feature with the Lee carbide dies I have?

I'm not a "believer" in the factory crimp die concept and have none of those dies. I am satisfied with the performance of the crimp provided by my RCBS seating die.

Oops sorry,
I have used the Lyman M die and find they work very well, but mostly I load on my Dillon 550 and use the Dillon neck expander, it works just fine. I used to use the roll crimp like Hobie and it worked very well, but someone gave me this Profile crimp die and I think...can't prove, but think it is a little easier on the brass and have seen fewer case/neck splits since using it.

PS, I love the Max!!

regards,
Graycg

I don't see anything "wrong" with any of the methods iff they work. My system works and only because I take care to properly trim the cases and adjust the die. If you put too much of a roll in the roll-crimp your neck tension might actually decrease (with some dies) as the brass in the neck or case mouth is deformed. However, it seems that most of the powders indicated for the .357 Max are best served with quite a bit of resistance in the crimp. It is ALWAYS best for 2400 and H110/W296.

Oh Yeah...one more thing....

DON'T and I mean DON'T try to load maxs on your 357 Mag Dillon Square Deal B!!! If you need more detail on that I'll email it to you...too embarrassing to detail here...even worse than my shooting chrony story!

regards,
graycg