Hello, All
Off and on project for about a year, anyone else load for this caliber?
Have RCBS and Lee sizing dies
RCBS crimp, Lee factory crimp dies
Dillon 650
Couple rockchuckers.
AA#9, VV3n37
HAP115gr, XTP 124gr
Had heck of a struggle with neck tension. Latest round lube and size with the RC
Back into the vibratory to clean all the lube off.
Reprofiled the Dillon powder die, cleaned up the transition where it goes from straight to bell so case mouth didn't hit and catch on the transition.
115 HAP
12.9 AA#9
Lee FCD
Seems to be getting good neck tension.

I did for a bit; issues drove me crazy. I'm not a Sage level reloader and just gave up on it. Glad to hear you're getting it dialed in it's a fun caliber!

Have heard people say AA9 powder works well but never tried it.

I want to. I have the .40 stuff, just need the die to size the neck. I have this dream of pushing 90gr bullets to high velocities with something like Longshot. My G35 build has a 5.85" barrel so I should be able to squeeze quite a bit of velocity out of it.

I load for 357 Sig a fair amount. Never had any particular issues with it, but you do have to understand the differences with it compared to straight wall cases as well as the OAL limitations on bullet shape. Guys who try to load FMJ 9mm bullets will have a lot of trouble, for example.

Anything you're looking for in particular?

AA9 is an excellent choice for this cartridge. Power Pistol does pretty well too, although with a big bright flash.

Hello, All
@yondering Not really looking for anything in particular, just any tips, bullets that have worked well.
Have 8 lbs of #9 use it in a couple other loads seems like good for 357 Sig.
My challenges have been so far:
Belling the case without displacing the neck and shoulder. Seems like a weak spot. The work on the powder die seemed to help this last batch.
Getting enough neck tension and a good crimp. Went from LFCD to RCBS and last batch back to the Lee
Seating the bullet. really worked on tuning up the seating die, think I have that sorted out now.
Bullet choices. Both the HAP and XTP seem to have the correct profile, straight to seating depth, and taper to point starts just barely out of the case mouth, when set to correct OAL. Feed well. But, If I load one without the powder, set on the bench, and push down with my thumb really hard, I could get it to set back into the case on a couple of the test rounds. With 12.9 #9 it doesn't move because the case is full. Would like to find a bullet that has a cannelure right at the shoulder.
@hkcavalier I can't for the life of me find a neck sizer die for the 357 Sig. Could try a 9mm die screwed way up? If you were thinking of going the .40 route for sizing the rest of the case, you would still need a seating die.

- You don't want to size the case body and neck separately; it needs to be done all at once in the same die. Otherwise sizing the shoulder back swells the body. And a backed out 9mm Luger die won't cut it anyway; that's a tapered case so the mouth of the die is larger.
- Don't bell the case mouth so much. Just barely larger than bullet diameter is all it takes; any more than that is giving up too much neck tension with this cartridge.
- Don't overcrimp, or try to compensate for low neck tension with too much crimp. Too much crimp reduces neck tension; it's counterproductive, and you're not going to get enough crimp to make up for it. The Lee FCD is a good choice for the 357 Sig, but don't overdo it.
- Neck tension issues can be caused by the belling die being too large in the straight section that enters the neck. Locating a smaller one or modifying yours, if it's too big, may be necessary. But it can also be a fault of the sizing die not sizing the neck down small enough.
- In this cartridge, the powder is part of the formula for preventing bullet setback. That's partly why AA9 is such a good choice.

Good points. (9mm carbide die is not tapered, but bad choice anyway)
Finished up a batch last night, pulled about 30 from previous run I wasn't happy with and re-used components, labeled separately, and have another 30 from previous run that had been sized and primed, not assembled. So have about 100 to test this weekend.
I think lubing inside and out, sizing, then re-tumbling to clean lube was a good additional step. Polishing the expander ball and re-profiling/ polishing the dillon powder die was a plus also, allow for a less aggressive belling. And there was a bit of a step in the seating die stem that would occasionally catch the tip of the projo, changed that profile so bullet lining up better with less bell.
If I didn't have a lath there would be a WTS post bunch of 357 sig stuff! Still might be after this weekend..
Thanks for the feedback.

Actually, yeah, they are. They're the only commonly used carbide dies I know of with a taper, and that taper is required. Not really any way they could get around it. Look a little more closely inside. Your 40 S&W die will have a short carbide ring because it's a straight wall case, the 9mm die will have a longer carbide ring that's tapered. If you don't believe me, get out your calipers or just look at a sized case.

I'll do that. to the eye they look straight right to the base which is larger, but when I get back down to the bench I'll check it out. Thanks.

Update: the 115 HAP/ 12.9g AA#9 worked quite well. Didn't take the chrono but all functioned and grouped nicely. The 124 XTP's showed up. Haven't checked the 9mm sizer yet.

The M24 357-- Big glock in 357 sig needed a zombie apocalypse theme.



Not your father's glock.

Wow . . . very cool.

I'm still searching for a gunsmith who will work on my G35 parts build. Reliability is only so-so. Something is hanging up in the trigger/disconnector/sear system, and it's not feeding very positively, especially with .357SIG and .40 with a can on the end of the barrel. I think the Suarez slide is heavier than a stock G35 one.

It now has a OEM frame pulled from a G31, so maybe I need to search for a gunsmith again. No one wanted to work on the unserialized one.

Are you having issues getting it to feed when racking the slide, or mostly just when shooting with a can? The .357 Sig is a pretty poor choice for suppression, and there's a strong chance that it's severely overdriving the piston, which in turn drives slide speed way too high. To make that work "right" you'd need a strong recoil spring, but also a stronger booster piston spring which is most likely not available unless you're willing/able to source a custom spring.

Also, are you using Glock mags, or something else? If you're using some sort of aftermarket mags, try factory Glock .40 or .357 mags to see if that fixes the feeding issue. Higher slide speed combined with some of these aftermarket mags = feed issues.

Your first line (I didn't quote it) about a hitch in the slide sounds like a poorly tuned disconnector; if it's exerting too much pressure on the slide you'll experience a hitch like that. The solution is easy though - tune the extractor correctly. There are youtube videos on how to do it so I won't go into it now, but if you don't get it figured out I can take some pics of what a correctly tuned extractor should look like in the trigger housing.

I don't shoot .357SIG with a can. You can see the brake I use on the end of the Lone Wolf barrel. The .40 barrel is Glock OEM. I shoot OEM mags only, though a couple of them have +4s with Wolff increased power springs. Same issues with both.

You use disconnector and extractor interchangeably --- which is it?

Sorry, it had been a long day. Not sure why I wrote "extractor" - was talking strictly about the disconnector.

Still need more info on these feeding issues though.