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Reloading .357 Sig.

265 Views 8 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  securitysix
How much hassle is it to reload .357 Sig. Cal.? I have only reloaded streight wall cases in the past. Do I need case lube and additional tools for full length sizing, or
just carbide dies? Any advice positive or negative would be appreciated. Thanks!

Mike

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realoading 357sig is like reloading for a rifle, you have to use lube, dillon does make carbide dies, but they are pointless if you doing it single stage. you have to worry about case set back a lot, so using lead, or canalured bullets is almost a must. not super hard, but very different than reloading strait walled handgun cartriges.

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Any gun will do if You will do.
Moving to Reloading Bench.

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"Of those that will penetrate, the edge is always with the bigger bullet."
Just make sure that the bullets you use are designed for the 357SIG. While all bullets for the 9mm are the proper diameter, many have an ogive which is not compatible with the SIG's short case neck. A short ogive and long, straight trunk is necessary for the cartridge to maintain proper neck tension on the bullet.
Thank you all for your imput. For now, I think I will start with a case of CCI Blazer
when I get my .357 Sig.
EEEEK! CCI Blazer? Do you successfully use those? My experience with the 45 colt variant was quite a bit of black smoke and jacket fragments in the chambers and barrell. Is that just a 45 Colt thing for CCI?
not a problem

to load and cheap to load for .rainier 124 flat point and bluedot or power pistol..fill the case with slow powder and you don't have to worry about bullet setback and high pressure.bluedot gives 1287 and power pistol gives 1417.with a longer barrel it rocks the 1417 load goes to 1509 with a 4.4 barrel,thanks,keith
Personally, I've yet to use any lube when loading 357SIG. Dillon's carbide die set helps, although I've also used RCBS' steel set in the past, also with no lube.

As to the bullets, some that have worked well for me are Rainier's 9mm 124gr FP, Hornady's 9mm 124gr FP, and Hornady's 9mm, 124gr XTP/JHP. There's no need to use bullets specifically designed for 357SIG.

Something that I've found which works really well and eliminates the need to bell the case mouth for seating and then crimp it back into position is to instead, lightly chamfer the inside of the case mouth. Once the bullet is seated, you have a very tight fit and I've had no setback problems doing it this way.

A couple loads that I like are 10.5gr Blue Dot, or 9.4gr HS-6.
USMCJPN said:
EEEEK! CCI Blazer? Do you successfully use those? My experience with the 45 colt variant was quite a bit of black smoke and jacket fragments in the chambers and barrell. Is that just a 45 Colt thing for CCI?
I've used some of the old aluminum cased Blazer ammo in .357 Sig and it works pretty well for me. I've also shot some .357 Mag Blazer ammo and some .45 Colt. It was dirty, but it worked. I haven't had a chance to use any of the brass cased Blazer yet, nor have I heard much in the way of reports one way or the other on it.

As for reloading .357 Sig, I have, but I don't like to. The short neck has always bothered me. I really liked the Blazer ammo but was disappointed when they discontinued the aluminum cased stuff.
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