Gonna start reloading 357 SIG for my Glock 32 and was wondering what y'all recommend for powder and FMJ bullets. 125gr is what I'm thinking. BTW I'll be using lee dies.
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Gonna start reloading 357 SIG for my Glock 32 and was wondering what y'all recommend for powder and FMJ bullets. 125gr is what I'm thinking. BTW I'll be using lee dies.
As someone who recently started loading .357 SIG for my XDm, a few tips to help you out. The LEE dies are excellent for the SIG, they are the correct dimensions. Make sure you go ahead and get you a .40 LEE carbide die as well to size the body first, then the SIG die to shape the shoulder. This will keep you from having to lube the cases and clean them again. Also get the LEE factory crimp die because trying to crimp and seat at the same time in the SIG can be a hard thing to get right, especially if you use multiple type projectiles.
For powder, Longshot & Power Pistol give you magnum like performance as the cartridge was designed to do (ballistics of a 125 grain .357 Magnum in a semi auto platform. Both powders have the velocity and accuracy down pat. Also, AA#9 is a great powder as well. Many use it due to the fact it fills the case almost completely which keeps the bullets from setting back in the event that neck tension should fail. I use all three powders and love them all. AA#9 will give you the least amount of velocity, but is still a great powder. All 3 powders in my trials burn clean.
For projectiles, Xtreme 124 RNFP work very well and are cheap enough you can plink with. They tend to be pretty accurate too. Speer 125 grain Gold Dot (SIG profile) work very well too! They are accurate and its what LEO use every day and depend on for their lives. The Hornady 124 grain XTP work very well just like the others. They are accurate, even more accurate in my gun than the Speer. Something I dealt with when loading that I'm not sure as to why it happened is belling the cases just right... The Xtreme didn't need any belling at all, though I belled just a tad bit.. the Speer required a good bit of belling, or they would seat off center and crush the cases.. the XTP seated very similar to the Xtreme and didn't need much belling at all. It was tough to find the happy medium when setting my powder die on the Dillon to where they all did well without losing neck tension or being to tight to seat properly. Also a lil tip with the LEE dies, since I have them set up on my Dillon, I took a fine tip Sharpie to mark each position with for the different projectiles so switching between them is easier to find the right position to return to the correct seating depth for each one.
Hope this helps. The SIG is a fun round to shoot, POA at 10-50 yards is a blast... aim and send it!
I bought all the brass he had left a lil while back LOL. There seems to be a drought with the SIG brass at times like now. If you go with Starline, at least you will have all same head stamp. Starline is good stuff in my experience. Keep in mind, if you get some mixed brass, there are regular sized flash holes and small Lapua sized flash holes. I always decap with my Mighty Armory decapping die and Lapua decapping pin before I stainless wet tumble them. I remove the decapping pin from my 40 & 357 sizing dies so that there is no issue with sizing them since they are already decapped.
Not sure what size the starline is, don't have any in 357 SIG. I've used it in a few rifle calibers though. If the holes are the small Lapua size, you can probably punch through them, but the easiest thing would be take the pin out, put it in a drill and whittle it down with some sand paper til if fits in the tiny holes just barely. I did that to my LEE as well and if you break a pin after you've done that, then something is wrong somewhere besides the pin. I've decapped thousands of rounds of crimped primers with it and no issue at all. Just changed over to the MA die since I use it on a separate set up now. Still use the LEE on my turret set up for brass prep.
Is this the correct MA for small lapua size flash holes? I want to get one for my Lee singe stage. https://www.mightyarmory.com/collect...12346027802702
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That is the correct one. Very good unit, tough as it gets.
http://www.theshootersbox.com/357-Si...n_p_24919.html
Grab you one of these. I prefer these case gauges for the SIG. It has a 3 step indicator which will give you the minimum sammi spec at the first step and maximum sammi length at the middle step for the brass/loaded round. The third step is the maximum headspace for checking headspace on fired brass to see if your chamber is over spec according to the fired brass. These will let you know if your shoulder or trim length are not correct. Save tons of headaches when getting everything together before loading up and shooting.
Case gauges are essential in reloading if you wanna avoid problems with chambering the rounds properly, especially with such a high pressure pistol cartridge like the SIG. Make sure you get the crimp right to avoid setback. I made a few dummy rounds first and chambered them a few times and measured the set back til I got it where it needed to be.
Yes that is correct. Size the body with the 40 carbide, then set the shoulder with the SIG die. It keeps you from having to lube then clean the brass after sizing.
Any time. Good luck, and enjoy! The SIG is fun to shoot. Keep in mind, you may want to go with a slightly heavier recoil spring if you use full power loads. The XDm comes with an 18# spring from the factory which works well with factory loads and light plinking loads. But with full power .40 and .357 SIG loads, I ended up going up to a 20# and it smoothed it out a good bit. I have a 22# I will be trying soon to see if it makes it smoother or if it is too much.
Recoil springs are cheap, usually around $7-$8 a piece. If it is a Glock, most dealers carry springs for them, at least in my area. I'm not familiar with the Glock, but it should do just fine. If it was a .40 and the factory spring is still in great shape, you should be good to go. My factory spring was fine, but the heavier one smoothed out the snappiness of the full power loads that are running 1,480 fps - 1,500 fps.
The XTP & Gold Dots I push hard because I've been using them when checking hog traps to dispatch wild hogs as well as when I'm hunting if they come by close enough to pop them. So far they have done pretty good. I use Longshot to push them that fast. Power Pistol is slightly slower, but is more accurate... only about 30 fps slower on average. With the Xtreme, I have pushed them over 1,400 fps, but the accuracy was not good at all. They seem to like the 1,250 fps - 1,320 fps range.. Much past that and accuracy goes south. I use AA#9 on the Xtreme because it helps keep setback to a minimal and is pretty accurate. Keep in mind this is all from my particular set up, XDm .40 S&W 4.5" with a Storm Lake .357 SIG 4.6" conversion barrel.
Should be good with the Gold Dots for sure. When I say Power Pistol is more accurate, its not like 1" group at 25 yards vs 3" group accuracy, but it is slightly more noticeable. I think it comes down to the velocity difference just like with any gun where the velocity node is at. If you keep the loads lower towards the starting load for the Xtreme they should be pretty good for that range. The thing with Longshot is that is is FAST velocity with lower pressures than most powders, same goes for Power Pistol. Since you have a chrono, you should be able to tell what range they shoot best at velocity wise. I'm gonna bet they like it similar to what my experience is. The Xtreme are cheap enough to plink with all day, so at 10 yards, it doesn't really matter if they are 1,200 fps, or if they are 1,500 fps. Find the most accurate load and tear up some targets having fun. You will find, you will probably never buy factory ammo in the SIG again because even FMJ are expensive LOL
By my calculations, I'm loading the Xtreme for around $0.18/ea thats with one use of the brass, so even cheaper if you load it 3-5 times. the XTP & Gold Dots are roughly $0.30/ea if you count using the brass only once. These are according to once fired brass from Sage's. So even your SD rounds come out cheaper than you can buy factory FMJ.
Nice. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0861743be5.jpg
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Yes that's all I use in my .40 S&W and .357 SIG loads. I got lucky and caught a going out of business sale last year and picked up the 5k cases for $90 each. So I bought all they had in the primers I use :-)
Anytime. Never had one not go bang.
Attachment 986
Left to right: 124gn XTP, 124gn Xtreme FP, 125gn Speer Gold Dot.
Anytime. Post some updates when you start loading and shooting.
How often do you have to trim the brass and is it critical that they are all the same length? On straight wall pistol I never trim. Usually I only trim 223. I have a Lyman case trimmer. Lathe style with a 9mm pilot if needed. Just wanted to get your opinion on it.
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I'm almost through my first 1k, so I will know after shoot the rest and size them if they need to be trimmed again. These were all once fired from Sage, and after cleaning them and resizing them the first time, the only ones that needed trimming were the "R-P" head stamps. All the rest were from 0.860"-0.863". The "R-P" were over max length which is 0.865". The most uniform ones were the SIG head stamp, then the Speer. The "R-P" and Speer head stamp were all tiny flash hole like the Lapua rifle brass.
Good to know. I would have thought Speer had standard flash holes. Guess I'll need to wait until the mighty armory decapping die comes in. Should be end of the week. After cleaning and resizing I'll check them all to be sure they are within spec. If not I'll trim them.
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Both powders are great for both projectiles. Longshot is a tad faster velocity, but either one should be good. I use them both as well as AA#9.