40 S&W Carbide Sizer

[Tman33_99]

I want to eliminate having to lube and tumble when loading my 357 Sig. Does anyone know of a good place of getting 40 S&W carbide sizing die? Most that I have found are either pricey, or in 3 die sets.

I plan to set up the 40 Sizer as the first die, then the 357 Sig Die would be next and only be neck sizing since the 40 would have already done the body.

Travis

[EricW]

I don't think it's going to work that way. You'll need to resize the shoulder of the case as well. You could really be setting yourself up for an explosion as your gun will probably be firing slightly out of battery due to the un-resized shoulder.

Just use Hornaday one shot and forget about all the lube cleaning hassle. It's fantastic stuff.

[Larry White]

Try the lee U die from EGW, I think its less than 20 bucks. But Erik could be right, Use only brass from your gun and check head space to insure the gun locks up. Larry

[Tman33_99]

Thanks for the concern guys, but I will be basically sizing each case twice. Once with the 40 S&W Die then again with the 357 Sig die. This would make the 40 S&W die do most of the work. Then the 357 Sig die would be sizing the neck and the shoulder. Believe me the last thing I want is a Kaboom.

Travis

[L9X25]

Travis,

STOP right there ... I've been where you are going and you will not like the results.

I have been shooting 9x25 for 10 years. I load 9x25 (think long .357 Sig) on a 1050 and already had everything that I needed to do exactly what you want to do. The problems are these:

If you resize with the .40/10mm die first, then with the .357 sig die, the .357 Sig die will fit tight on the neck and loose on the rest of the already resized case. The problem here is that the neck will not be aligned exactly with the body of the case (because of the loose fit) and you will have tons of bullets fail the drop test because the projectiles are not concentric with the case.

Second attempt was to resize with the 9x25 die first and then resize with the .40/10mm second, to remove any remaining bulge at the bottom of the case. Another bad result. The 9x25 die locates the shoulder at the correct length (for headspacing) and then the .40/10mm die only resizes the last few thousands of the case, near the extraction groove. The problem is that, when there is a bulge, the case gets longer as the bulge is removed and the shoulder moves too. The result is that you have loaded rounds where the shoulder is too long to chamber. If there is no bulge the case does not get longer and they work fine. If you adjust the length for the bulged cases, you will have many cases that are short, have too much headspace, and can pull apart when fired. This leaves half of the case stuck in your chamber with no way to remove it without tools.

I'm happily back to sizing with the 9x25 die ONLY and am back to a 99.9% pass ratio on the drop check test. With each of the previous attempts my failure rate was as high as 25% and never below 10%. The bullets were very inconsistent and not what I was looking for.

Don't go there!

If you should have any questions, feel free to ask.

Leo

[Larry White]

I think we just got a definitive answer. Larry

[Tman33_99]

Damn,

I hate when a plan falls apart before it even starts.

Thanks alot Leo

Travis

[L9X25]

Travis,

In the beginning I was really trying to solve a problem that never really existed but certainly created a few problems in the process. Brass fired out of my gun never has any bulging problem because of the strength of the 10mm brass, and the low operating pressures of the 9x25, but I did have occasional pieces of 10mm Glock fired range brass that made it into my cases. Even the majority of that sizes fine but I wanted to make it 100%.

If you are just wanting carbide, I believe that the .357 Sig and 9x25 dies are already carbide. The extra effort is as a result of the fact that you are pushing 2 sizers at the same time. Unfortunately, you have to push them both at the same time to ensure that the necks remain concentric.

Good luck,

Leo

[Tman33_99]

Leo,

My Sig dies are steel, and I know that is all that was available 3 years ago when I bought them. I will do a little looking, maybe someone is making 357 Sig carbide dies now.

Thanks for the input

Travis

[L9X25]

Try this link ...

You can order them from Dillon, through Brian...

http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?...28&min=1&dyn=1&

Leo

[.40AET]

That's cool that Dillon made a carbide resizing die. I looked through Midway's die lineup, and couldn't find anyone that was making a carbide resizing die. Blue all of the way.

[Tokarev]

When I was working for an agency that uses the .357, I loaded 5,000 rounds of .357 SIG ammo to run in my issued SIG 229. I used my Hornady Pro-Jector. I stuck a carbide .40 die in the first station and a .357 die in the second station. I never experienced any troubles with this. I've also done this to load the .400 Cor-Bon but haven't loaded more than a few hundred rounds of that caliber.

By the way, Ramshot True Blue is a good powder for this cartridge.

[Tman33_99]

OK,

9x25 had me convienced that I was going to make a big mistake trying to size 1st w/40 then take care of the neck and shoulder with 357sig now I hear

I stuck a carbide .40 die in the first station and a .357 die in the second station. I never experienced any troubles with this.

I guess now I am really curious if this will work for me also. I guess I am going to go mess up my 40 S&W toolhead and steal my 40 sizing die to make a trial run. If it works then I will be buying a second 40S&W die very soon.

I will let everyone else know my results in a few days or so. I have a batch of about 500 to do when I find some time.

Travis

[Tman33_99]

I reset my 357 Sig Toolhead to this:

1st Position is 40 S&W Carbide Sizing Die/Decapper

2nd Position is 357 Sig Steel Sizing Die (No Decapper)/Primes in this Station

3rd Position is Powder

4th Position is Bullet Seater

5th Position is Taper Crimp

I loaded several hundred rounds w/o lube. It really didn't feel any different than when I am sizing 40's. Bullets seated well, and seem to drop into chamber just fine. All of the ones I checked passed the thumb pressure test. Will take them to the range later this week.

But all in all it seems my experment worked. Now I will order another 40 S&W die to replace on my 40 S&W toolhead.

Travis

[L9X25]

I guess that, with a fairly loose chamber, you may be able to get away with it. With a tight chamber you will not. I have a drop check gauge that was reamed using the same reamer that created my gun's chamber. The drop gauge is slightly tighter than the chamber in my gun since there is no wear on the gauge. The drop check gauge clearly illustrated that the ammo was not concentric enough for my chamber. When a supposed improvement reduced the quality and consistency of my loaded rounds it stopped being an improvement.

Good luck with your experiment,

Leo

BTW ... What is the "thumb pressure test"?

[Tokarev]

Like I said, I loaded a bunch of ammo this way and it worked just fine.

[Tman33_99]

BTW ... What is the "thumb pressure test"?

Since the 357 Sig has very little surface holding the bullet in the neck it requires a good crimp. I randomly test my crimp with a thumb test, where I will put the cartridge bullet down on the bench and push the with my thumb against the cartridge down onto the bench. If there is no set back, then I don't worry about the bullet telescoping back during use.

[jcmios]

Spend the extra $$ for a Dillon carbide 357 Sig die. If you lube every third case with Hornady one shot case lube life will be good. I lube every case still but found that you could go so far as every fifth case with no ill effects. The Dillon carbide die is well worth the money IMHO.

Jim