357 SIG Lee Factory Crimp Die Help...is this too much? Too little?

[mywytefeet]

Update:

Rounds worked great! Very impressed with the 124gr barry's!

Glock 33, off hand, 7 yards. Works for me.



Hello All,

I loaded two batches of rounds. The round nose on the left is a 90gr Speer 357 SIG loads and the round on the right is a 124gr berries plated. My main concern is the crimp with a lee factory crimp die. I don't know how much to crimp. Based on these photos, are the crimped I have done too much? Enough? I did a thumb test and cycled the rounds through my pistol with no setback--just not sure if the crimp is too much or too little--since from the naked eye it looks like almost nothing is being done when I crimped.

Thanks for any help.

[Beelzy]

They look just right.......good job!

[f4tweet]

What do they measure at the case mouth?

[mywytefeet]

The only reason I loaded the 90s was because they were given to me for free (my brother pulled some 380 speers apart to make .32NAA rounds and didn't need the bullets.) "Where on the ogive are you?" Pardon my ignorance, but I don't know what you mean by this. I've put then on hard surfaces and pressed down as hard as I can and they still read exactly the same--no setback, so I guess I will be fine. I also compared them to 125 gr double taps and they look the same (double tap doesn't look any more or less crimped than mine.)

[sonnyt650]

My Lyman manual indicates .357 SIG (as well as 9mm, 40S&W, and 45 auto) headspaces on the mouth where the step made by the case mouth shown in the case profile will stop the round from going any further. Both my Lyman and Hornady manuals state the bullet diameter as .355" so you should be good that way. Regarding the ogive, I'd load spire or round nose bullets for which I have no data out to the maximum OAL to reduce the possibility of seating on the curved profile of the bullet.

On the original topic: looks good to me. My own seating die visually removes much of the handgun flare introduced by the powder-thru die and I rely on the FCD to finish the job. With the FCD I've overcrimped .223 rounds where the match FMJ bullet is noticeably pinched down (the FCD "makes its own cannelure" as the Lee manual indicates) and is match no more, so I'm now of the opinion the die should be adjusted to press the case mouth snug to the bullet and no more.

[J-cat]

Your Lyman manual is wrong. Some dies push the shoulder far enough to headspace on the mouth. Others do not. I had both RCBS and Hornady and I had to cut metal off the bottom of the RCBS die for thecase to even chamber.

BTW, the 90gr load looks good. That bullet has a short ogjive and looks like a round ball.

[sonnyt650]

I have the 49th edition purchased just this past weekend: "The 357 SIG is a bottleneck cartridge but headspaces on the case mouth and cartridges should not be roll crimped". I looked .357 SIG up on Wikipedia which has a note on the contradiction, so Lyman apparently hasn't changed their manual. Learn something new every day...

[ireload]

Both looks good crimp wise. Just be sure that the trim lenght of the brass are uniformed as to give your even crimping.