G32 - Forming neck on 357Sig Brass

[vikesh]

I have always had the occasional round in the mag causing the slide not to go into full battery. I accept that the round headspaces on the shoulder and have changed my brass from Winchester to FC. The COL is within spec.

Thus, I am starting to believe that maybe my RCBS 2-die set is not forming the neck correctly at the correct position, this I proved as follows.

Measured 5 Col's of rounds. fired the mag until 1 stuck out of battery. Manually pushed the slide forward to close, ejected the live round and then measured the COL. It was exactly the same as before. I then loaded that "RE-formed necked" round into position 3 of 5 in the next mag and all fired well.

Anyone else agree with my theory ?
How do I set the die set up to control where the neck is formed, as the die is already against my shell-plate on a Hornady 5-stage Pro-jector press.


http://www.realguns.com/archives/001.htm

[Washington,D.C.]

I have found some "funny" RCBS dies in the past.It might be the roll crimp RCBS uses to crimp 357 Sig causing problem or it may be just overall length.I used RCBS dies and in my Sig P-229 I must load all rounds no longer than 1.135 inches.I first tried 1.140 inches with bullets that recomended that length but the slide wouldn't close on them.I've had better luck in my Glock 33.The slide is more difficult to close on my reloads than factory rounds.I'm still working on that.I now have a set of Dillon carbide dies and I am looking for Lee dies in 357 Sig.I will compare my results with all of them.I have given up on 1.140 inches and load all to 1.135 inches now.I've been trying different crimping dies also.I have made the custom Lee factory crimp die that someone else here on GT recomended.This is a mix of 40 S&W and 9mm factory crimp die parts.

[Uncle Don]

Sounds more like to me the problem is in your seating / crimping die adjustment. If your crimp shoulder is too low (die turned in too far), you tend to crush the case like many have experienced with 30-30 and 22 hornet cases. It's a short neck and is pretty fragile. If the rim of the case is pushed down, something has to give and it generally is the bottom part of the shoulder that comes out as the rim goes down. Clear as mud?

To solve this problem, I used the seater / crimper die to seat the bullet only then used a factory crimp die (Lee) to do the crimping. Since Lee doesn't actually make a Factory Crimp Die for the 357 Sig, I made one using a 40S&W die and put a 9mm crimp bushing it it. I've not had a single one not go into battery since and the crimp is far better than with the seater/crimper die. It passes the "front of the loading bench" test very well.