How friggin hard do you press on a loaded round? 357 Sig set back

[MrRob96]

So I'm gonna try my hand at loading 357 Sig again. This cartridge was a PITA to load for last time I ran a bunch of ammo, and I never really got them working well.

My issue was the lack of tension in the tiny neck that made every round set back unless I put a crazy crimp on it. Except the heavy crimp would cause the shoulder to get bent out of shape and I was worried about over pressure issues. Never any signs tho.

Anyways, since I was trying to essentially get rid of set back, maybe this time I'll simply try to minimize set back, but that gets to my question, how hard is everyone pressing on their loaded ammo to check set back? And what are people considering acceptable? I try to look for less than .005" set back per chambering, but that doesn't make me feel super good since .010" of set back can significantly increase pressures.

Anyone have any tips, especially for this PITA 357 Sig cartridge?

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[deadeye]

Get a Lee factory crimp die. Sounds like you are putting too much bell on the brass with the resizer die.

Factory Crimp Die 357 Sig - Lee Precision

 

[Certaindeaf]

I'd kinda lean on it pretty good. You'd think that it'd, ideally, not move at all after being chambered a few times in a given gun.

 

[mkwerx]

Stick with factory? I don't reload, but my forays into .357 guns showed setback happens a lot easier in that caliber than other standard rounds. I had setback issues when unloading/loading for dry fire or cycling defensive ammo out for practice ammo etc. I hope you find a solution that works for you, is it possible to cannalure the neck on this round?

 

[MrRob96]

Get a Lee factory crimp die. Sounds like you are putting too much bell on the brass with the resizer die.

Factory Crimp Die 357 Sig - Lee Precision

I have the Lee FCD, the Lee 357 Sig die set and the RCBS 357 Sig die set.

The RCBS resizing and decapping die has a neck resizer and it hardly opens up the neck enough such that about 25% of bullets actually tear the side of the neck... So no I'm not belling the case mouth out too much.

Even factory ammunition appears to have issues with set back in this cartridge. If I press firmly onto factory Sig ammo like @Certaindeaf suggested, and I do for all my autoloader ammo, it will actually push the bullet entirely into the case.

This round just seems like the hardest one and you have to accept some set back. Wondering what other people are doing with it.

 

[MrElectric03]

I haven't loaded many rounds with it but I just didn't load any hot rounds so that if there was some setback it should affect pressures too much. I never had any feed issues though, shooting out of a Sig P229.

It's a very well known issue with the .357 sig cartridge, because of that and how comfortable I am with 9mm I just haven't shot it much.