.357-45 GWM sizing die question.

[nfa1934]

I have about 600 rounds of .357-45 GWM that are problematic about chambering. Last time I fired any of it, someone told me to run them through a sizing die again, then they should chamber fine. Any problems with this idea? They are all handloads from the guy who sold me my .357-45 conversion kit for my LAR Grizzly (got the conversion kit, a set of dies, the loaded ammo, and a big bag of brass formed from .308 cases in the deal). Don't want to pull the bullets and start over on 600 rounds when some chamber and some don't.

BTW, just starting to reload. I've had a complete setup stored away for years. I've either been out of the country or had no space to set up my press. I still don't have space for my turret press, but I just bought a hand press. I've got dies for .45 ACP, .357-45 GWM, .45 WM, and 10mm.

I may just start fresh with some of the .357-45 GWM unloaded brass and worry about the loaded ammo later. Really looking forward to getting this caliber up and running in my 10" LAR Grizzly long slide. It's basically a .45 Winchester Magnum case necked down to .357 (supposed to be easier to make your brass out of .308 cases though). Supposedly this round is a powerhouse that shoots flat over long distances (for a pistol). The loading data supplied by the guy who sold me the components has a starting point of 19-21 grains of 296 depending on bullet size.

[O.S.O.K.]

If you are asking if you can run the loaded rounds through a sizer die (with the decapping pin removed of course), the answer is no. The reason is that the die will size the necks down and the bullets with them and you'll lose your crimp - not to mention the bullets will be too small to grab the rifling.

If you want to size them down, you'll have to pull the bullets and dump the charge and then resize without the expander ball/pin in place to push the shoulder down a bit and then once again with the expander ball/pin in place but not going down far enough to decap the primer to open the neck back to proper size.

Sorry for the bad news...

[nfa1934]

If you are asking if you can run the loaded rounds through a sizer die (with the decapping pin removed of course), the answer is no. The reason is that the die will size the necks down and the bullets with them and you'll lose your crimp - not to mention the bullets will be too small to grab the rifling.

If you want to size them down, you'll have to pull the bullets and dump the charge and then resize without the expander ball/pin in place to push the shoulder down a bit and then once again with the expander ball/pin in place but not going down far enough to decap the primer to open the neck back to proper size.

Sorry for the bad news...

Gonna be a long weekend...

Tempted to cycle them all through my pistol manually to sort the ones that will chamber before pulling the bullets.

[O.S.O.K.]

Just take the barrel out and use that as a gage - drop the rounds into the chamber and see if they fit or stick up... that would save you from having to pull those anyway.

And don't feel too bad - you are definately not the first guy to load up a bunch of ammo and find out that something isn't right...

And tell me about that round. It must be a barn burner! How about a pic or two?

[nfa1934]

.357-45 GWM is on the left beside .357 Magnum for comparison. Loading data is hard to find. The loads that came with my conversion kit (the ones that are giving me trouble) are a 158gr bullet with 19gr of 296. These are on the mild side for this round. One guy on another forum says it is capable of pushing a 158gr bullet 1700-1800 fps with hotter loads. Supposed to be ballistically similar to .357 AMP.

It will be a while before I can load this round. The seater die is missing from my die set, so I had to special order one from RCBS today. It will be 6-8 weeks.

I'll be running these through a 10" longslide.

Thanks for the advice to use the barrel as a gauge! I've sorted about 300 rounds so far. Of those, 100 are usable.

Edit: just finished sorting. Out of 600 rounds, 120 are usable.

[O.S.O.K.]

Wow -that's a hotty.

Glad you got some usable ones.... now the fun starts