Dillon Carbide Size/Deprime Die .357 Sig

S

slice38

Inactive
I have been reloading for about six years now. I have only used Redding dies which I have had perfect experience with. Absolutely perfect.

I am about to start .357 Sig now and am looking at dies. Since Redding does not make a .357 Sig carbide sizing die, and based on my research, I was about to buy both a Redding .40 S&W carbide sizing die and a Redding .357 Sig sizing die. Now I see that Dillon does make a Carbide Size/Deprime Die for .357 Sig (their stock number 16513).

I have had no experience with Dillon. Has anyone had experience with this particular die? Is it better to go ahead and buy both of the Redding dies and stay away from the Dillon die? If that die works for .357 Sig, I can't understand why the other manufacturers would not make one of their own. I guess I'm skeptical based on the "if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't" maxim.

Would appreciate hearing from those of you with .357 Sig loading experience.


Thank you sincerely,
Big Mike
 
Sorry I cannot speak specifically to the Sig. I have however been very pleased with all of my Dillon dies. When I got my Dillon press I soon started replacing my other dies, mostly RCBS, with Dillon. The other dies work but the Dillon dies set up in the press with less time and work, for me. The 9mm are probably the closest to sig that I have and they work great.
 
Dillon makes some top notch dies, I think thier 357 sig die is a combo of carbide and steel. The carbide sizes the body and steel sizes the neck. Its very hard to mill carbide to the shape of the case. I use the 40 die to size and then run it through the 357 sig die to neck size so I do have to lube. I got my dies 10 years ago before Dillon came out with thiers.
 
I don't have the Dillon 357 Sig carbide die. I use the 40 carbide with the 357 steel Sig route.

My understanding was that you needed to use lube with the Dillon carbide 357 Sig die, but was corrected by those actually using the Dillon carbide 357 Sig die. My set up works fine for me, but YMMV.
 
Dillon dies tend to be on the tight side so that all brass is made small enough by them. For example, my old Lyman carbide die will not size the thin, springy mouths of Remington brass enough to hold a bullet after two or three load cycles, but my Dillon Square Deal die does it every time.

Dillon do make a few solid carbide bottleneck rifle dies, but those cases are tapered so the die has to have full contact with them all the way around the body. Unlike a carbide sizing ring, which only contacts a pistol case in a narrow band, the full length contact on those rifle dies requires lube same as steel. Their advantage is just wear resistance and a bit smoother surface finish on the brass. They are really intended for commercial volume reloaders. The cheapest one is $73 for M1 Carbine. The next cheapest is $137 for .223/5.56. It's over $225 for 30-06, and the 50 BMG is $870. Size and price go hand in hand for solid carbide.

Since the 357 SIG is not in that high priced group, it's not solid carbide. If it is a carbide ring for the body and steel for the neck or has a separate carbide ring for the neck (which I doubt, since the price is the same as the other carbide pistol dies at $27.45), either way you should be OK without lube. It's only if there is solid carbide the full shape of the case that you need to lube.
 
Just bought a 550 and have been steadily working on setting up tool heads for all of my calibers. Their 357 sig die is carbide ring and steel up at the neck portion. The 357 sig dies I have now are Lee. All I could find last year. What I do is first run them through my carbide rcbs 40 sizing die and then through the steel Lee 357 sig sizing die. No need to lube this way.

Two things to consider about this cartridge.

A) The brass may need trimmed after sizing through the 357 sig die.

B) Unless you're using a dillon press with their powder die, the dillon die set will not come with a case mouth expander die that you will be able to use on a single stage/ turret press. Might keep this in mind.

This is a reloaders cartridge. Big numbers can be achieved with it. I've very safey been able to get almost 1800 fps out of a 4 inch bbl. On the other hand, unless your going to load it on the upper end of the spectrum, you're loading really expensive 9mm.
 
I have a dillon 357 Sig carbide die I bought many years ago and it was expensive. Mine appears to be solid carbide if you shine a light inside it and it does size the case fairly tight.

I love mine. I load with it exclusively and it works well. I do use hornady one shot spray just to knock down the squeak sound of sizing.

I do also use an FCD rifle style collet crimp die. It works well also. Just a suggestion.
 
Thanks for your thoughts and advice

Thank you all for your thoughts and advice. I bought:

Redding .40 S&W carbide sizer
Redding .357 Sig sizer
Redding expander
Redding .357 Sig competition seating
Lee FCD

Will be using Accurate no. 9 and Seirra 125 gr TMJ's
CCI 500's

Big Mike
 
When I first started reloading 357 Sig, I used Accurate No 9. No more. The stuff was getting everywhere. It clogged up my RCBS Chargemaster, too. At the time, I had a bit of flex in my first bench setup and using a progressive press wasn't truly solid...that contributed to the No. 9 powder getting into the press. But the Chargemaster issue was what stopped me from loading No. 9, again. Sent it in to RCBS and they sent me a new one. I called back to ask about possibly avoiding using very fine particulate powder in the thing...they told me it was safe to do so. A decade later...I still don't use it in the Chargemaster.
 
The issue is the bottle necked case. Makes manufacturing more difficult and expensive. Carbide can't be machined and reamed like carbon or SS. Needs EDM/ECM machining. S'why Dillion kit is so pricey.
Seems the RCBS set is a 2 die set with no carbide too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top