Is 357 Sig Possible

Boolit Mold Join DateApr 2013LocationDFWPosts1

I am pondering casting some 357 Sig boolits. I don't intent to push FPS, never cast for an auto, I figure this will be a learning experience for sure. Here's the whole story:

I have a pair of all stainless Sig autos (P229 Elite and P226S) - neighbors next to my old S&W 686's. A box or bullets cost me $36 bucks and I am too damn cheap to do that again, so I am out to find a boolit mold. Gents, I'm no spring chicken having cast 357 and 44 since 1975 with some hand-me-down Lyman/Ideal molds. However, I am told that the 357 Sig is uncommon in that its bottleneck case as opposed to the straight-wall 9mm can be a mite touchy. One place mentioned that the boolit shape is somehow different - I looked into that and noticed that Speer shows different part numbers for their 357 Sig Bullets and that drew me up short - anyway, if true then I am looking for different molds in each the 9mm and the 357 Sig, both around 125 grains - prefer HP but I haven't seen a SWC that I didn't like, so for autos maybe a truncated cone might be the best I can do - the only shape I am not thrilled with is RN but if that is what it takes to get enough friction on the wall then so be it - anyway, I sure like to have some educated thoughts. I usually learn by lurking, but this one doesn't seem to have much ink in the forums.

Last edited by Dal686; Yesterday at 02:51 PM.

From the archives
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?167855-Mold-For-357-Sig

Truncated cone bullet & firm tapered crimp seems to be the key. The Lee bottleneck factory crimp die gets mentioned on a number of other sites.

if you need any brass,
shoot me a PM, i only have about 50 pieces,
but its all yours for free if you like.

in addition to the above link, treat it like a 9mm in diameter and feeding.
a flat point truncated cone type boolit from 125 through 147 should do well.
start at the mid point and keep velocity in the 950 fps zone to start.

welcome to the forum.

it's all an educated guess,,,, till the trigger is pulled.

the more i find out about shootin boolits, the more it contradicts everything i ever learned about shooting jaxketed.

Boolit Bub Join DateMar 2013Posts35

Accurate has two bullets for the .357sig in their catalog. Probably sometime in June I am going to order a mold with their 35-147S design which I may tweak a bit. I figure I will order it so it drops a .359-.360 bullet so I can use it in .357sig and .38/.357mag. He has a 35-147R design that is listed for .357sig but that does not look optimal for .357sig IMO. There is a also a gas check 125gr listed. I don't want to deal with gas checks so I figure I can launch a properly sized 147gr cast bullet at a decent speed without issue.

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=35-147S-D.png

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=35-125S-D.png

Quite a few 9mm bullets just do not have the right profile and yield crappy neck tension with .357sig. For a cheap jacketed bullet the 124gr JHP from Precision Delta works very well for .357sig. I used quite a few of them.

Last edited by dkf; Today at 02:03 PM.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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