How To: Reload .357 Mag (With Pictures!)

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This is designed to give someone an intro to reloading pistol. It's much easier than rifle (less steps) and should seriously be considered by anyone that shoots even a moderate amount.

I talked about the costs of reloading here but this is designed to show how easy it is to do.

What we're working with:

Pictured is everything I used to reload .357 Mag. I want to show exactly how easy it is and how little time it takes to reload a box of 50.

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I like to use nickel casings for my .357 Mag. They may not last as long, but I'm big into aesthetics as well as function, ESPECIALLY with my revolvers. Clean, shiny finished rounds show that I put the time and care into each of them (which is why you will see me wearing latex gloves while loading).

The first step is to decap/resize the cases. All brass here has been tumbled for a few hours and it perfectly clean. Never put dirty brass into your dies. The Lee Classic Turret primes on the downstroke of the decapping die as well. Pictured below is loading a primer into the priming ram. Two birds with one stone on this one. It clicks in to place a primer. On the downstroke, the priming ram pushes it into the bottom of the case, seating the primer.
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The second die is a powder thru/expander die. It will flare the mouth of the case so the bullet will fit it and be centered. Pictured below is a before/after of the case flaring. To the left is a case that has not been flared, to the right is a case that has had the mouth flared. Going without a flare on a straight-walled case can cause the bullet to push off-center and create a bulge on the side of the case, so you want to have enough flare so it sits neatly on the top without falling over. You won't want to flare it too much, as it's unnecessary wear and tear on your brass.

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Now that the mouth of the case is flared, I can put in the correct powder charge. Shown below is the Lee loading manual that I use. I will be using Accurate #5 for my powder, so it recommends a load between 8.0 and 9.0 grains. I choose to use 8.5 grains. I started working up this load from 8.0 grains and settled on 8.5. It doesn't have a terrible amount of kick, but it doesn't feel like a .38sp either. It's a nice middle-ground. It will be flying somewhere between 1100 and 1220 fps. I haven't chrono'd it.


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I measured out 8.5 grains of the powder on my RCBS 5-0-5 scale and load it into the case using a Lee funnel. You can do this while the case is up in the die and the ram is all the way up, or you can take the case off and do it that way. I always double-check to make sure I don't double-charge a case. Safety should be your main concern.

The next step is seating the bullet. To do this I back the die out all the way and SLOWLY adjust it more and more until it gets to the length that I want. For these I push the bullet in just until the cannelure touches the lip of the case. The trick is to go very slow and turn 1/8th of a turns when it starts to get close to where you want it. If you go too far you can pull the bullet and start over. I put mine to 1.56 which is .03 short according to the Lee book, but it's a load I worked up to a safe level.

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So I've got my bullet seated and pushed in to measure 1.56" but something's not right. I always chamber-check each round I make and this is what happened:

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The crimp. Remember when we flared the case mouth? Well now it's got to go back and crimp down on the bullet enough to hold it so the bullet freely slides into the cylinder. You won't want to crimp too much or it will have the same effect as if it wasn't crimped at all. You'll know when it's just right: it'll fall in beautifully into the cylinder like shown below.



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Now that the round fits the chamber, it's ready to fire. It takes me all of fifteen to twenty minutes to make a box of 50 or so. I left off the Lee Auto-Disk which speeds up the powder measurement tenfold but it's important to know how to use a beam scale.

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These simple steps are all that it takes to load .357 Mag. It really doesn't take much to do, is cheap and is a great hobby. I really hope someone that doesn't reload considers the hobby after this. Enjoy!
 
Great job explaining the reloading process in both posts, my friend and I are thinking about reloading and staring with .45.
 
Nice post. I'll be reloading 357 mag soon - whenever I find some time to get my hornady LNL press setup. I plan to use 2400 powder and Zero brand 125 gr and 158 gr JHPs and JSPs bullets.
 
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