Does RCBS make a pointed bullet seating die for 357 Mag?

[Land_Owner]

With Hornady 38 Cal .357 140 gr FTX® (357 Mag) bullets, I find no suitable seating die, except flat headed and conical.  Am I going to flatten the bullets when seating with the conical insert?

[quickdtoo]

RCBS will make you a custom seater plug for about $20 if you send them five bullets, give em a call. You can also make your own with epoxy or hot glue. I just use my 35 Remington seater.

Tim

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,149163.msg1098619731.html#msg1098619731

http://www.rcbs.com/guide/#faq

http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/2010_SpecialOrder.pdf

From their FAQs...

Q. When I seat the bullet, the seater plug cuts a ring around the bullet just below the nose. What causes this?

A. In short, the seater plug does not fit the bullet you are using. The seater plug furnished with the Seater Die normally will fit the great majority of the bullets for that particular caliber. However, we cannot make one seater plug fit all bullets currently available. If you experience this problem or any similar problem where the seater plug doesn't match the bullet and you wish to have a special seater plug made, we can supply one from the Special Order Department at minimum cost. See our Special Order Catalog for current pricing.

[OR-E-Gun Bill]

If you have yet to buy the die set for the .357, the Hornady New Dimension die set comes with 2 seating stems. One for pointed & round nose configured bullets and one for flat nose bullets.



Bill

[PigBoy Crabshaw]

I just got 100 357 Maxi brass and Hornady ND die set for it. Let me open the box and confirm seating stems. -g

If you have yet to buy the die set for the .357, the Hornady New Dimension die set comes with 2 seating stems. One for pointed & round nose configured bullets and one for flat nose bullets.



Bill

[PigBoy Crabshaw]

Bill is correct. Now what about the free bullets? -g

[Dinny]

With Hornady 38 Cal .357 140 gr FTX® (357 Mag) bullets, I find no suitable seating die, except flat headed and conical.  Am I going to flatten the bullets when seating with the conical insert?

You can trim the inside of the stem with a Dremel or a good machinist can cut the inside out enough to protect the points when seating them. That's what I did until I got a used set of RCBS 357 Max dies. They have a different style seating stems that can be swapped with the .35 Rem pointed stems.

Thanks, Dinny