1st reloading attempt complete... do have a question....

[antilley]

Please excuse the Noob questions.....

loaded (93) .38's 4.8 grains of unique, 158 grain Copper plated FP, CCI 500
Loaded (135) .357's 6 grains of unique 158 grain Copper plated FP, CCI 550

Made a few mistakes along the way ....

I expanded the first .357 case too much and the bullet fell in
I seated a primer backwards .... and i took a while to get a grove going on the Lee hand primer ....
I stuck a case when expanding (I was set up for .38 and had a mixed in .357) ... learned to stop if i notice additional pressure on the stroke.

I wrinkled a few cases trying to sort out the seating / crimping stage. I am still confused what causes the issue once the die is set correctly.... I still wrinkled 3 rounds after doing another 50 perfectly..... Any hints on what might cause that? (Lee Classic dies / press)

Also, I hate wasting money, but I am thinking i would rather have a dedicated .357 die set so I don't have to adjust back and forth from the .38's.... I will be loading both. Thoughts?

[Hobie]

Don't need a whole set but a dedicated SEATING die is useful. It takes but a moment to set the belling die.

[earlmck]

Hey, antilley, you did quite well for the first time. Everybody has a learning period, getting the feel of "how things should go when it is going OK"
The crinkled cases on seating are from too hard a crimp, probably because a few cases are a bit longer than others. With copper plated bullets you don't have much crimping groove to work with, so this is easy to do. With these loads you shouldn't need a super firm crimp to keep the bullet in place. If you really have a significant variation in lengths on those 38s you may need to trim them. A bit of a pain, but you know: "no pain, no gain".

I don't have a dedicated seating die, just readjust. But I've done it a zillion times and so it is a quick thing. My procedure to readjust is to
1) screw seating stem down too far so no crimping occurs yet.
2) seat bullet to correct depth, toward but not all the way to the top of the crimp groove, a bit at a time, not making a full handle
stroke and running the cartridge in-and-out several times while watching to get the perfect depth. You will want a bit of crimp groove
still showing in the completed round.
3) back seating stem too far back, so no further depth change will occur.
4) back seating die out a way, so no contact will occur and put the cartridge to top by finishing full stroke of handle.
5) screw die down until you feel it contact the cartridge firmly.
6) back cartridge back a bit, screw die down a bit, and finish stroke, aiming for the right amount of crimp and right crimping "feel". This
is easy to feel here because you are not contacting the seating stem, only crimping at this point.
7) when crimp is right, leave cartridge fully in die and screw down seating stem until it makes firm contact with bullet.

You should be nicely adjusted at this point.

But since you are using the same bullet for both 38 and 357, only the length is different and you should be able to make a super-quick readjustment if you have kept a loaded round from the previous session. Start the die in, run the loaded cartridge all the way up, and screw the die down until you get firm contact. Turn the lock ring to position and you should be just about perfect.

[AJMD429]

I expanded the first .357 case too much and the bullet fell in
I seated a primer backwards .... and i took a while to get a grove going on the Lee hand primer ....
I stuck a case when expanding (I was set up for .38 and had a mixed in .357) ... learned to stop if i notice additional pressure on the stroke.

I wrinkled a few cases trying to sort out the seating / crimping stage. I am still confused what causes the issue once the die is set correctly.... I still wrinkled 3 rounds after doing another 50 perfectly..... Any hints on what might cause that? (Lee Classic dies / press)

Been there & done that, myself...

With 'experience' like I have , you'll find you make fewer mistakes, but they get better...

• ...like wondering why my .45-70 wouldn't feed, taking it back to the house and disassembling it, then realizing I'd tried to feed it .444 Marlin loads...

Also, I hate wasting money, but I am thinking i would rather have a dedicated .357 die set so I don't have to adjust back and forth from the .38's.... I will be loading both. Thoughts?

Makes sense to me - I've been too cheap to do that, but it isn't all that much to buy another set of good Lee dies.

[stretch]

Sounds like you did just fine!

Earlmck's advice on resetting the seating,crimping die is good.
As he pointed out, saving one from the previous round is the
right idea. You can also make a "reference" or "setup" round
by just omitting the powder and primer - pop that in, check your
setup, and you're gonna be close - only minor adjustments needed
at that point. Machinists and production woodworkers frequently
make patterns to reduce setup time of machinery between jobs.
Same idea here.

Your crimping problem sounds like different case lengths, as noted.
I'm in the minority, but I trim all of my revolver cases to the same length.
Sometimes just sorting them by headstamp and making minor adjustments
to your die set works, too. It can be a little bit tedious, though. The crimp
is more important on the 357 than it is on the 38.

Welcome to reloaidng - you'll be addicted soon enough!!

[Bronco]

Howdy,

38spl, and 357's were the first things I reloaded. After awhile I got lazy , got rid of the 38 cases and just started loading 357 cases to avoid a lot of the die adjustments. Lead loads were mild 38 power and jacketed or copper were full house 357's.

Also read that, while not a big problem, the shorter cases allowed more of the cylinder wall to be subject to powder fouling and made the bullets jump farther to the sizing cone. Switched more out of laziness than for the other items I mentioned.

John

[Griff]

Hey, antilley, you did quite well for the first time. Everybody has a learning period, getting the feel of "how things should go when it is going OK"
The crinkled cases on seating are from too hard a crimp, probably because a few cases are a bit longer than others. With copper plated bullets you don't have much crimping groove to work with, so this is easy to do. With these loads you shouldn't need a super firm crimp to keep the bullet in place. If you really have a significant variation in lengths on those 38s you may need to trim them. A bit of a pain, but you know: "no pain, no gain".

I don't have a dedicated seating die, just readjust. But I've done it a zillion times and so it is a quick thing. My procedure to readjust is to
1) screw seating stem down too far so no crimping occurs yet.
2) seat bullet to correct depth, toward but not all the way to the top of the crimp groove, a bit at a time, not making a full handle
stroke and running the cartridge in-and-out several times while watching to get the perfect depth. You will want a bit of crimp groove
still showing in the completed round.
3) back seating stem too far back, so no further depth change will occur.
4) back seating die out a way, so no contact will occur and put the cartridge to top by finishing full stroke of handle.
5) screw die down until you feel it contact the cartridge firmly.
6) back cartridge back a bit, screw die down a bit, and finish stroke, aiming for the right amount of crimp and right crimping "feel". This
is easy to feel here because you are not contacting the seating stem, only crimping at this point.
7) when crimp is right, leave cartridge fully in die and screw down seating stem until it makes firm contact with bullet.

You should be nicely adjusted at this point.

But since you are using the same bullet for both 38 and 357, only the length is different and you should be able to make a super-quick readjustment if you have kept a loaded round from the previous session. Start the die in, run the loaded cartridge all the way up, and screw the die down until you get firm contact. Turn the lock ring to position and you should be just about perfect.

+1!
Here's a picture of my reference cases.

Cases and bullets only, no primer or powder. These are all .45 Colt bullets I load, and while the crimp is in the same place, bullet shape also determines the seater die depth. I just put the correct reference bullet in the holder, run the ram up with the seater backed off enough to let the bullet go all the way up, then screw down the seater plug to it a nice firm contact.

A good while back I did a pictorial on Proper Rollcrimp Adjustment on this forum. Between Earlmuck's description and the pics in that topic, you should, hopefully, get'er figured out.