INTERESTING day today!

[sniper]

I'm TIRED! 8-)
I was taking a break from painitng grandkids' Christmas presents (11 of 'em) and I made the mistake of looking up a load, using my Lee dipper set, and discovered the new slide I bought has a "new" dipper data added. The dipper is sold separately, per a pleasant young lady at Lee.

THEN, I started to wonder...hmmmm...how much 357 brass do I have, anyway? See where this is heading? Do I need more? :roll: OBOY! I started adding up all I could find..."That's not quite right", sez I.

Then I remembered the several hundred fired and unprocessed cases in a yogurt tub on my loading bench!
Soooo....I spent several hours depriming, tumbling, trimming, chamfering and belling them, plus resizing and belling some previously over-expanded brass,(how'd that happen?:oops:) then sorting the whole mess by headstamp.

I did find one interesting, and rather frightening thing...in one case, there was a small centerfire cartridge case. I say centerfire, because it had a hole in the center of the case, but otherwise, it looked much like .22 Long Rifle brass. I don't have a .25 caliber handgun, and have never had .25 caliber brass on my bench, so how it got there, I'll never know! I got my dental pick out, and finally dislodged it, and it was really misshapen from the pressure. One side was torn about 1/8" wide, and about half of the cartridge length. It was below the bullet seating depth, so I could load and fire the 357 with it inside! I can't even guess what the pressure might have been! :holysheep THANK YOU strong Winchester brass and Smith & Wesson handgun!

How necessary is sorting by headstamp from the same manufacturer, anyhow?...I can see not allowing Remington and Winchester brass to fraternize irresponsibly...you never know what the progeny of such activities would look like! :mrgreen: If it's not necessary, I won't do that again! I learn slow, but I learn good!

WHY, you may ask? Wellll...I found two separate Winchester headstamps...one saying "WW Super 357 Magnum", and the other saying "Winchester 357 Mag". They both look like garden-variety 357 Magnum brass to me, and the dimensions are the same. I purchased the brass new, although at varying times, so I figure, maybe a marketing thing? So, unless somebody knows something I don't, I'll just consider them one headstamp, mix and match and go from there.

With my 2400 Unique and Universal loads included, it appears I have enough brass for several Zombie or Barbarian onslaughts.

THEN, in the True Spirit of Never Leaving Well-Enough Alone, and having, in the meanwhile, read some ad copy about the Lee Carbide Factory crimp die, and how it will do everything except make a properly soft-boiled egg, I started to think about my loaded rounds...Ahhh, yeeesss... have I bulged a case, so they won't fit? 45 minutes later, and just a little while ago....THEY ALL FIT! They make that satisfying "plunk" when dropped into the cylinder. :bigsmyl2:

What experience have any of you had with the Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die for 38/357 Maggie? Worth the money? It seems like that if a person is careful with reloading, it might not be necessary.

So, I'm tired, but it is a good tired! :-)

[9.3X62AL]

I have both "W-W Super X" and "Winchester" 357 Mag brass on hand; the latter is newer production, both are nickel plated, and their weights are practically identical. I treat it as one and the same.

[Jeff82]

I have used the Lee Factory crimp die, but not in 357. I use RCBS Cowboy Action dies and can put in as tight of a crimp as I like. So, unless you can't get a good crimp from your seating die, I don't know why you need one.

[bhn22]

Winchester has also in the past used different headstamps for identical cases that are sold in different ways. "Super X" was an old line of factory ammo. "WW" has been used a lot for factory ammo, plus I've bought new unprimed brass with that headstamp. The same goes for "Winchester" marked brass. Most of the brass I have marked in that manner was new, unprimed brass. No wonder so many people find ammo collecting so interesting.

[rintinglen]

I like the Lee FCD for rifles and straight sided cases like the .357. Virtually every 38 or .357 that I've loaded in the last twenty years has been crimped in one and I swear by them. Ammo so produced WILL fit your cylinder, regardless of whether you sorted by head stamp, trimmed to length, etc. I've used mine for well over 50,000 rounds--maybe as many as 100,000 and I have them for 38/.357, 44 Spl/Mag, 45/70, 30/30, 30/40, 30-06, 25-06, 32-20 and maybe a couple more. They are excellent in these applications.

I do not recommend them for the 9mm or 40 S&W, there, they can cause more problems than they cure.

[sniper]

Update...And a bit relieved! I retrieved the offending piece of brass from my junk can, and inspected it more closely. Posted pixes on another forum, and one fellow said it looked to him that it was not a firing error, but the case was damaged in the sizing die, and the decapping pin punched the hole in the end! That would explain the bright brass on the .22 case, not darkened by firing!

I do have fired .22 brass in my trash brass can, but still can't figure out how it got mixed with the 357 brass.

I will now turn every one of my rifle and pistol brass upside down and rap it against the bench and look thru the primer pocket/flash hole to be sure it's clear before priming.
I surely don't want anything like that to happen again!

Sorry if this has been long, but I don't want anyone to make that mistake. Once in a lifetime is enough! :shock:

[sniper]

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The reshaped brass!