Tennessee Firearms Assoc. Inc.

Is it possible to use .357 dies to seat .38 bullets in .38 cases?

Normally the seat die doubles as the crimp die as well, dependcing on brand. You could seat the bullet in a .38 Special case with a .357 die, but would not be able to crimp it, as the die body will be too long.

According to what I read on Lee's website, you can load magnum shells with a special die, but not specials with a magnum die. make sense? It don't to me.

You can turn the shorter, i.e. .38 special die, UP in the press and get the correct length for seating and crimping for the longer case (.357), (there would be a lot of space between the bottom of the die and the shell holder, and if there is any play in the threads, the die might cant) as the outside diameter of the round is the same, it is simply a length thing. The longer die body of the .357 will not go far enough down in the press, (the base of the die will bottom out on the shell holder and not let you get it far enough DOWN to crimp the .38 length cartridge). You could run the seat stem in a .357 die far enough down to seat a .38 properly maybe, but the crimp function would not work that way.

Man...everytime I think I know a thing or two about firearms I read stuff like this and think again...you guys are talking Greek to me...lol

After researching the same question the official answer I came up with is: It depends on the dies. Some you can and others you can not. The Lee 90964 dies are listed as 38 Special but can be used for 357 Magnum, the instructions for 357 are not included though. Other brands sometimes come with spacers and some others can't be used for 357 Magnum. It really depends on the brand and model of dies you have.

Everything in C. Richard Archie's post is dead on correct...

It all comes down to the crimp function. On my Redding .38 Special dies (inherited them - they must be very old, for the price tag on them reads $17.50) you can size both the .38 and .357 cartridges with no issues because they are, for all intents and purposes, a straight walled cartridge. I prefer to re-tumble my cases at that point just to put the shine back on them that was there before the resizing stage. I then move on the the decapping/case mouth flaring stage... This requires turning the die up 0.10 inch in the press for the .357's so that I do not over-flare the case mouth. Next stage is seating and crimping, which again requires adjustment of the seating/crimping die up 0.10 inch in the press (assuming I am loading the same bullet for the .357 as I was for the .38 for which the die was previously set) so as to not seat the bullet too deep into the case.

This process doesn't reverse for the .357 dies, for as C. Richard Archie states, your .357 dies will be hitting the shell holder. The .38 cartridge would never reach deep enough into the .357 seating/crimping die to crimp the case mouth around the bullet.

I don't shoot .38 or .357 that often, but I am loading up plenty of it when not working up .44 mag loads or 7.62x51 match loads. It is something to do when nothing else is "pressing" (pun intended.) I take advantage of this though, as I use this time to teach my 4 1/2 year old son the proper step-by-step, "always do it the same way" procedure of reloading. He helps daddy pull the handle... So I sometimes ask him "Is it time to pull the handle yet?" to see if he is paying attention. I may do this before I have changed out one of the cases (my press is an old Herter's Co-axial Super Model 81C that weighs 38 pounds without dies) in the shell holders, or perhaps I have not placed the bullet over the case mouth yet... It helps him learn.

For all of you fathers out there, reloading with your kids can be some good quality time. You accomplish something TOGETHER! They are proud of what they've done and they learn something at the same time. Reloading is, in my opinion going to become more important over the next few years. I HOPE this is only due to production shortages and nothing else... But either way, I believe with all of my heart that it is an important skill we should pass on to our children. It is just as important as safe firearms handling, and just as important as teaching them the proper way to clean a firearm. Remember to always take into account the age of your child versus the time you are going to spend on a project when doing any of these things with your kids. Something we can spend hours on as adults does not have the same appeal to our kids. While I am happy to crank out 1,000 rounds of ammo in one sitting, a 100 round loading session will test my son's limits. If you don't want to "burn them out" on something, remember to only do it long enough to be able to maintain their attention. If you push them, they will loose interest in the project and perhaps never want to return to it. It makes me feel great, though, to hear my son run into the house and say "Mommy! Daddy and I made 100 shiny new bullets!" It makes me feel good, and reminds me of the times when I was little - my dad kept his guns in a great big steamer trunk in a walk-in closet. I would sit on his shoe-shine box and he would sit in his chair while he taught me about Colt Single Actions and S&W revolvers. That is also where I learned about the importance of matching numbers on Lugers. Making memories and passing on knowledge is what it is all about...

Regards to all,
Mike

I have a set of Dillon dies and they are marked 38/357. They do both you just have to run the die down in the tool head for 38's and back it out for 357. There is only about 1/8" difference in the two. I guess if your die was made for 357 the die could be too long to be used for the 38. Ie the die would bottom out on the shell plate. You don't really need the die to reach the bottom of the case for the bullet seating/crimping operation so I don't know why they would make it that long, personally. A man could pop it in a lathe and take .130 off of it if he had too. I would see if I could get it to work first. The cartridges are identical except for the length. The only reason the 357 magnum is longer is, when they developed the stronger platform for that round they didn't want some one to mistakenly slip into the weaker 38 special gun. BTW I have a separate die for crimping. That's just the way the Dillon dies come. Hope I helped.

Rich