S&B .357 brass

[Billett]

Has anybody used Sellers and Bellot 357 brass that can advise. I've read some different reviews that don't rate it very much and the odd couple that rate it highly.

Thanks

[ukrifleman]

I can't comment on S&B .357 brass but if you have a choice, I would be inclined to look for Starline .357 brass as it is excellent quality and available from Kenry Krank.

My only experience with S&B brass was with cases from once fired .303 factory loads.

The cases performed poorly, with many splitting after the first reload.

ukrifleman

[dodgyrog]

Tight primer pockets can be difficult, other than that they're ok

[DavidRees]

I bought and used some S&B .357 ammunition a few years back, and have reloaded the cases 21 times since then...as a batch of cases they have lasted far better than any other case make I've used. I'd happily use more if it was available.

For comparison, a batch of R+P .357 brass was scrapped due to multiple splitting cases after 14 reloadings--very much the same light loads throughout with both batches, so I'd definitely pick S&B over R+P if longevity was a concern.

Of course, either batch may have been atypical in some way, so don't take this as anything other than one persons' experience.

Now buying new empty .357 brass, I use Starline (easiest to get), but no batch has been used more than 7 times -- so far, so good...

[Daryll]

I have a few hundred Starline .357 cases that date back to the pistol days... so 20 years at least.. and I'm still using them for light Gallery loads...
No idea how many times they've been reloaded, I'd guess at least 50 times...

[lasbrisas]

I have also had some factory .357 S&B and reloaded it loads of times with light loads for gallery, never had a problem.

[saddler]

Used S&B pistol ammo back in the day

Would rate the brass very highly - & DON'T get sidetracked with others experiences of RIFLE brass - not the same pressures or sizing regime involved for the pistol stuff as for rifle.
As a comparison, I'd chuck Remington R-P pistol brass away sooner than look at it. Even with light loads I've had serious case splitting on the first reload! Utter junk...

[WelshShooter]

I will second/third whatever the Starline brass. I use them in light gallery loads and I've loaded them 10 times without a single split.

Used S&B pistol ammo back in the day

Would rate the brass very highly - & DON'T get sidetracked with others experiences of RIFLE brass - not the same pressures or sizing regime involved for the pistol stuff as for rifle.

I would disagree with this statement - slightly. With .357 brass you resize it, flare the case mouth then seat/crimp the brass. With my .303 I neck size only. So the .357 sizing regime is a bit harder on the brass than my neck sizing (not talking about pressure here). With S&B brass I had quite a few splits and case head separation after 3 reloads with mild loads. Following the same regime for Privi brass I've managed 5-6 reloads so far and have not had a single split or casehead separation... yet.

However, I've not used S&B .357 magnum brass so at the moment it's more of an "apple to pears" comparison. I didn't get good results with S&B .303 brass so I'm not inclined to try it in .357 magnum. Personally, the Starline brass is well priced and produces good consistent loads, so there's no reason for me to deviate from this.

[dromia]

The apples and oranges comes in comparing neck sizing to FL sizing.

Proportionate flaring and crimping is more benign to brass than those damned expander balls used in bottleneck case sizing dies.

[bewildered]

I reloaded my .357 S&B, IMI and RP cases more than 30 times. Splits were becoming more common so I pensioned them off and replaced them with Privi cases as Henry Krank didn't have Starline.
I reported a large number of splits with the Privi cases when I first started to reload them about 18 months ago but since the first few reloads there have been none.
All cases were loaded with light target loads, 3.4g of Vectan AS with a 158g lead bullet on top.