I ordered dies and brass before I considered the barrel. Now I have the dies and 500 rounds of new Starline cases so I'm ready for the barrel. I couldn't find carbide dies, that's a bummer, guess I'll make do with steel. Actually I could probably use a 40S&W carbide sizing die and then use the steel die for the neck. I have a good selection of bullets I can use and a lot of powder. Anyway the cost of ammo won't be any greater than most of what I shoot. There is a shop close to me that has the sig barrels at 169 or there is an e-bay seller that has them for 155, says they are new in the box. I could take my P229 to the shop and make sure everything fits but that's probably un-necessary. I'll report back after I get some ammo loaded, barrel on and range time in, thanks for the advise!!!!!

It has been a long time since I looked, but as I recall carbide dies for bottleneck cartridges are very uncommon, expensive, and usually have to be used with at bit of case lube anyway. Although I bought 357 SIG dies when I first got a pistol chambered for the cartridge, it was also about the time I lost most of my interest in reloading and never actually did it for that round. I do remember that even though I have carbide dies for all the other handgun cartridges I handloaded for, I had just resigned myself to having to lube the 357 SIG cases.

After the factory barrel get some real 357 sig ammo...something going 1400fps is lovely, none of that down-rated stuff.

I have a 239, a 229, and a 226 in .357 Sig. All are tack drivers. I absolutely can hardly believe how well that little 239 shoots. All are Sig factory drop in barrels.

Another SIG factory barrel vote