School Me: .357 Sig

Depending on the cash amount go for it but here in az a 33rd glock mag isn’t worth a whole lot. I had a couple glocks in 357sig personally I would prefer a 357sig to 40. My major issue was cost of ammo. But the 357sig round is really a neat round

Al-jim19 said:

Who has one? What do you like about it? Dislike? What pistols do you like best? If you don’t have one, is there a reason you don’t want one?

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I have two. One a Glock, and one a Sig.

I like that the cartridge is a fast light weight 125gr hollow point. .357 Sig seems to have excellent penetration for a HP, and is in my opinion a good option for highway situations (I like it for commuting). It is also quite flat shooting. Apparently the bottle neck cartridge feeds very reliably. Many guns can shoot .40 SW as well, with nothing more than a different barrel. In fact both of my guns were originally .40s. It seems to me there's marginally less felt recoil with .357 than .40, but that may be personal perception.

I dislike the cost of ammo. But you can always shoot .40 instead.

I like the pistols I have. A G23 with .357 barrel, and a Sig P224. If I had a P226 in .357 Sig I bet I'd like that too.

Some will claim 9mm +P+ does the same thing. Maybe they're right, maybe the .357 Sig still has a slight edge due to case capacity. I think it's a good cartridge, and is now my favorite in a semi-auto.

Check out LuckyGunner's ballistic gel tests. You get a pretty negligible performance bump over 9mm with a lot more muzzle blast and more expensive ammo. There's nothing wrong with the caliber but I don't think the trade-off is worth it. I'd look at a 10mm if you want to bump up a level in a semi-auto platform.

Well, I have two SIG P229s that were chambered in .40 S&W and purchased a 357 SIG barrel to use in either of them. For the SIG P229 switching from .40 S&W to 357 SIG involves only swapping a barrel. The same recoil spring assembly and magazines work with either cartridge. I think the same is true for the SIG P226. However, living in MA I don't know if the pistol you are considering has a loaded chamber indicator, or if it does, what type. I know that with the California-compliant SIG P pistols the LCI requires a small cut in the rear of the barrel hood to accommodate the LCI.

Buying a .40 S&W classic SIG P pistol and installing a 357 SIG barrel, or doing the opposite, can be attractive since it allows you to shoot both calibers from the same pistol. And either the SIG P226 or 229 handle either caliber extremely well.

As for 357 SIG, it is fun to shoot and I would probably do so more often if I reloaded or if commercial FMJ ammo was cheaper. Especially if you cannot buy ammunition on-line, if you do not reload 357 SIG target and practice FMJ ammunition can be quite expensive, and the selection that is locally available can be quite limited. Oddly, the price differential between quality 357 SIG JHP self-defense ammunition and other SD calibers is much less, for whatever reason.

Some people feel that the recoil characteristics of 357 SIG are more user-friendly than for .40 S&W. I am not sure that is true. I would say the the recoil of those two calibers is similar, but different. The .40 S&W seems to produce a bit more muzzle rise whereas the 357 SIG seems to have a little sharper jab straight back into the hand. But 357 SIG is definitely louder and has more muzzle flash, which are characteristics that may or may not appeal to you. 357 SIG does seem to be quite accurate and is very flat-shooting, if you care to shoot at distance.

I have looked into the ballistic characteristics of both .40 S&W and 357 SIG fairly extensively. My personal bias is that 357 SIG really doesn't offer anything substantial over .40 S&W for self-defense in the civilian theater. It may have some advantages for police agencies that might be require better barrier penetration or be called upon to take shots at distance. But the increased noise and muzzle flash could be real detriments if one had to shoot without hearing protection in an enclose space, or in dim light conditions.

I wouldn't give up a single round of 9mm for the very slight increase in speed the 357 Sig offers or the added bullet weight of the 40 S&W. In the real world all 3 net exactly the same results.

I have a P226, a P226 legion, and a P229 legion in .357sig.

I like the caliber. It's quite accurate and very flat shooting, but, it is a fire breather!!
The recoil is in between 9mm & 40s&w.

The ammo is expensive and limited. You can get S&B FMJ ammo cheap but the HP
ammo is more expensive. I carry Winchester Ranger T when I carry these pistols (my main CCW).

I dont own one because I have no need for one, or haven't found one i liked lol. Now maybe in a wheel gun...

I have a 32NAA which is a bottleneck cartridge based of a 380 necked to 32. Similar concept. To me the 357 sig is like a 10mm special. Faster than the 40sw, like the 10mm is, but not quite the energy as the 10mm due to the smaller bullet. It should penetrate better than a 40, and similar to the 10mm. I know my 32NAA penetrates a good bit more than the 380acp.

I shot a glock once chambered in .357 sig. it was fun, and I liked the round. Then shortly after the “big” ammo shortage hit and all of a sudden .357 sig was all i could find on any shelf I saw.

Maybe it’s different now but that sort of availability could be a benefit unto itself.

jmr40 said:

I wouldn't give up a single round of 9mm for the very slight increase in speed the 357 Sig offers or the added bullet weight of the 40 S&W. In the real world all 3 net exactly the same results.

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What about in states with 10 round limits? There would be no loss of capacity.
I will still carry my .357sig or 40s&w pistols.

There are two sets of popular loadings for the .357 Sig with most loadings being of the less powerful variety basically on par with .40 S&W loads.

For the purposes here I am identifying the .357 Sig as the original, more powerful loading from Buffalo Bore, DoubleTap, etc.

I'm a big fan of the .357 Sig and IMHO it is the best true general purpose caliber if you're carrying both for personal defense and wild animals of the four-legged persuasion.

That said, I run Sig pistols with dual caliber setups (see my sorrowful posts on the expense of caliber exchange kits) in .357 Sig / .40 S&W and changeable to 9mm.

If you're looking at the less powerful .357 Sig loadings, they are much more 'shootable'. However, IMHO a good .40 S&W in 165 gr. (r.g. Federal HST) has all the ballistics you will need.

And so we're on a slippery slope here because the Federal 147 gr. HST 9mm +p has about 90% of the performance of the .40 S&W 165 gr. HST in a more-popular caliber.

For myself, I have about 20% in the original high-power .357 Sig loading and 40% in the .40 S&W 165 gr. Federal HST and 40% in the Federal 147 gr. 9mm +P HST in terms of EDC.

If you check the ballistics performance you will find that, in humans, all of these loadings are comparable and pretty close to optimal.

I have a Sig 239 in .357 Sig and also have an interchangeable .40 S&W barrel. I like the round and carry the gun as a .357 Sig more than as a .40 S&W. However, I do reload. If I didn't, I probably wouldn't buy factory ammo. Too expensive and too mild.

Member JimKirk knows a LOT about this cartridge. Maybe he will post about it.

I don't know about a "Lot" .... but I have been shooting and reloading the 357 SIG for quite a while now ...

Back in the ammo shortage of was the only cartridge on the shelf in my area .... seems the tails and heads have swapped ends now ... not as easy to find everywhere ....but plenty of ammo out there ....

If you happen to reload .... it is as cheap as any other to reload ...

It is accurate, reliable feeding and fun to shoot(I used to shoot lot of 44 Mag.& 41 Mag.) .

I've shot a pile different powders and bullets ... Plenty of workable powders ...
I like Long shot for full loads(800x would be my favorite if it would meter better) , AA9 probably the easiest to work with ....HS 6 ... is good for mid range loads .... just too many to list out ....
Bullets are a little more tricky as the bullets needs a short Ogive to work with the short neck ... My favorite is the 124 grain Hornady XTP .... but there are plenty of suitable bullets out there(RMR) is making a nice one that is real reasonable in price(Member Vaalpens has a lot of new loading experience with the 357 SIG ...he is more update with the bullets than I)...

In my Glock 31 ...I can pretty much match what factory 125 grain will do out of a 4" . 357 S&W ... and have 16 rounds ready to go ...

I ' d be glad to help answer any question you may have about it that I can ...

Oh yeah ...just slip in a conversion barrel and you can shoot 9mm (need a mag)or 40 S&W or 357 SIG when you want....

There is nothing 'wrong" with the Sig 357, ballistically speaking. But it is a "boutique" round. There is a niche for it, as several LE agencies did adopt it, and there are people who genuinely like it and use it. The problem is that it isn't commonly available as the 9mm, 40 S&W, or 45 ACP. There is no "surplus", or "economy" ammo available for it for practice, which reflects in the cost of feeding the thing.

Al-jim19 said:

Hoping to glean some knowledge on the .357 Sig cartridge due to the potential for a trade I was offered.

Who has one? What do you like about it? Dislike? What pistols do you like best? If you don’t have one, is there a reason you don’t want one?

I live in Massachusetts and I was recently offered a Sig P226 in .357 with 5 magazines for a PreBan 33 round Glock magazine I have, plus some cash in an amount to be decided.

Leaning toward declining this trade because of the cost of .357, and the additional cost of a 9mm conversion barrel, but the P226 is a svelte pistol.

Keep the Massachusetts ridicule to one sentence per post. Can’t take much more at this point!!!

Thanks in advance

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Most used guns in this caliber sell about as well as food
Items item with past best if used by date. Guess could be worse like contemplating purchasing .45GAP.

45gap is a great round just not commonly available but it if you look at what it brings to the table vs what it loses in performance it can’t be beat

Prefer the 40.

That said, do have a 5.3" .357Sig Bbl. for my GLOCK G23.4, and shoot 140 gr. S&B TFP and HDY custom 147 gr. XTP at over 1300 fps as a field round.




GR

BigBlue 94 said:

I dont own one because I have no need for one, or haven't found one i liked lol. Now maybe in a wheel gun...

I have a 32NAA which is a bottleneck cartridge based of a 380 necked to 32. Similar concept. To me the 357 sig is like a 10mm special. Faster than the 40sw, like the 10mm is, but not quite the energy as the 10mm due to the smaller bullet. It should penetrate better than a 40, and similar to the 10mm. I know my 32NAA penetrates a good bit more than the 380acp.

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That's what one would think. But check out this pseudo-scientific pine board test:



Since pine boards aren't a uniform medium, and it was a one-sample test, it's more anecdotal than conclusive, but I would have thought the 180 gr. 10mm FMJ would penetrate better than the faster but lighter .357 Sig.

Though unrelated to penetration, the energy of a faster round like the Sig would generally be higher than 10mm with the most popular bullets which are also heavier. Momentum would be higher, but energy lower in the 10mm. But energy numbers are just numbers and the meaning of the differences in this case are probably lost in any practical use.

One thing I can say I don't care for with the 10mm is the larger grip frames it forces in autoloaders like the G20. They don't fit me well. The Sig, like the .40 S&W doesn't do that, while both of them offer something more than 9x19mm.

Reloading the 357 Sig is really easy and inexpensive. I formed my own brass using 40 cal brass and it was ridiculously easy to do.

There was a reason that LE left it but I'm not sure what it was, ammo expense maybe. I also heard the cartridge was beating the crap out of parts and armorers thought it was a high maintenance cartridge.

Whatever it was it sure didn't last very long. I always thought it was a neat little cartridge but never got close to it.

Olympus said:

Reloading the 357 Sig is really easy and inexpensive. I formed my own brass using 40 cal brass and it was ridiculously easy to do.

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Of course it's possible to form .357 Sig brass from .40 S&W. However, the already short neck becomes even shorter when doing this. This can present a problem with neck tension as it applies to holding bullets firmly. Investing a bit in a couple of hundred Starline cases and keeping track of your fired brass solves this problem. I managed to buy 500 .357 Sig once-fired cases on the classified section here for only $.06/each.

I've got 2; HK P2000 which is my CCW gun and a SIG 226, both are converted .40s.

I enjoy shooting the .357S more than .40, it's also cheaper to reload than .40 is generally. Only difference between it an 9mm is a couple grains of powder cost wise. In theory the 357S has a greater chance of being reliable due to "stuffing" a .355 bullet into a .40 hole. I've never had an issue with either gun in .40 though. It does have quite a bit of bark, which is enhanced when shooting around and through cover.

It's still popular with a couple federal agencies and a few State Police Depts. I kind of look at it as a 9mm +P+ with SAAMI approval.....

Patocazador said:

Of course it's possible to form .357 Sig brass from .40 S&W. However, the already short neck becomes even shorter when doing this. This can present a problem with neck tension as it applies to holding bullets firmly. Investing a bit in a couple of hundred Starline cases and keeping track of your fired brass solves this problem. I managed to buy 500 .357 Sig once-fired cases on the classified section here for only $.06/each.

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Fired 300 rounds that I formed from 40 brass and they all shot great. Had no problems with neck tension. Best part is that they stretched enough after the first firing to be perfect length for the second loading!

I heard good commentary in a video by Chris Baker, Luckygunner, concerning 357 Sig. I'd suggest that to anyone unfamiliar with but considering the cartridge. To anyone who's already into it, it wouldn't tell them anything new neither does it unfairly "bash" it. I won't link it here, but it's not hard to find if you care.

labnoti said:

I heard good commentary in a video by Chris Baker, Luckygunner, concerning 357 Sig. I'd suggest that to anyone unfamiliar with but considering the cartridge. To anyone who's already into it, it wouldn't tell them anything new neither does it unfairly "bash" it. I won't link it here, but it's not hard to find if you care.

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not sure why you didn't link it but here it is to save others having to search:

https://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/357-sig-whats-the-point/