I shot 9mm, 40sw, 44 black powder handguns. Wondering about anyone's experience shooting 357 sig.



https://rumble.com/vdzs5l-357-mag-vs.-357-sig-cement-block-test-and-tannerite.html

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I had a sig p2022 in 357 sig way back when. It was snappy for sure compared to 9. But i felt it was more accurate when i went over to the plinking side than my 226 dark elite in 9. Ammo was expensive for sure. I mostly shot speer lawman tmj at the range, my go to hollow points were a mixture of gdhp and hornady critical defense. I think it was 30-35 bucks for a box of 25 for hornady. Dont remember the gdhp but sechawaii had it.

I sold it tho. Not because it wasnt a great round, cause it was great ballistically but i wanted to stop buying so many different godamn calibers. Lol.

Now during the pandemic i kinda regret it. I had a 40 barrel for it too and it seems 40 was still plentiful when 9 became scarce at the beginning of shutdowns. Dunno if 40 is still plentiful in the stores nowadays.

I shot 9mm, 40sw, 44 black powder handguns. Wondering about anyone's experience shooting 357 sig.
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First a comment about each of the two videos. The first video was much more scientific and had some validity to it and was interesting. The second video was not very scientific at all but I absolutely loved his comments at the end about our politicians. Especially about shoving a gavel up Adam Schiff’s butt. 

I want to comment about the history of the 357 Sig and Magnum cartridges. I don’t have the time right now to re-research so I’ll do this by memory so forgive me if I say something that is not historically accurate. Back in the 30’s or 40’s the FBI was using the 357 Magnum cartridge. And early adoption used a 125gr RN bullet. They documented the one shot and two shot kill statistics of this round. Possibly other statistics but this is what I remember. And they found that the 357 Magnum cartridge with the 125gr bullet was the best man stopper ever recorded. This could also be because it was the first attempt to record this sort of info and accumulate it and compare it. Later on the 158gr bullet became the standard loading for this cartridge and once again the FBI accumulated a shitload of info on the one shot kill ability of this cartridge. The 125gr load was called the FBI load but eventually the 158gr load took over as the standard FBI Load. This made this cartridge extremely popular amongst the LE crowd and civilian crowd for many years. If you Google FBI Load you might find some history on it.

Then came the 9mm RN round which was not known as a man stopper but one could carry a lot more rounds and semi auto handguns were becoming so reliable that LE agencies started to adopt this cartridge. During this time bullet design started to improve and hollow points became the norm. Not good hollow points like we have nowadays but still better than RN. But not all semi autos at the time were reliable with hollow points.

Sig was starting to become quite big in the US and LE circles. They were on the forefront of high capacity designs that could also reliably chamber the 9mm round. But at some point they decided to create their own cartridge that was supposed to mirror the 357 Magnum ballistics (The old 125gr FBI Load) with a modern hollow point bullet and rimless cartridge in a semi auto handgun. You can have high capacity and high velocities and have that one shot stop that the FBI Load was famous for. Also, they touted the bottleneck cartridge as being inherently more reliable to feed over the 9mm straight wall cartridge. That was sort of how they marketed this cartridge. Everyone nowadays takes for granted that the 9mm hollow point cartridge will be reliable in every gun sold. But it was not always that way in real life. The cartridge took off pretty well in the beginning and was adopted by some LE agencies. But a couple of things became apparent. The ballistics of the cartridge did not quite live up to the same as the original 357 Magnum cartridge with the first loadings and the round was very snappy meaning it took longer to recover in order to fire aa second round. The second thing the cartridge had going against it is that hollow point bullet design was becoming very good at this point. Meaning a similar weight 9mm bullet could easily penetrate the required amount and expand reliably per the new FBI requirements. You can now carry more 9mm rounds with less recoil and get the same penetration and reliable expansion as the 357 Sig cartridge. So most LE agencies went back to the 9mm or on to the 40 cal.

I have shot the 357 Sig and it is quite snappy meaning it hits your hand hard and causes your wrist to snap back but recoil was pretty manageable as I can keep my arms in place. The 40 cal hits with a slower harmonic but a heavier recoil meaning the pistol does not snap my wrists as much but pushes more on my arms. Very much like the way a 44 cal BP gun hits you. I think the 357 Sig cartridge is very accurate. At least I always shot it well. I also like high velocity cartridges like the 357 Magnum cartridge. So I have a preference for it. But if you want the 357 Sig cartridge you will pay dearly for the ammo unless you reload for it. And truly due to great hollow point bullet designs there is not much advantage for this cartridge over the 9mm these days.

All of this is JMHO. 

I forgot to add a little more personal info. As I stated before I am a fan of the higher speed cartridges. Especially with lighter bullets. I have a Tokarev that fires the 7.62x25mm bottleneck cartridge. This fires a light bullet at very high velocities that can penetrate some soft body armor that the 9mm cannot. While I don’t know if true, I imagine this cartridge somehow influenced Sig when they developed the 357 Sig. If the ability to penetrate body armor is important to you then look into the 357 Sig cartridge because I believe that lighter bullets at higher velocities can penetrate some soft body armor that the 9mm cannot.

Thank you for the info. I was thinking of getting a 357 sig barrel for a 40sw gun. They say that you could shoot both calibers out of the same handgun. I put the second video in because of his comment, it must be a Democrat. But I stumbled on to wapp channel researching 40sw ballistics. Which lead to the 357sig. Appreciate the info.

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Thank you for the info. I was thinking of getting a 357 sig barrel for a 40sw gun. They say that you could shoot both calibers out of the same handgun. I put the second video in because of his comment, it must be a Democrat. But I stumbled on to wapp channel researching 40sw ballistics. Which lead to the 357sig. Appreciate the info.

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I can't speak for all guns, but i know p2022, glock 23, sw mp40 can just swap barrels for it to work. As ive done it before. Mags and ejector is ok.

Never owned a g23, but my friend did. He got a barrel on his own.

I can't speak for all guns, but i know p2022, glock 23, sw mp40 can just swap barrels for it to work. As ive done it before. Mags and ejector is ok.

Never owned a g23, but my friend did. He got a barrel on his own.

Thank you both for your insight! Will do more research into it.

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Thank you for the info. I was thinking of getting a 357 sig barrel for a 40sw gun. They say that you could shoot both calibers out of the same handgun. I put the second video in because of his comment, it must be a Democrat. But I stumbled on to wapp channel researching 40sw ballistics. Which lead to the 357sig. Appreciate the info.

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I’m a big fan of one gun with multiple calibers if it doesn’t sacrifice accuracy and reliability. I would say having another barrel is an inexpensive and great way to try the 357 Sig without sacrificing anything. Worse come to worse, if you don’t like the 357 Sig you can sell the barrel and get some or most of your money back.

I’m a big fan of one gun with multiple calibers if it doesn’t sacrifice accuracy and reliability. I would say having another barrel is an inexpensive and great way to try the 357 Sig without sacrificing anything. Worse come to worse, if you don’t like the 357 Sig you can sell the barrel and get some or most of your money back.

Yea thats true. But honestly depending on make you may only lose 150 bucks. Id say keep the barrel lol. If the world turns to shit, and your picking ammo off dead bodies or raiding houses, theres a possibility you may strike gold in finding that caliber.

A real life scenario is 9mm vs 40 sw during covid. Suddenly 40sw became cheaper than 9. If i knew that i wouldve kept my sw40/357sig so i could still have some fun, knowing i never had to pay inflated prices for ammo. Iirc 357 sig tmj by speer lawman was close to 30 bucks for a box of 50.


Edit: oops meant to quote inspectors last entry lol.

Yea thats true. But honestly depending on make you may only lose 150 bucks. Id say keep the barrel lol. If the world turns to shit, and your picking ammo off dead bodies or raiding houses, theres a possibility you may strike gold in finding that caliber.

A real life scenario is 9mm vs 40 sw during covid. Suddenly 40sw became cheaper than 9. If i knew that i wouldve kept my sw40/357sig so i could still have some fun, knowing i never had to pay inflated prices for ammo. Iirc 357 sig tmj by speer lawman was close to 30 bucks for a box of 50.


Edit: oops meant to quote inspectors last entry lol.

I agree completely. In times like this just finding ammo, any ammo, is going to be difficult.

Well, I’m like you. I wouldn’t sell the barrel. I would keep it. Since I reload the difference in price between reloading the 357 Sig and the 40 S&W would be pretty close with the 357 Sig having a slight advantage in cost and possibly accuracy.

I collect High Standard 22 pistols. High Standards are well known for easily taking off their barrels with the push of a button or the flip of a lever. Which means over the last 80-90 years there have been quite a few varieties of mixing and matching barrels and frame types. And High Standard also sold certain models with an extra barrel of a different length or type. So I am sure it won’t surprise you to know I have an extra barrel in search of a frame/gun to go with it.