357 Sig vs 40 cal

BobFox

Could anyone tell me the pro's/cons of the 357Sig vs the 40 cal for a personal defense weapon? Are the ballistics that much different?

thanks!

rufe-snow

The .357 Sig is the 9mm Luger on steroids, i.e. same bullet at 200 FPS higher velocity, approximately. From a short barreled CCW it's a lot more muzzle blast and flash, that's not going to be that more effective then the standard 9mm Luger from a short barreled personal protection pistol. IMHO you would be a lot better off with a .40 S & W, 180 grain JHP bullet at 900 FPS from a snubbie CCW.



EDIT #1, you can get spare .357 Sig barrels for a number of pistols chambered for the 40 S & W. Since both are based on the same cartridge case all that is required is the barrel change. This way for a nominal sum you can have a pistol chambered for both cartridges.

Txs

Expect to hear a lot of numbers quoting and hair splitting, but the bottom line is that they're both good defensive rounds, with a bit of an edge on barrier penetration going to the .357 SIG.

Due to being based upon the same case size their frame sizes and magazine capacities are the same, but they do have different recoil characteristics.

I don't know how much of a factor this is for you, but you'll also find there are significant differences in their cost-per-box.

The ability to hit, the ability to make the first hit the fastest and the ability to recover quickly for follow-up shots are paramount with a defensive gun. You won't go wrong by simply going with whichever one you determine that you're able to perform all of these elements the best with.

As for myself, I prefer the .40 S&W.

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by BobFox

Could anyone tell me the pro's/cons of the 357Sig vs the 40 cal for a personal defense weapon? Are the ballistics that much different?

thanks!


IMO, they're not as different as some people think.

In a nutshell, 357 SIG uses a lighter 9mm bullet and shoots it a little faster than the typical 10mm 40SW load. So compared to a typical 40SW round you'll see less recoil and a flatter trajectory with 357 SIG. In a defensive gun the "less recoil" might matter; Flatter trajectory is irrelevant at close self-defense distances.

As you might expect, if you use really lightweight bullets in .40SW the ballistic performance and recoil are fairly similar to 357 SIG. So if you want a lower recoiling .40SW round, you can get one.

In theory, the bottleneck cartridge shape of 357 SIG should make loading and extraction easier, adding to reliability over a pure straight wall cartridge like 40SW. In practice, most .40SW guns are pretty reliable, and I think the overall platform (ie gun in question) matters more than the cartridge.

357 SIG rounds are usually more expensive and harder to find than 40SW, and IMO that's a real factor too, since if you're buying factory rounds (as opposed to reloading or getting them for free from your agency) you can't fire as many practice rounds of 357 SIG as 40SW on the same budget.

IMO, by itself 357 SIG is a really good round, but for civilian concealed carry, I can't see a lot of reason to pick it over 40SW.

Another way to look at this is that 357 SIG will deliver about another 100 fps over the best available 9mm luger +P rounds of similar weight. So that's about 1350 fps for 124 grain 357 SIG bullets vs 1250 fps for similar weight 9mm+P premium loads.

But you get that extra zing at the cost of more recoil, more cost, and less capacity.

62fuelie

This may be another of those Ford-versus-Chevy arguments. I have had Sig 226, 229 and 239 with both barrels for each. I carried them for duty for more than 10 years. In field use the more important question is "Can you place your shot where it needs to go?" A near miss with a .500 S&W is far less effective than a center mass hit with a .22 LR. That being said, once the agency approved use of the .357 Sig I put the .40 S&W barrels in the safe and never looked back. Although the .357 Sig is a 9mm bore the bullets used by the major loaders are built with stronger jackets that they use for the 9mm Luger simply because the significant increase in velocity causes the Luger bullets to disrupt too violently for adequate penetration. I use the P-239 for off-duty/concealed carry and do not find the muzzle blast or flash (both Federal and Speer use powders that surpress flash) to be a concern.