Jim,
The .40 S&W is proving to be an effective caliber in law enforcement usage, thus its continued popularity in that venue. It is becoming commonplace everywhere, and finding ammo at decent pricing is not an issue. Further, reloading for this caliber is as simple as any straight walled pistol cartridge.
.357 SIG is somewhat of a different animal. Some law enforcement agencies have adopted it, but it hasn’t seen widespread adoption like the .40 S&W has. Supposedly at least one agency adopted it because it was more effective at penetrating cars, but it didn’t seem to do any better/worse than .40 S&W (165gr Speer Gold Dots, to be specific) when we tested it on a junker car at the range. Also, .357 SIG has some negatives. 1.) Pricing is steep, nobody is making this ammo in bulk like you can find 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. 2.) Wear and tear on firearms chambered in this caliber has proven to be worse than other chamberings due to the higher pressures/velocities associated with the caliber. This may be even more problematic in a gun you convert, as the gun might also benefit from a stronger recoil spring. 3.) Reloading .357 SIG is a bit more involved than other pistol cartridges due to the bottleneck of the case. Bullet selection, case resizing, bell, and crimp are all critical with this caliber and less forgiving of variances. 4.) Muzzle flash/blast from this round is exceptional. With most factory ammo you can easily discern the muzzle flash under well lit conditions. I can only imagine how bad this would be in a low-light environment. (I haven’t had opportunity to run any full house .357 SIG in a dark shoot house yet. It ought to be instructional when I do.) It is much louder than 9mm, .40 S&W, or .45 ACP. Being near somebody shooting .357 SIG for any length of time, no matter what sort of hearing protection employed, is tiring.
That said, .357 SIG does have some interesting aspects to it. If you look at bullet drop tables, the round shoots exceptionally flat out to 50 yards. Most loads drop between .5″ and .75″ from 0 to 50 yards in this caliber. Defensive loads in 125 grain bullet weights run about 1350 fps out of a 4″ barrel, which is fast for a pistol round. It has a reputation for being exceptionally accurate, as well, although this is typically not a major concern for most defensive pistols. Lastly, if you are a reloader, there are some interesting things you can do with this cartridge and very light bullets. 90 grain projectiles can be driven at 1700+ fps out of a standard 4″ pistol barrel. [JWR Adds: Be sure to follow published loading data closely!]
I’d say that .357 SIG is a fun caliber to play with and there is certainly potential in it. That said, I wouldn’t rely on it as a primary caliber, simply due to ammo availability and cost, if nothing else. – JCL
James,
I’ve been avoiding Smith and Wesson like the plague since their agreement with the Clinton administration’s Justice Department to track all Smith and Wesson buyers, with one exception that is – the 40 S&W. I don’t own any S&W firearms, but the 40 S&W caliber is a very good one. It is the perfect “intermediate” cartridge between the 9mm and .45 ACP. I would guide anyone inquiring about the 357 SIG to avoid this as a primary defensive round. There are two reasons; one is availability as you mentioned, and second is that it is still a 9mm round. From some reports I have read the real world performance has been somewhat less than desired, due in some part to the fact that the .357 Magnum to which it is often compared sometimes uses semi-jacketed hollow points, and the 357 SIG uses fully jacketed 9mm bullets. I think the .357 SIG will end up much like the .38 Super–with a very loyal but small following. The same can be said of the 45 GAP, for people with small hands there might be some reason for this round to exist, but mostly it’s just to put the Glock name on a cartridge. The .40 S&W offers a lot to those seeking a defensive round, from very lightweight bullets all the way up to 200 grains. There is even an available loading using Ramshot Enforcer that is stated to propel a 165 grain bullet to 1,322 FPS and that is excellent performance by anyone’s standards. Note that I have yet to test such a loading myself, as it require a lot of powder and I find more traditional loadings to be perfectly adequate. A Glock 22 has a lot going for it, it’s a great caliber, it is as reliable as anything this side of a baseball bat, magazines are downright inexpensive and since so many law enforcement agencies use the 40 S&W, once fired brass is very cheap. A CZ-75B in .40 S&W would be a very good choice as well. – A. Friendly