.357 Sig talk

>>34117184
> self defense shooting
> windshields
That car doesn't stop just because the driver's CNS did. Also, make sure your choice of bullet doesn't over expand at the higher velocity and suffer poor penetration.

It's a great pistol round. You obviously already listed the biggest flaws. Price, difficulty in locating, limited load variety, snappy recoil. Unless you have a lot of money to throw around you'll never be able to practice with 357 sig as much as you could with 9mm.

I think if they could find a way to lower the price it would be come a much, much more popular round. As of right now the only advantage 9mm has over it is price and recoil, and recoil isn't going to be that much of an issue for the average adult man.

>>34117253
Actually, 9mm also has round variety. But fixing the 357 pricing issues would solve that.

>>34117225
Shooting a bad guy is shooting a bad guy. If you're gonna die anyway, might as well try to take the other fucker with you. In any case, it still helps even if the vehicle is stationary and being used as cover. It's a niche situation but it would be nice to have an edge, no?

>>34117184
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/357sig.html
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/45super.html
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/10mm.html
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/460rowland.html

.357 sig is cruising out of an average pistol at about 1.4K FPS with pretty standard hollowpoint, and with good ammo of that same standard hollowpoint dumping about 650-680 ft lbs of energy. Neat. Not bad. What we see here is a pretty flat shooting round that will rooty tooty when you point and shooty.

Past that, its loud and has strong recoil, but thats not too bad. I think there are better carry options having shot .45 super in the past, though you get to carry more .357 sig in a magazine due to its smaller size. Just depends on what you want your gun for. Daily carry? 9mm +P+ JHP works pretty damn good, is cheap, concealable if that's a concern, and readily available. Nothing wrong with the sig sig if its what you want, go for it. Advice: Go to a range that rents guns, but some ammo, try out the guns.

Whats really interesting is looking at speed vs energy, .45 super seems to be pretty damn good, and works with existing .45 pistols, all the better with a minor spring upgrade, and if you want to put in a buffer, go nuts.

>>34117253
Needs a longer barrel to take advantage of that extra powder over a 9mm, does it not?

>>34117345
That's the story with most pistol rounds anyway. I don't think that matters unless you're trying to shoot a subcompact chambered in .357, which I'm not sure actually exists. It performs fine out of a 4 inch barrel but I guess the 9mm does take an edge in being able to offer subcompact handguns.

That does beg the question though, why don't we have carbine offerings in .357 Sig to burn off that extra powder and boost the velocity? A Keltec Sub2000 with a .357 Sig chambering sounds pretty good to me.

>>34117524
Demand. Outside of older hunters and CAS, I don't see many people with pistol caliber carbines.

>>34117524
>>34117786
Isn't there a company (mechtek or something like that) that makes a carbine conversion for the glock 31?

>>34117184
Great round that can be used for many things.

>>34117225
This is true, you need to pick a good load. The GOAT load IMO is the Speer Gold Dot (54234, a six-petal 125 grain) at 1375 FPS. Gets good expansion and penetrates damn near 18" in IWBA gel tests. The five petal GD goes at 1350 FPS and seems to go 14" into most blocks.

For woods carry, I prefer the S&B 140 grain FMJ being pushed out at 1350 FPS.

>>34117345
If you trust Ballistics by the Inch, the most ideal compromise between length and muzzle velocity is 5", just like 9mm.

I won an XD in .357 Sig, read up on the round and it seems like a very nice cartridge. All other things being equal, it might be the one I would choose for a self defense round.

Problem is, all things aren't equal. Ammunition availability isn't great, nor ability to get your hands on variant ammo. Price isn't competitive, and stockpiling a bunch of rounds for SHTF situations is therefore a little less attractive. Also, if I don't like that particular gun for whatever reason, I'm probably stuck selling the ammo at a loss unless I want to get another .357 Sig, and with so many more options in more common calibers, why would I?

Those factors, plus the "snappy" factor, are the same drawbacks the .40 S&W has, but even more so. Maybe on par with 10mm.

So, I did something I rarely do and sold it to an ex-LEO who used to carry .357 Sig and was sort of a fanboy. Got enough money for a used Glock 30 in .45 and a used Taurus PT209 in 9mm, plus a few boxes of ammo. I'm happy with that.

>>34119487
Two for one and you are happy? I think you made out on that deal.

>>34117184
You're pretty much right on the money, but i do have some personal opinions on the subject you might find somewhat interesting.

First off, i hear that for most people the felt recoil is worse than 9mm but a little softer than a similar firearm in .40(guessing this has to do with bullet weight), so if you can handle 9mm +p+ then most .357 Sig loads should be fine.

That being said muzzle blast is noticeably worse than 9mm. This isn't a problem on the range and not a critical issue for most realistic SD situations either but it is certainly a negative. In poor lighting the blast with some loads may be enough to slightly reduce your ability to fire follow up shots as quickly and accurately as you may be able to otherwise. Also, having had the displeasure of touching off a couple different kinds of handgun rounds without earpro in my life it's been my personal experience that anything louder than the quieter 9mm subsonic loadings is going to seriously fuck with your ability to hear for a while. 9mm subs had me feeling like i had a little cotton in my gun side ear. .45 subs gave me a dual ear ring and hearing that would be momentarily borderline useless for anything but the loudest of sounds. it gets somewhat better after a several minutes but its much worse than the 9mm. Im not saying that you should choose SD ammo based solely on Db levels but i do think it deserves more than the complete lack of thought most people put into it. You may very well have to issue orders to others during a SD situation, or be given them by LEOs. Neither one of these situations are going to be aided by seriously fucked hearing.

Personally i think that .357sig is a great round and definitely my favorite between .40 and it. On paper it out performs 9mm and .40(imho .45 is just good at other things). My only real problem with the round is i don't think they went far enough. Personally i think they should've necked down a 10mm or made a cartridge just between the two that could

>>34119656
push a 125gr standard sized pill at around ~1650fps out of a 4" barrel(.357mag/9x25dill territory) while also ideally allowing them to load lighter weight or longer bullet types(maybe even spitzer esq) by reducing powder load and seating them very deeply.

This would be a cartridge with .357 sig capacity that could mimi .357 mag performance almost all across the board(perhaps not with heavier bullets though..) while also having the ability to load low power or even subsonic controlled expansion rounds that could offer greater expansion than any traditional ~9mm round before them.

Imagine a corbon DPX style bullet with a longer OAL to allow longer petals and just enough energy to get it into that 13-15" zone

>>34119473
Nobody is carrying a 5" barrel down south in summer unless you wear a suit or work road construction. Most subcompacts and single stacks are lucky to have a 3-3.25" barrel.