Any Thoughts On Carrying a 357 SIG For CCW?

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I went from a Sig 220 .45acp to the Sig 226 in 40/357Sig and have the 357Sig barrel in it for CCW. It is supposedly powerful as a 357Mag, very accurate and for me fun to shoot. I carry 125gr Gold Dots in mine as does the Secret Service. However it is not a true 357 the bullets are sized .355 (9mm).
 
My oppinion would be that penetration of the round would take a back seat to shot placement. In my real world experience dealing with GSWs is that a sufficiently high velocity round in high center mass is almost immediately fatal. You need 2.5 inches of penetration (on average) to reach the heart and 1 inch (on average) to pierce a lung. I am no doc and I have never (thankfully) shot anybody. These observations are based solely on my having scraped up GSW victims off the pavement. So I guess my advice would be to get good at hitting your target then worry about round selection.
 
It is supposedly powerful as a 357Mag, very accurate and for me fun to shoot.
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Re: comparisons to .357Mag, I'd like to rehash something that's been posted here before, but bears repeating.

The .357Sig is designed to duplicate the ballistics of the .357Mag fired from a short-barreled service handgun using lightweight bullets. The caveats to that statement are important because the .357Sig case lacks the capacity to (a) accommodate >150gr bullets like the .357Mag and (b) safely ignite big loads of slow-burning powder to take advantage of a 6" or longer barrel.

The .357Sig does what it was designed to do: duplicate the performance of a 110-125gr .357Mag from a 3" barrel. :cool: You cannot, however, load it with a 158gr hard-cast gas-checked lead bullet with a big load of H110 and hunt deer with it. :(
 
I was planing on getting the 40 to 9 conversion as well as the g23 barrel that way i can shoot 40 cal 357 sig and 9 mm
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I had a 40-9 barrel for my 31. Worked great. Just add a 9mm mag. Didnt need to change the extractor/ejector, as some will tell you. Dont be surprised though if you find you use it more than the 357SIG barrel.

One thing you may want to think about with the conversion barrels. I know they sound like a good idea and all, but in the long run, its money kind of wasted, as you usually find a combo you like, and the others just sit gathering dust. I had .40 barrels for my SIG's, as well as the 40-9 for the Glock. Other than try them out to make sure they worked, the SIG barrels never got used. Once I put the 9mm barrel in the Glock, it stayed there until I sold it.

With the money I spent on barrels and ammo, I could easily had a couple more guns, or a boat load more ammo for the combo I liked.
 
First off all I'm trying to do is find out information, Secondly I'm only 22 and I don't have that much experience when it comes to handgun ammunition and thirdly I'm not trying to act like i know what I'm talking about.... I'm simply asking a question on the ballistics of the .357 sig because this is the first time owning one... the reason why I joined this forum is to learn from people that know more than me not learn from people that talk crap about a younger guys who dont know as s much.
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Don't worry about him man. I'm 31 and am still not very knowledgable about guns. I really got into them after I got robbed (again) earlier this year, I applied for my CCW permit a week afterwards. Most people on this forum are very helpful.

I know that I have learned a lot after discussing guns with these guys. Here's some of the knowledge I have gained from some individuals:

All Taurus guns are junk
Glocks are tupperware and are ugly
Hi points are junk and ugly
A 1911 is the next best thing to sex.
You know nothing about guns unless you have a safe chock full of them and are at least 60 years old.
Video games rot your brain. (I love video games!)

See my point, just take what you want from some of the members and discard the rest. Not everyone is an egomaniac on this site.
 
You are going to get all kind's of opinions here, some good some not so good. Everyone has his/her favorite caliber,and some will tell you theirs is the best. You will also get some really good information here, you just have to decide who knows what they are talking about and who doesn't. Sometimes that can be the hardest part. As far as the 357 Sig round, I like it. I own guns in every major caliber, but I choose the 357 Sig to carry concealed, for several reasons but the main reason is I can shoot it better, than any of my 9's 40's and 45's. I can't explain why, I just do. So enjoy that G- 32, at least you won't be carrying a caliber that everyone else is carrying, sometimes it's nice to be different.
 
On that note I own these but carry the 357Sig. Pictured 22Mag, 9mm, 38spl, 357Mag & Sig, 40, 44mag, 45auto.
handguns.jpg
 
I don't like it because it's necked and that introduces complications for reloading.
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That may be true, BUT, and there always is a but in life, it also makes it feed more reliably like the Broom Handle Mauser.

For a personal defense gun, I'll take reliability over reloading hassles any day of the week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:p
 
Ive loaded a good bit of it, and never had any troubles. If you use a .40 sizing die as the first step, you dont need lube or have the mess associated with it. Its just one extra step compared to other rounds.

With the right load and powder, like AA #9, you have a full case of powder that is actually a compressed load, and there is no chance of bullet setback.
 
I don't like it because it's necked and that introduces complications for reloading.
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Whoever said that doesn't load too many rifle cartrages, I would guess.

You may not like it because it is different, but don't blame it on reloading.

Jim

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TN State Patrol issues Glock 31 in 357 Sig....so I'd say it is a good choice for CCW...I'm not a fan of Glocks ...but to each there own....
 
Jim243, your round looks way, way bigger than my .357SIG reloads! :D
"Everything you needed to learn about life you learned from your kindergarten teacher." Well, almost everything. I learned about reloading .357SIG on the forums via the helpful contributors. I size the cases with a carbide 40S&W die and use steel dies for the other operations with no lube. I've learned that putting the decapping pin in the sizing die for some reason contributes to the decapping pin snapping off, so it is in the second die now. (Only later did I read that others had had the same problem and resolved it the same way.)
My only problem with the reloading process was solved by milling a few thousandths of an inch off the top of my shell holder. That allowed the neck portion of the casing to be shaped properly and allowed the round to go into battery. This info was shared on a forum by another contributer. I have 13gr of Accurate Arms #9 nestled in behind 124gr Hornday XTP for self defense and the same powder charge for the Montana Gold bullets for practice. These ride in a SIG Sauer P239. Love the round; enjoy reloading it; can afford to shoot it. Life is good.
 
.357 Sig good round

I carry Speer 124g hollowpoints in my Sig 229 SAS gen 2. When it comes to defensive loads, I like what has been documented in real gunfights. A while back when the Texas Dept. of Public Safety(state Police/highway patrol) was transitioning from the Sig P220 .45acp to the Sig P226 .357sig, a couple of DPS troopers found themselves in a gunfight with a trucker who was using his truck door for cover. One trooper still had the .45acp Sig P 220(Speer 230g HP) and the other trooper had the Sig P226 >357sig (Speer 124g HP)

After being fired upon, both troopers fired at the truck door. The bad guy fell dead after being hit. Check of the truck door showed no penetration by the .45acp. The .357sigs went through striking and killing the bad guy.

DPS and the Texas Rangers carry the Sig P226 with the 124g HP .357sig today. Sounds like a winner to me.:cool:
 
In my opinion, it's a great choice. The 32 is just small and light enough for CC and carries plenty of a good performing round. I've always wanted a 33 but the cost of ammo has been a deal breaker. I don't buy large quantities of ammo online so it's never worked out for me.
 
.357sig as a carry pistol caliber, SIG Sauer...

Let me first say that I didn't read all the posts here yet but wanted to add a few points.
To me the .357sig is an ideal round for defense/concealed carry but there are some factors to consider.
Muzzle flash, report & recoil with some hot factory .357sig rounds may take some training or range time to address.
Finding high quality .357sig rounds might be a problem too in some places.
The .357sig was R&Ded by SIG Sauer to reflect the ballistics of a .357magnum out of a 2.5" barrel revolver.
It's not for every gun owner or CC license holder but the design & features(high KE level, good feeding/cycle, fast vel) make it a smart choice IMO.

CF
ps: A good option is to purchase a .40S&W/.357sig combo then be able to target shoot or carry what you'd feel is best. ;)
 
so many useless calibers these days. Seriously? 357sig? What's the point? It's just another pistol round not any better than the major pistol rounds like the 9mm, 40sw, and 45acp. And it costs over 40 cents a round for freakin' FMJ.
 
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It is supposedly powerful as a 357Mag, very accurate and for me fun to shoot.
Re: comparisons to .357Mag, I'd like to rehash something that's been posted here before, but bears repeating.

The .357Sig is designed to duplicate the ballistics of the .357Mag fired from a short-barreled service handgun using lightweight bullets. The caveats to that statement are important because the .357Sig case lacks the capacity to (a) accommodate >150gr bullets like the .357Mag and (b) safely ignite big loads of slow-burning powder to take advantage of a 6" or longer barrel.

The .357Sig does what it was designed to do: duplicate the performance of a 110-125gr .357Mag from a 3" barrel. You cannot, however, load it with a 158gr hard-cast gas-checked lead bullet with a big load of H110 and hunt deer with it.
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You are correct that current .357 Sig loadings duplicate that ballistics of a 125gr .357 Magnum from a 2-3" barrel and that the Sig cartridge is not nearly as well suited to heavy bullets as the magnum. However, there are a couple of other points that bear mentioning.

The original .357 Sig loadings (and a few current ones from Cor-Bon, Double Tap, and Buffalo Bore) did in fact fully match the ballistics of the .357 Magnum loadings upon which they are based although 125gr .357 Magnum loadings from boutique makers can produce substantially higher velocities still. Identical ballistics, however, do not necessarily equate to identical performance because the .357 Magnum loadings that Sig tried to duplicate use a very different type of bullet than anything commonly loaded in .357 Sig. The Winchester, Remington, and Federal full-power 125gr .357 Magnum hollowpoints use a semi-jacketed bullet with a very soft lead nose rather than the fully jacketed hollowpoint bullet of the .357 Sig and most other semi-auto cartridges.

The 125gr .357 Magnum SJHP's typically penetrate 11-13" with significant fragmentation starting at 8-10" depth (mainly core-jacket separation) and a final diameter and weight of .50-.60" and 80-100gr. Such performance is extremely difficult to duplicate with a fully jacketed bullet as they tend to either fragment violently within the first few inches of penetration with total penetration being rather shallow, as the early .357 Sig loadings did, or they fragment very little or none with total penetration being more satisfactory, as most current .357 Sig loadings do.

In a full-power loading with a modern bullet that doesn't fragment such as a s
Speer Gold Dot, a 125gr .357 Magnum in a full-power loading is capable of much deeper penetration than common .357 Sig loads with 16" or more in bare gelatin not being unheard of.
 
I would think that the .357 Sig would get the job done. Expect
plenty of muzzle blast. I often carry a G22 (.40S&W) with a
.357 Sig barrel installed. It is a very potent self defense caliber.
 
The Glock 32 / 357 SIG should make a fine carry pistol.
What you essentially have is a 9mm magnum, and the 357 SIG does duplicate the 357 mag from shorter barrels with 125 gr. bullets.
The 357 SIG has the same KE (or more) than the 40 S&W but with less recoil and more blast.

Chrono results for Glock 32 (average for 5 shots)
Federal 125 gr. JHP @ 1,332 fps / 492# KE
Gold Dot 125 gr. JHP @ 1,334 fps / 494# KE
Cor-Bon 125 gr. JHP @ 1,380 fps / 528# KE

To support that the 357 SIG duplicates the 357 mag, I use to have a .357 mag revolver:
Ruger Speed Six with 2 3/4'' barrel (average for 5 shots)
Federal 125 gr. JHP 357 magnum @ 1,248 fps / 432# KE

The bottleneck cartridge is supposedly the most inherently feed reliable design since you are trying to feed a .355 bullet into a larger .40 chamber.
 
I like the idea of the .357 sig, but I'm not sure how it really performs in the real world.

The .40 and .45 have been found to be more effective in real police shootings than 9mm, but a .357 sig is really not much different than a 9mm +P+. I dont think there have been enough examples of its use to determine whether it offers better performance.

The .357 mag has a pretty good reputation on the street, but it has an extra 75 to 100 fps velocity over the .357 sig for the same weight bullet, and because they dont have to feed, the hollowpoint cavity can be bigger, so its hard to say this reputation carries over to the .357 sig.

Still its at least as good as 9mm +P and probably considerably better. I just dont think its automatically better than the .40 or .45, which some people seem to think because it has .357 in the name.

It should do better firing through barriers like car doors and windshields though, which is why state troopers in a few different states issue it.
 
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