The untimely death of the 357 Sig round

I’m still partial to Smith and Wesson .40. I’ve yet to make the switch to 9mm. Not sure if or when that will happen. The market may dictate that one day though. I’d love to pick up a little snubnose .357 someday just to have.
 
K.O.D. said:
When I bought my first modern gun, (everything I had was inherited and only revolvers) .40 S&W was the big deal. This was 2008 I believe. Now, I rarely see anything at the LGS in .40, and no one wants to buy a used .40 either.

FBI originally went 10mm, but apparently it was too much so they had the .40 created, bigger hole, a bit more kick than 9mm but less so than 10mm. It was a compromise. My carry gun is a Sig P365 SAS XL frankengun. I carry Underwood Extreme Defender 90 gr +p 9mm. I've stated my concern that in a CC defense situation I may not have time to get my support hand in place, and 9mm is much easier to fire one handed.

I remember back in 2009-10 when .40 defensive ammo was over $2 per bullet, going with something niche like .357sig. I feel the same way about the .30 super carry, .327 federal magnum, etc.
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K.O.D. said:
When I bought my first modern gun, (everything I had was inherited and only revolvers) .40 S&W was the big deal. This was 2008 I believe. Now, I rarely see anything at the LGS in .40, and no one wants to buy a used .40 either.

FBI originally went 10mm, but apparently it was too much so they had the .40 created, bigger hole, a bit more kick than 9mm but less so than 10mm. It was a compromise. My carry gun is a Sig P365 SAS XL frankengun. I carry Underwood Extreme Defender 90 gr +p 9mm. I've stated my concern that in a CC defense situation I may not have time to get my support hand in place, and 9mm is much easier to fire one handed.

I remember back in 2009-10 when .40 defensive ammo was over $2 per bullet, going with something niche like .357sig. I feel the same way about the .30 super carry, .327 federal magnum, etc.
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I hope that's true I'm looking to pick up more .40 on the cheap!
 
.40 was expensive when it came out. I was shooting 10mm and wasn't interested.

I preferred 9mm and .45 equally due to price point and availability, especially reloading.

I had a feeling the .357 Sig would become a niche round, but not wither on the vine. Looks like .40 is on it's way out
 
.357 SIG was a round hawked by the gun media and served no real purpose. It was popular for a while with those who just have to try the 'latest and greatest' thing but soon died out. I worked part-time for almost ten years at Academy at their gun counter and we had very few calls for this round and what we did have in stock was a slow seller.
 
44Magpie said:
.357 SIG was a round hawked by the gun media and served no real purpose. It was popular for a while with those who just have to try the 'latest and greatest' thing but soon died out. I worked part-time for almost ten years at Academy at their gun counter and we had very few calls for this round and what we did have in stock was a slow seller.
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Ammo companies have tried to reinvent the wheel forever. I'm honestly surprised they haven't done graphics printed cartridge casings with US flag, pirate and other themes in full color and topped by pretty powder coated bullets.
"why shoot any old round when you can shoot an Ed Hardy?" "NEW: US Flag bullets by Patriot Plinkers", etc.
if somebody does this I want my cut. ;)
 
SimplyMinded said:
Ammo companies have tried to reinvent the wheel forever. I'm honestly surprised they haven't done graphics printed cartridge casings with US flag, pirate and other themes in full color and topped by pretty powder coated bullets.
"why shoot any old round when you can shoot an Ed Hardy?" "NEW: US Flag bullets by Patriot Plinkers", etc.
if somebody does this I want my cut. ;)
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.30 Carbine Short seems to be the latest invention. But there was .30 Luger a long time ago, which is kind of like .357 SIG necked down to .30. I think the case head of .30 Luger is the same as .357 SIG, ,9mm, .40SW, 10mm.
 
The .357 Sig accomplishes whatever a crazy +p+ 9mm round is chasing and does it within the normal expected operating range of the guns designed to fire it. So long as you are comparing a good load in .357 Sig from comparable handguns, that crazy hopped-up 9mm will never quite catch up.

The .357 Sig largely accomplishes what it set out to do: performance similar to the then-popular 125-grain loadings in .357 Magnum as fired from a service revolver, but in semi-autos that could carry at least twice the capacity in a quickly changeable magazine.

With either hardcast or copper solids, such as the X-treme penetrators from Lehigh, .357 Sig can still be a good choice as a woodland defensive round. It might also offer benefits, such as against assailants in light armor. Depending on where you live in the world, the latter is probably a pretty slim slice of the probability pie for defensive encounters. Watching ASP, I occasionally see encounters where shooting through barriers makes a difference. In reality though, many of the barriers that people think will stop a bullet--cars, doors, interior walls, shelves in grocery stores, etc.--will be pierced by most common handgun calibers.
 
I shot a 357 sig this weekend. It was definitely snappier than 9mm. I don't own one because ammo for it is rare to find. Especially in bulk.
 
I’m still wondering how the more available 7.62x25 tokarev round compares, being a necked pistol cartridge. From what I’ve read, it has better penetration but it seems to be comparable in many aspects. I appreciate the ability to penetrate barriers.
 
I bought a 357Auto barrel for my Glock. I occasionally shoot it. But not very often. I'm not sure it does more than 40, or a 9mm, for that matter, for social work. Woods gun.... again, not sure it is really better than a 40. Probably better than a 9. But unless you're loading your own, or manage to find a specialty round for the woods, I don't see it being really useful there either.

I bought it back during the Obama ammo famine, when I couldn't find 9 or 40, but I saw 357A hanging out on the shelves. But this time around, even 357A is hard to find. Harder than 9mm. So I'm thinking it's dead this time around.
 
I remember a few years back when someone tried to shoot up a church in Texas. The guy who put down the shooter did it with a single shot of .357 Sig. The publicity gave .357 Sig a temporary boost in carry popularity, including at my church on the other side of the country.

It seems that the ammo shortage has just been grinding everything down. It's not like ammo crises are new either. I remember massive shortages starting early in the Obama administration and in repeated response to legislative efforts over sensationalized mass shootings (which were largely taking place in "gun free zones"). We had a brief reprieve when Trump won the presidency but it wasn't long before Covid and then Biden sealed the deal on empty shelves.

It's a real shame. I liked having variety in the market. There are a bunch of great rounds in decline and now there is a limited effort to introduce .30 Super Carry... I really hope we can get to a place of stability and the market improves.
 
I think no one uses them anymore because every time you pull the trigger on a 357 SIG a wallet somewhere lets out a small and pitiful whine. It gets to be a real bummer for the little guys... :(
 
Chronovore said:
I remember a few years back when someone tried to shoot up a church in Texas. The guy who put down the shooter did it with a single shot of .357 Sig. The publicity gave .357 Sig a temporary boost in carry popularity, including at my church on the other side of the country.
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It was amusing to see the the commentary on forums after that. The .357 Sig guys desperately thinking they'd found some sort of vindication. That shot would have had the same result with 9mm or .45 ACP. It was accuracy that saved the day in that situation.
 
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