Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 357 Sig vs 40

I have a Sig Sauer P226 with 357 and 40 cal barrels.
So which would be a better self defense round?
Self defence especially against feral/rabid dog
in rural area or out hiking.


Win.USA 357 125 gr JHP or GDHP
Speer 40 155 GDHP

I am not worried about ammo cost because I would only shoot
500 or so rounds a year and ammo cost not that concerning
between the two. I am equally accurate with both chamberings.

I have no experience with the .357 Sig, but I have seen how the .40 S&W works with the 155 grain Gold Dot. I have an idea that the sig may have a tad more mojo, but that 40 round flat kills stuff dead.

357 Sig does well through car doors.

you're right about that! I once saw a one ton Ford dually truck shot up worse than a milk jug. The Highway Patrol in Tennessee had ventilated it for some men that tried to run over a couple of Troopers with it.

Heavier bullets do better in auto glass, FWIW. I will stick with 9, 10, 45. No use for the .40 or .357. Between the two I would stay with the .40 though, unless I was a Highway Patrolman or security driver or somesuch.

If you put a bullet from either round in the same spot, the result will be the same.

In flesh I agree. In hard barriers I disagree.

My department issues .40 S&W 180 grain Federal HST. It is proving to be a very effective round. Velocity is right at 1000 fps.

Ron

Darn those feral dogs that barricade themselves behind car doors!

My thoughts exactly. Love the way these threads can morph.

It's kind of like asking which would be better on a black bear at a 100 yds, the 30-06 or the 35 Whelen? Rougly, same case capacity in the case of the pistol cartridges but lighter, faster bullet vs. heavier, wider, slower one. I'm sure some of the experts would have opinions on this: I know on one defensive handgun site, the 40 S&W was rated just above (or better) than the .357 Sig but the % of one-shot stops (I presume perps) on both overlapped, so apparently they are very close.

I have a Sig P226 in the Sig and the 40 S&W. I shoot the Sig more often and I can't imagine that that round (or either) with a proper bullet at 10 or 20 feet wouldn't dissuade any four-footed feral canine from gnawing on your leg.

One shot stops are a bunch of crap anyway.

I've killed several deer and a couple moose with head shots using my issued P229 Sig in 40 S&W. We used 180 gr HP bullets that left the muzzle of the short barrelled Sig at 950 ft/sec. Very effective round. Puts a real leg stiffening tremor on a moose at under 10 yards. (All animals were previously injured in the making of these statistics. )

My uncle shot a wounded moose six times in the head with 240 JSPs from a 4" .44 and the damn thing ran off. They chased it for more than five miles before they finished it with a rifle. Frankly bullets are funny things and we keep trying to make them predictable. One little bit of bone... and I know my uncle is one of the best marksmen I have ever seen.

BD,
It isn't going to be a lot of help, but one is as good as the other for your purposes.

My issue is a Sig 229 in .357 Sig. We can't shoot the .357 on the indoor range so we use the .40 barrel. The difference in the felt shot is non-existent. I've used the Sig on numerous deer roadside and haven't used more than a single shot yet.

If your hog is using a car door for a barricade, I speak from experience when I say that the .357 will serve fine as well.

George

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The THP went to the 357Sig from 40S&W about 5-7 years ago and they have been very happy with the results. They had a couple of incidents that the 40S&W didn't do to well for them. They've also been issued M4's which increases their arsenal abit.

That is one thing I like about the 40 caliber handguns.
you can usually just buy a barrel in .357 SIG and there ya go!

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That is a good feature. You can get barrels for both the Glocks and Sig's. I'll assume that you can get after market barrels for S&W's and Ruger's etc too?

I don't know about the others, I was thinking of the Glocks and Sigs, hunter.

I've shot and killed many moose even with the 38 Spl and 158 gr Semi-wadcutter lead bullets. There's some serious bone in a moose's head, so you really have to know where the soft spots are. The one I used, and it never failed was a frontal shot. You draw an imaginary line from one eye to the opposite ear and vice versa. Where these "lines" intersect, a one shot kill will happen -- every time for me.

Other place is from the rear, low, right where the first vertebrae joins the head. They don't die quite as quickly as with the brain shot, but they go nowhere, and their heart and lungs quit functioning.

Believe me. I've done a lot of injured moose with a handgun in 30 years of policing in NW Ontario. It can be done. Deer die easier, but moose die good too. Sorry your uncle had such an ordeal. Pass on the "soft spot" info to him.