dbagwell Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 My pistol is currently chambered for .357 Sig. I have been using Winchester White Box ammo to shoot steel matches at my local range. Using the WB ammo has become increasingly expensive (roughly $0.46/round) and I'm beginning to seriously consider the idea of reloading my own ammo. Additionally, I have the option of dropping in a .40 S &W barrel into my gun, which leads me to my question. What are the advantages/disadvantages of reloading these two calibers? Cost, recoil, availability, etc.? Any feedback on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ofcrfs242 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 (edited) I have a 357 Sig barrel for my Glock 22. I very rarely shoot it because I have found that the recoil of the 357 is very very snappy. After about two hundred rounds of 357 my hand actually hurt. Felt like I had caught a baseball bat at speed. Maybe I'm just a sissy. I much prefer the 40 recoil wise. As far as cost of reloading I doubt that it would be significatnt enough to notice unless you are shooting 10,000 plus a year to even notice. edited to add the disadvantage of the 357 being a bottle neck case would be enough of a pain in the a@# to go for the 40. Edited December 15, 2008 by ofcrfs242 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscott Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 If you are using jacketed bullets the 9mm heads will obviously save you money over .40s. Reloading sigs is not that difficult, but you do have to pay attention to and understand what is going on. 357sig might not be the best round to get started on in reloading. You might also think about what games you are shooting since it makes more sense to shoot .40 in Limited for USPSA, but for Production you'd be fine shooting a 9mm bullet. If you want to save even more money you could load lead bullets in .40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boz1911 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Obvious care must be taken, I've seen more than one 40 bullet shoved in a 357sig case....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanpilot Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Obvious care must be taken, I've seen more than one 40 bullet shoved in a 357sig case....... What do you mean Please elaborate... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyT Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 My pistol is currently chambered for .357 Sig. I have been using Winchester White Box ammo to shoot steel matches at my local range. Using the WB ammo has become increasingly expensive (roughly $0.46/round) and I'm beginning to seriously consider the idea of reloading my own ammo. Additionally, I have the option of dropping in a .40 S &W barrel into my gun, which leads me to my question. What are the advantages/disadvantages of reloading these two calibers? Cost, recoil, availability, etc.? Any feedback on this topic would be greatly appreciated. I find reloading bottleneck pistol cases to e a veritable pain in the neck. I only shoot guns which use straight walled pistol cases. For steel matches the 357 Sig is much more powerful than required. You could shoot a 9mm or light loads in the 40 S&W with much less recoil. In our club you could not use the 357 Sig or 357 Mag in steel shoots - too damaging to the steel targets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLM Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 You could just download the 357 Sig. It's a .355" inch bullet not .357" so they are easily available and a bit cheaper than .40's. Speer Gold Dot factory 125's run under 1400 FPS so I can't see them being that hard on steel in a "normal" load but maybe I'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Round_Gun_Shooter Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 I shoot a 226 SIG in 357Sig. I load for it and have for several years. I have no problem with it at all. I currently am using a 90gr Frang bullet but as soon as I am out of them I will be going to the JHP Montana Golds I have. As for recoil, I see the difference being the Sig round is more of a straight back instead of muzzle flip. Now, I also have the Sig 226 in 40 so I can compare the same gun with the different cartridges. There is a difference. ALSO, in the case of the Sig Pistols, sights are different also. A 40 barrel with the 357Sig sighted slide will shoot low. When I set these guns up, one was for competition, the other for carry. I have them set with same sights, same grip, grip tape on the front strap of both, and Ameriglo fiber optic/tritium sights. I truly like the Sig round better and use it as my carry gun. Reloads for practice, Gold Dots for carry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan550 Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 Load the .357 SIG lighter and it's a joy to shoot! I switched barrels in my GLOCK 27 to a SIG and with downloaded ammo, it's a pussycat! Also cheaper than the .40 because of bullet cost. Just be careful with the shoulder set-back to get it right and put a good crimp on them to prevent bullet set-back. DON'T use .40 cases to load the SIG round as they are too short to get a good crimp! Alan~^~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscott Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 DON'T use .40 cases to load the SIG round as they are too short to get a good crimp! Alan~^~ I'd argue against that statement, but it's pointless on the web. I haven't had any trouble making sigs from .40 brass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbagwell Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 Thanks for the feedback. Well it appears that .357 sig slugs are less expensive than .40, but what about the brass? Are you guys debating the brass issue because .40 brass is less expensive, more availability, etc? Please explain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscott Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 I have plenty of .40 brass, so why buy it if you don't have to? If I needed to buy brass I'd buy the correct stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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