.40 S&W vs. .357 SIG
I have had the pleasure of communicating with Massad Ayoob on another forum and I asked him if I could quote his review on these two cartridges. He said that would be fine. This is out of The Complete Book of Hanguns 2008.
.357SIG
In the early 90's, spurred by Texas troopers and rangers who loved the SIG SAUER .45ACP pistol, but missed that "lighting bolt" stopping power effect of their old .357 Mag revolvers, SIG SAUER worked with Federal Cartridge to create the .357 SIG round, It resembles a .40 necked down to 9mm, though the actual construction is somewhat more complicated than that. Different companies load to different velocities, and depending on the pistol and barrel, factory 125-grain JHP's are delivering 1325 to over 1400 fps.
High-tech bullets that open rapidly, but stay together seem to work best in this caliber. The most widely proven is the Gold Dot. From Texas to Virginia, it has been kicking butt with no horror stories of stopping failures. New Mexico State Troopers fell in love with the .357 SIG a few years ago, and stayed with that cartridge when they ordered their new S&W M&P autopistols. North Carolina Highway Patrol gave up it's beloved Beretta pistols after more than 20 years to adopt the SIG SAUER, because they could get it chambered for .357 SIG.
Gunfights indicate that this cartridge is particularly good for shooting through auto sheet metal and window glass, yet does not deliver on the street the dangerous over-penetration that some gelatin tests had indicated might happen. The spent, expanded bullets are normally recovered from the far side of the criminal's body, or from his clothing, or from the ground within a few feet behind where he was located when shot.
Winchester Ranger in 125-grain .357 SIG had worked well in actual shootings. Remington Bonded Golden Saber in 125-grain .357 SIG is deliciously accurate, and perfoms superbly in FBI protocol gelatin testing, though I haven't run across any actual shootings with it yet. The overwhelming majority of .357 SIG shooting by police have occured with 125-grain Speer Gold dot, and it has worked so well it is unquestionably the most "street proven" load in this caliber.
.40
Introduced in 1990 by S&W and Winchester, this 9mm length, 10mm cartridge was designed to split the difference between the 9mm's higher round count in the gun and the .45ACP auto's larger caliber. It succeeded hugely at that in police work, being chosen by more law enforcement agencies today than any other. It has become popular among armed citizens for that exact same compromise factor.
First generation ammo, a 180-grain subsonic with a conventional JHP bullet, did better than expected, but still wasn't spectacular. It pretty much duplicates the ballistics of the old .38-40 black power handgun load of the 19th century frontier. I've run across a lot of shoot-throughs with 180-grain standard JHP, more than would be desirable for home defense.
Those who like the 180-grain subsonic's ballistics want to go with high-tech hollowpoints that open more aggressively, penetrate a little less, and seem to produce a more decisive stopping power. The 180-grain Gold Dot has earned a good reputation in cities such as Boston and Milwaukee. The 180-grain Federal HST has produced some truly impressive one shot stops in the Pacific Northwest. The 180-grain Winchester Ranger, particularly in its latest iteration, also works distinctly better than a conventional copper-jacketed bullet of this weight and velocity.
It appears that the medium-weight bullets at higher velocities are providing the best combination of penetration depth, expansion, and overall decisiveness of ending encounters. Not the 165-grain subsonic .40, the so-called "minus-P," but the 165-grain JHPs traveling at 1140 fps and 155-grainers at about 1200 fps. the latterhas worked very well for the US Border Patrol, which seems to have used mostly the Remington brand. Other non-high-tech .40 caliber JHPs in this weight range that have delivered impressive performance are Federal Classic and the Winchester Silvertip, both 155-grainers. These are also less expensive than the top-line premium lines.
High-tech bullets still do well in this weight range, though. The 165-grain Winchester Ranger and Speer Gold Dot seem to lead the pack by a narrow range.
I would like to thank Mr. Ayoob again for letting me quote his article on these rounds. Mark