Howdy folks,
For those who have debated the 357 Sig round but never had the chance to try it in any platform before, I would really suggest you do so. Felt recoil is a very subjective issue to me. But I have some medical issues that on really bad days can directly impact on how long I can tolerate shooting. For me I have found that on those days, I can fire many more rounds of 357 Sig from various platforms than I can the same guns in 40 S&W. For me the Sig round has less felt recoil.
"Experts" attribute this in part to the fact the 357 Sig is a hotter load and tends to cause the slide to operate faster than the 40 round does. For me I tend to perceive it's recoil as more of a straight back rather than the more upward recoil I feel with the 40 round. But again that is really a subjective issue. But to date, without my mentioning felt recoil with friends and co-workers, I am always happy to let folks shoot my pistols. I start them with the 40 barrel, then change out to the 357 one. All shooters have said why does a round with higher muzzle velocity not seem to have as much recoil to me?
Another real plus to me is that I fell into a great deal on the .356 Speer 125 GD bullets, which is what the factory uses in their 357 Sig round. But I really hate to simply punch holes with that bullet too. Mr. Angus has a great deal on the Zero .356 125 JHP. I purchased 3,000 of those with shipping included. Shortly I will be trying some of those, comparing them to both my reloads and factory Gold Dots. When I can fire them over my chronograph I will post the results in the ammo room for those who might have an interest.
For reloading I prefer Accurate Arms no. 9 (now Western Powders) in this round. In their reloading manual they state this is the most consistent round they have ever reloaded, and speak highly of its accuracy as well. The fact it is a bottleneck cartridge is also seen as a plus in helping to insure reliable feeding too.
I don't want to hi-jack this excellent thread at all. But I just wanted to talk a bit about the 357 Sig round for those who have wondered if it was just all marketing hype or not. To me it clearly is not, but again that is a Ford-Chevy issue in my view too. But much like I saw the 10mm and its comparison to the .210 grain .41 magnum round, tell me I can fire a round ballistically similar to the 125gr .357 magnum from a 4" revolver barrel, and it does get my attention. Contrary to some comments I have read and heard too, this is my first bottleneck handgun round I have reloaded. I have not found any problems with it being a bottleneck round, and it loads identically to me as any other caliber I load.
The fact that Mr. Angus is offering any platform in this caliber simply makes me smile wide and realize that shortly I will be able to carry my pair of 75B 40s in a round that I have high confidence in as a self-defense caliber. Thanks Mr. Angus for being willing to offer this option. For those folks with a 9mm, I guess I could best describe this round as a 9mm type loading on very serious steroids.
twoguns
twoguns