I own numerous handguns in .357 Sig. They consist of GLOCK 32's, Sig P226 & P229's, S&W M&P's, and a Steyr M-series (haven't shot that one yet). I have been a fan of this round for over 10 years. I did own one of the original Springfield XD's in .357 Sig (5" Tactical model), but sold that one a long time ago.
Springfield, HK, and S&W have all stopped producing handguns in this caliber. That does concern me, I'm not going to lie. Nevertheless, Sig Sauer handguns do seem to handle this round the best anyway, so it is what it is.
If you are to do an apples-apples comparison between loadings from major bullet manufacturers (let's say Speer Gold Dot for example), the .357 Sig wins out everytime. There are still those naysayers who claim that it is meaningless, and all handgun bullets are inadequate and perform nearly identical. To that, I say bring on the metal pie plate targets. I have seen time and time again hits from 9mm and .40 S&W rounds fail to knock down the plates. However, almost always, a hit from either a .357 Sig or a .45 ACP moves them with ease. These calibers have the upper hand in knockdown power.
As far as pricing goes, there is a lot of price gouging going on with the big box stores that sell this round off the shelves. I almost wonder if they don't mark it up so high just so they can argue it doesn't sell well enough, thereby eliminating one more caliber to simplify logistics. On-line websites make this almost a non-issue.
I also feel that the recoil from a .357 Sig is much better than that of a .40 S&W. It is snappier and cycles much faster. I sweat that after swapping barrels from a .357 Sig to the .40, the slide just feels like it is moving at a snails pace. Of course, this may also be why the .357 can be harder on handguns. It's definitely important to replace the guns recoil spring regularly with this round.
Z-
