What is the difference between .357 MAG and .357 SIG?

Answer 1

What is the difference between the .357 Magnum and the .357 Sig? The .357 Magnum has been around longer (since the Thirties). The magnum is properly a revolver cartridge, it is long and has a rim. It is also considered the best man-stopper ever. This is backed by research and history, so it is NOT just legendary. Because the 125 grain semi-jacketed hollow point .357 Magnum fired out of a 4" revolver is recognized as the ultimate man-stopper, auto-loader aficionados desired this kind of stopping power (and barrier penetration) in an auto-loader. Many old head highway patrolmen continued to carry their old S & W Model 28 and 686 .357 Mag. wheelguns instead of the then issued Sig 220 .45 acp because the .357 was a better stopper and the .45 had problems defeating barriers like car glass and sheet-metal.

Older companies like Coonan and Desert Eagle actually built semi-autos that fired the .357 Magnum, but the Eagle was just too big and Coonan just didn't pan out. It is hard to reliably feed a big, rimmed cartridge like the .357 Magnum from a box magazine. So Sig offered a solution: A new caliber able to duplicate the performance of the .357 Magnum revolver, but out of a modern semi-automatic pistol, and so the .357 Sig was born.

The .357 Sig is a .40 S & W necked down to approximately .356 diameter and it duplicates (at least on paper) the performance of the .357 Magnum revolver cartridge. Because the Sig is a rimless bottle-necked cartridge, it feeds flawlessly from a box magazine.

Has the .357 Sig managed to duplicate the performance of the older .357 Magnum? The jury is still out, but... The .357 Sig DOES penetrate barriers better than the .45 acp. Some consider the new Sig round nothing more than a .9mm on steroids. Others say it is very close to the .357 Magnum. Still others say the .357 Sig can be likened to a .357 Magnum fired out of a snub nose revovler. Still a great stopper but shy of the full, 4" barrel capabilities. I would not feel underarmed with a .357 Sig and in fact own a Glock Model 31 in this caliber.

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Answer 2

A .357 sig is a total different bullet and shell than a .357 mag. A .357 sig is a necked down .40 cal a .357 mag is a extended .38 special with a lot more power. It is like the differences of a .45 colt and a .45 acp

Answer 3

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What is the difference between .357 MAG and .357 SIG?

Answer 4

Sig Sauer 357

Answer 5

The 357 Magnum has been around since the 30s and is basically an improved 38 special. The 357 Sig is about 5 years old and is basically a improved .40 S&W. They are not interchangable and no attempt should be made to fire 1 in a gun made for the other (I don't think you could actually do this, but I live in the south and hear "Hey Y'all, watch this" too many times) ballistics are relatively similar with the mag being faster and having more energy averaging about 15%. The sig is probably available is less total different manufacturer models but mostly in semi-automatics ( I'm not aware of any revolvers, put they're probably out there). The magnum is almost excusively available in revolvers (exceptions I know of are Desert Eagle and Coonan, Coonan is not currently making new guns) The magnum is known to be one of the best pistol rounds for defense ever (Lots of people, including me, think it is the very best but others disagree). The sig being an improved .40 means it should be very good for defense also. I just read the answer before mine, he must have been writing and reading my mind. lol

Answer 6

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The most obvious is that .357mag is a revolver cartridge and .357 sig is a semi-auto cartridge. The .357 sig is a necked down .40 S&W, which is a shorter 10mm. the idea was to get a more powerful (through higher velocity) semi auto round. Its effective, but not comparable to .357 mag in terms of energy (loosely translated to stopping power). The .357 mag is a much more powerful round.

Answer 7

.357 magnum was made as basically a souped up version of the .38 special round many decades ago. It's a longer cartridge designed for revolvers.

.357 SIG is much newer, maybe 10 years old or so I think? It was designed by SIG to try to rival the performance of the .357 magnum cartridge in a semi-automatic pistol. It is in a very similar sized casing to the .40 S&W though necked down, so pistols can often be easily converted from one to the other with a barrel change. But don't neck down .40S&W casings to make .357 SIG rounds if you're reloading, the brass is thicker and it's very dangerous.

It's a higher velocity round than most pistol cartridges. The performance of most common .357 SIG loadings is on par with lighter .357 Magnum ones. I don't like .357 SIG at all. I find it to be way snappier in it's recoil than most other similar rounds.

On average though .357 Magnum will still outperform your average .357 SIG load. It's just revolver vs. semi-auto.

Answer 8

.357 Sig was developed in 1994. Sheeeeesh!

Answer 9

Well, now that you've heard from all the wanna be gunwriters who've done NO research, you can foget most of what they said.

The .357 Sig was developed for law enforcement. There was one particular loading of the .357 mag. that had performed the best for law enforcement officers, but pretty much all agencies had gone to semi autos. They tried .45's, but couldn't get the penetration they needed on auto bodies. They tried the 9mm, but it OVERpenetrated, and wasn't the manstopper that the .45 was. So, they looked at the stats. Which load/caliber combination worked best? The .357 mag! Well, they weren't going back to the 6 shooters, so, they developed an autoloader round that duplicated the .357 mag loading that worked the best in their tests.

While I don't think the .357 sig will ever truly catch on,(mostly because it's such a pain to reload, and the bottleneck case makes it sensitive to MINOR powder charge adjustments) it WILL be an interesting footnote in firearms history.

Answer 10

A .357 Magnum is the same round as a .357 but with more powder for a more powerful shot. A .357 SIG is a much shorter and bottlenecked version of the .357 round and is made for a semi-auto Sig-Sauer. If you have a Smith & Wesson .357 like I do, you can use .357, .357 Mag, or .38 Special. If you have a Sig-Sauer, use the .357 SIG.