9mm vs. 357 Sig: Which Caliber is Best?

While the 9mm vs. 357 Sig debate is likely to continue until the end of time, there are certainly some important points we must consider when determining which caliber is best. Both calibers work very well; however, it’s clear that the 357 Sig is one of the most powerful semi-auto cartridges available. It’s even better than the venerable 45 ACP. In this article we’re going to review some data on each round and discuss which purpose each round is suited for. I will also be recommending some of the best quality ammunition in each caliber, as well the best handguns chambered in these calibers. Keep reading for more.

Before we go too far into the this article I want to highlight a few facts. First, and foremost, the real world differences between these calibers aren’t as significant as you might think. As you’ll see, the the 357 Sig does have an advantage in energy. This is the result of the higher velocity that this round achieves. That doesn’t automatically make it a better choice for all shooters.

If you’ve read any articles on this website (like this 9mm vs 40 S&W article) you’ll know that I prefer data driven answers to questions, rather than cool marketing, or media hype. To better compare the 9mm vs. 357 Sig, let’s take a look at some of the key points below.

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9mm vs. 357 Sig: Overview

• Bullet velocity matters less in handgun cartridges than rifle cartridges
• 357 Sig generates 57% more muzzle energy than 9mm Luger
• Hollow point penetration between 12-18 inches in ballistics gel is ideal
• 357 Sig has more muzzle energy than 45 ACP
• Hollow point expansion is key for handgun cartridges
• Expect to fire multiple rounds in a self defense situation
• There is no free lunch, increased energy creates more recoil
• Many 40 S&W handguns can shoot 357 Sig with a barrel swap

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Now that we’ve reviewed some of the key points we’ll cover in more depth later on, we need to review some basic handgun terminal ballistics. After all, how can we make an informed decision comparing 9mm vs. 357 Sig if we don’t even know how handgun ballistics function?

Terminal Wound Ballistics in Handguns

There are only two ways any bullet creates injury in humans. The first method is the mechanical crushing and tearing, caused by the bullet passing through human tissue. This is called the permanent wound channel. You will find this type of wounding in both rifle and handgun bullets.

The second method is the temporary displacement, and disruption of human tissue. This temporary wound cavity is created by high pressures forming a wave behind the bullet. This generally occurs from high velocity rifle ammunition. Such displacement can cause huge disruption in a human body. This is why rifle rounds are more lethal than handgun calibers. Don’t believe me, check this chart out.

This chart comes from my article where I analyzed 1800 self defense shootings to determine which calibers had the best stopping power. It depicts the percentage of encounters that were resolved with only one round fired. This is defined as the aggressor either fleeing, or stopping his actions due to incapacitation.

It’s easy to see the general trend. Bigger, more powerful rounds work better. This is why shotguns make excellent personal protection choices, as do rifles. Handguns are less effective in this metric because they have less overall mass than a shotgun round, and they have much less velocity than a rifle round. This leads us to our next question. What is handgun stopping power?

What is Handgun Stopping Power?

There are only three ways that a violent encounter can be resolved with a firearm. The first is when the aggressor flees due to the fear of death. It might happen by simply brandishing the weapon, or it might happen as a result of being shot by said firearm. These are called a psychological stops.

The second way is due to systematic organ failure, as a result of blood loss. This process can take a few minutes or a few hours. It isn’t a quick process. Anyone who’s been in a gunfight can tell you that a few seconds can feel like a lifetime!

The last method is incapacitating someone via their central nervous system. Most commonly this is a head or spine hit. This, like the blood loss stop, is a mechanical stop.

If you read my article where I analyzed criminal actions in robberies, and shootings, you’ll know that the psychological stop is most common. Occasionally you’ll see an immediate incapacitation, and rarely you’ll have a video of an aggressor stopping due to blood loss. Blood loss stops often occur minutes or hours later.

What Does This Mean When Comparing 9mm vs. 357 Sig?

This means that we need to pick a handgun and cartridge that causes the largest permanent wound channel, since handguns don’t develop appreciable temporary wound cavities. Our ideal pistol round needs to transfer as much energy as possible into the tissue.

Reasonably heavy, fast moving hollow points will be your best bet, provided you can deal with the recoil. I mean we could all shoot Desert Eagles, but it can be hard to conceal carry that beast! Next, let’s dive into the specifics of the 357 Sig round.

357 Sig Overview

The 357 Sig cartridge is a popular choice with self defense minded shooters, as well as law enforcement agencies. It was created to achieve the same ballistic performance as the venerable 357 Magnum cartridge, in a shorter overall case. If you’ve ever shot a 357 magnum revolver, you’ll know that the cartridge has a long case length, which isn’t great to load in a semi-auto magazines.

Generally speaking, the 357 Sig and the 357 Magnum generate about the same bullet velocities. The 357 Magnum tends to have a distinct advantage in bullet mass. You can easily find 357 Magnum loads that weigh up to 180 grains in bullet weight. The 357 Sig is almost always a 125-grain bullet, with a few exceptions up to 147 grains.

As we mentioned above, there’s not much of a chance that a bad guy will notice these differences. However, if you’re looking for the absolute best performance, then you’ll need to find a blend of bullet mass and velocity.

If we go back to high school physics class, you’ll remember that kinetic energy is mass multiplied by velocity squared. That means if you double the mass you double the energy. If you double the velocity, you quadruple the energy. Faster velocities matter!

Now let’s put our lab coats and tape covered spectacles on. We’re going to cover some of the scientific details for the best 357 Sig defensive ammunition.

Best Performing 357 Sig Ammunition

With what we’ve discussed so far, we know some key criteria to select the best 357 Sig ammo. First and foremost, it needs to penetrate between 12-18 inches in the FBI ballistic gelatin test.

If it doesn’t meet this requirement then it isn’t a good choice for self defense ammunition. This level of penetration means that the round has enough kinetic energy to reach vital organs, in an average sized human body. Rounds like birdshot, have a lot of energy, but don’t penetrate deep enough to cause damage to these organs. This makes it a bad self defense choice.

Next we need to figure out which combination of bullet mass, and velocity will yield the most energy translated on to the target. We are assuming that you’ve been working out, and have a strong grip, which is a requirement to shoot a pistol well. Here is some of the data.

357 Sig Energy, Velocity, and Ballistics

To make this a fair comparison, we’ll be comparing ammunition from the same manufacturer. These three calibers are all Federal Hydra Shock rounds. The 357 Sig is a 125 grain bullet traveling 1360 feet per second. The 357 Magnum is 158 grains at 1240 feet per second. The 9mm bullet is 147 grains at 1000 feet per second.

We can see from this chart that the trend is very clear. The 357 Sig has less energy at all distances than the 357 Magnum. However, the 357 Sig has almost 57% more energy, at the muzzle, than the 9mm, which is one of the most popular handgun cartridges.

A 57% increase in muzzle energy isn’t negligible. It’s a significantly more powerful cartridge than the 9×19. In fact, this is more muzzle energy than the 45 ACP Hydra Shok, which starts at 414 ft/lbs of energy, at a sluggish 900 ft per second. The 45 ACP does have a whopping great 230 grain bullet though. You can almost hear FUDDs crying in the background.

We can see that there’s a clear advantage in overall energy for the 357 Sig compared to the 9mm Hyrda Shok round. After comparing other ammunition offerings from Federal, you have go to a 44 Magnum or above to beat the energy production of the 357 Sig. Next, we should ask ourselves how this translates to ballistic gel testing?

357 Sig Ballistic Gel Testing

If you’ve read any of my other articles covering ballistics, you’ll know that I like to get my ballistic gel data from Luck Gunner. They have a large library of ballistic gelatin tests for almost all self defense ammunition types, from a variety of manufacturers.

This allows us to make some great comparisons amongst the various offerings from the top cartridge companies. In this specific test we’re looking for 12-18inches of penetration, with maximum bullet expansion from the hollow point.

Since 357 Sig has a .355 inch diameter bullet, we’re looking for the largest value above this diameter that penetrates within that 12-18inch window. Here are the top three best performing choices that Lucky Gunner tested.

357 Sig – 125 Grain HST JHP – Federal Tactical LE

Federal HST ammo is very popular with many police departments and police forces in the United States. I’ve shot thousands of rounds of it, and it runs flawlessly. The 357 Sig, 125 Grain HST JHP from Federal falls right within the expected performance envelope. Check this video out.

Premium 357 Sig Ammo For Sale – 125 gr HST JHP

This ammunition expands to .61 inches on average, and travels at 1386 feet per seconds, which is quite fast. It retains all of its bullet mass, and showed no signs of breaking apart within the gelatin. Most importantly, it fell within the 12-18in penetration depth we need.

There are several other offerings that Lucky Gunner tested that severely over penetrated. The worst offender went through 23.9 inches of ballistics gelatin. This would not be suitable for self defense use, as you run the real risk of endangering anyone behind the bad guy.

357 Sig – 125 Grain V-Crown JHP – Sig Sauer

It’s no surprise that Sig Sauer manufactures a great choice in their self named 357 Sig ammo! The 357 Sig – 125 Grain V Crown JHP, exhibits solid performance. Check out the ballistics gel test video below.

Premium Defensive 357 Sig Ammo For Sale – 125 gr JHP – Sig Sauer V-Crown Ammunition – 50 Rounds

Just like the Federal round, the V Crown penetrates towards the maximum end of the scale on the first shot. It averages 14.8 inches of penetration, with an expanded diameter of .61 inches. This bullet travels 1392 feet per second out of their test gun. That round is really cooking.

I think it’s safe to say that the penetration on this round is slightly less than the Federal HST. This is awesome, as the round is going faster, and expands just as much. This is a great self defense choice.

357 Sig – 125 Grain JHP – Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender

The 125 Grain JHP Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender has some of the best performance amongst all 357 Sig rounds. It has the most velocity, and bullet expansion. I’ve consistently been impressed with the defensive rounds from Winchester.

Premium 357 Sig Defense Ammo – 125 gr JHP – 357 Sig Ammunition by Winchester Supreme Elite

This offering penetrated 14.7 inches on average, and expanded to .71 inches. Lucky Gunner measure this bullets velocity at an amazing 1431 feet per second. You don’t have to be a math genius to figure out that the fastest moving bullet, with the most expansion will do the most damage.

As you might imagine, these are some of the most popular self defense rounds in 357 Sig. As a result they often go out of stock, although I’ve seen the Federal offerings in stock the most. Feel free to check back from time to time.

Now that we have three great options to shoot, we need to talk about what to shoot them out of. In the next section we’ll cover three amazing pistols chambered in 357 Sig.

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The Top 3 Handguns in 357 Sig

In this section we’re going to cover some reliable options chambered in 357 Sig. I’ll give you some great choices in sub compact all the way to full sized pistols. If you want all the details on picking your best pistol for self defense, then read this article where we really examine the details of finding your best handgun option.

GLOCK 33 GEN 4 .357 SIG PISTOL, BLACK

The Glock 33 Gen 4 is a great option for someone who wants a concealed carry firearm. It’s very compact and has respectable magazine capacity. You can carry 9 rounds in the magazine, and with a plus one in the chamber. If you read my article on self defense video analysis you’ll remember that many self defense scenarios feature multiple bad guys. This means you need to carry at least 6-8 rounds for a real world engagement.

Glock 33 Gen 4 in 357 Sig

If this is a little too small, you can get a slightly larger frame size if you purchase the Glock 32. This is the same frame size as the venerable Glock 19, which is supremely popular for a reason. It can be hard to find the 32 in stock so you might have to check around.

SIG SAUER P320 NITRON COMPACT 9MM SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOL

The Sig Sauer P320 is another great option if you’re looking for a polymer, striker fired pistol. It features a 10 round steel magazine, allowing for a total capacity of 11. You can also purchase a 13 round magazine if you’d like. This is a mid sized pistol that can be used for concealed carry, or home defense.

As you’ll see with our next option, the Sig 320 line of pistols is incredibly customizable, and allows you to mix and match frames, barrels, triggers, and more. If you already have a 320 you can easily reconfigure your pistol in 357 Sig with much less expense than buying a completely new gun.

SIG SAUER P320 DIY SEMI-CUSTOM

One of the biggest drawbacks with the 357 Sig, is there aren’t as many choices compared to more popular calibers. Sig Sauer allows you to get around this little problem with their 320 series pistol. This pistol is technically just a Fire Control Unit, that can be dropped into any Sig frame.

This allows you to drop a match grade Fire Control Unit, into their X5 Legion frame. You can then add a compact sized 3.9 inch slide, recoil assembly, and 4.6in threaded barrel. Most importantly, this set up allows you to shoot a compensator! Like this one from Herrington Arms.

As you might imagine, a set up like this won’t be cheap. It’ll run you around $1400 dollars, not including any red dot sights. Remember you don’t have to do all of this. You could easily add a cheaper X5 polymer frame and a standard slide. This would save you about $300.

Now that we’ve covered a lot of great options in 357 Sig, let’s take a look at the 9mm and see what benefits or draw backs exist for this caliber.

9mm Overview

The 9mm round is one of the most popular rounds for good reason. It’s been in existence for over a hundred years, and is used by police departments and militaries around the world. That being said, just because it’s a popular pistol cartridge doesn’t mean it’s the best to win a gun fight.

I wrote an article a few months ago, where I summarized the data for over 1800 gunfights. Summarized in the most general of terms, long guns performed better, and larger handgun calibers tended to perform better as well. Take a look at this video.

This video shows the percentage of shootings where a bad guy was shot, and immediately stopped their actions. We can clearly see that shotguns and rifles are working well, as are 44 magnums. The general trend is that smaller bullets have a lower chance of stopping someone after one shot.

The 9mm round has about a 34% chance of stopping an aggressor with just one shot. We can actually see that the 357 (both sig and magnum are combined in this metric) have a 44% chance of a one shot stop. We should realize there are a couple of things in play here. First and foremost, we would actually expect lower chance probabilities of one shot stops with rounds that are easy to fire quickly.

This is why you’re probably seeing 44 magnum working as well as a long gun. Most people shooting these calibers aren’t hosing a target with 6 rounds at a time. This data is best for showing general trends, not giving you precise recommendations. Now let’s take a look at the best performing 9mm ammunition.

Best Performing 9mm Ammunition

All of this information is going to come from Lucky Gunner. They have an excellent database for nearly all popular handgun rounds. I highly recommend you check out their website, as they cover the most important things you need to make a good ammo choice. They follow the FBI testing protocols and provide high speed video of the rounds shot through ballistic gel.

Based on what we know of terminal ballistics, we should favor heavier bullets in 9mm, that expand the widest. It needs to do all of this while still penetrating 12-18 inches of calibrated ballistics gel. Given these criteria, the best performing round is the Winchester 147 gr Ranger T-Series. Check out the video below for its 5 shot performance.

Defensive 9mm Ranger Ammo For Sale – 147 gr JHP – Winchester Ranger T-Series Ammunition In Stock

This bullet expanded to .74 inches, and all 5 rounds showed the same level of expansion. This ammo appears to be reliable, and it best fits our criteria. The next best choice was the Federal 150gr Micro HST. It didn’t expand quite as much but it is slightly heavier, and the penetration was within range. Now let’s look at some great 9mm handguns.

The Top 3 Handguns in 9mm

This list is by no means exhaustive, as there are thousands of options to choose from. These are three great options in 9mm. They all have tremendous reputations for reliability, and are consistently some of the most purchased pistols on the market. Follow the links below, or click on the images to learn more about each pistol.

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3 Best 9mm Handguns for Self Defense and Concealed Carry

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These guns have all been around for many years and have bullet proof reliability. They can handle even the hottest +P rounds that are commercially available. I’ve done reviews on the Heckler and Koch VP9, and the Sig P365. You can read those for all the data you want. Otherwise you can click on the links above to pick up your pistol.

Practical Considerations Between 357 Sig and 9mm

Your training and skill level with a pistol (and shot placement) will always matter more than the minutiae of caliber comparisons. There is nothing wrong with carrying either one of these calibers for self defense, or relying upon them to defend your home. We do need to talk about some practical considerations that might lead you to pick one caliber over another.

Recoil Management

First, and foremost, let’s speak about the amount recoil you’ll experience when shooting the 357 Sig. There is no free lunch, and you will certainly feel all 57% of that extra energy that the 357 Sig has. Does that mean it’s unmanageable, absolutely not!

I can tell you from personal experience that I’ve been issued both 9mm handguns and 40 S&W handguns for duty purposes. I much prefer having a 9mm as I can shoot it more quickly. It also has less recoil, which I can control better. As a result, I found my accuracy increases with 9mm.

My sights are off target for less time, and I can shoot the pistol with one hand much easier. I can tell you this wasn’t the result of lack of practice. I’ve probably shot around 30-40,000 rounds of each caliber through those duty guns. It’s not my first rodeo!

I would also point out that I’m much stronger than the average shooter, and I still found that a reduction in recoil really helped my overall shooting. If you aren’t as strong, or if your grip isn’t as solid, then I definitely would not recommend 357 Sig.

Ammunition Budget

If you’re on a budget, and you actually plan on practicing, then I think 9mm would be your best bet. Because I’m a competitive shooter in USPSA, I try to shoot at least 1000 round a month, as a bare minimum. I often purchase my ammo from Freedom Munitions.

If you compare their remanufactured 357 Sig, you’ll find that they’re selling it for 55 cents per rounds, which is a screaming deal compared to the $1.45 you’ll see for most new practice ammo anywhere else. However, if you compare that to their 9mm Luger remanufactured ammo, you’ll see that it sells for 32.5 cents per round. That’s a 69% difference!

If you don’t shoot a lot then you’re a bad human (just kidding…..maybe) and these price differences won’t be a big deal for you.

Durability

This is one area that most people don’t consider when buying a gun. The 357 Sig has a more energy in the round (40,00 PSI for Max SAAMI spec), compared to the 9mm (35,000 PSI SAAMI Spec). This means that it will wear down parts faster.

I can tell you that when I shot 40 caliber I had parts break much more often than my 9mm gun. This includes accessories like flashlights as well. I think I sheared the screws on my Surefire X300U twice, with my 40 caliber gun. I’ve yet to shear any screws with my 9mm pistol.

Again, this is only going to come into play if you plan on shooting your pistol a lot. If you are going to keep this in a safe, and occasionally practice with it, then this won’t be an issue. We’ve covered a lot of data, so let’s review some of the key points.

Final Thoughts

Both of these calibers will work well for home defense, or personal defense. The 357 Sig has about 57% more energy, and consequently will work slightly better in a defensive situation, provided you can control the recoil. If you have larger hands, or a strong grip, then either caliber will work for you.

I certainly think that 357 Sig is a good candidate for a compensated gun. Anything that reduces muzzle flip, or felt recoil will aid you in shooting quickly and accurately. This will require some custom work or tinkering with your pistol.

If you go down the modification road you need to shoot at least 500 rounds through your pistol, including at least 100 rounds of carry ammo to verify it’s reliability. Don’t change a bunch of components, on a gun you’re betting your life on, without thoroughly testing it!

As always your personal skill, and willingness to dry fire, and live fire will be the most important factor in your ability to defend yourself. I strongly recommend you start shooting in USPSA to improve your shooting skills. Now get out there and get training!

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