357 Mag v. Sig

[Dr45ACP]

The two supposedly best 357 mag rounds are 125 g JHP's made by Winchester and Remington. These 2 bullets both have a lot of exposed lead at the tip. I have always figured this helped with expansion. 357 sig JHPs look have a full jacket with no exposed lead, I guess because it is designed for an auto pistol.

Does the difference in design of these two bullets affect expansion and performance?

 

[krept]

I *think* that Sig went with the fully jacketed HP design also because it limits fragmentation commonly associated w/ .357 Magnum 125gr semi-jacketed HPs.

 

[DerGlockenpooper]

It is said by those who test it that the 357 SIG CorBon 125 grain load performs exactly like the .357 magnum 125 grain load. It expands violently and fragments.

The Gold Dot does not fragment on the other hand.

Due to different bullet design, you get two very different types of performance by very similar loads (both moving at ~1425fps out of a short sub-4 inch pipe).

I believe that if you use the 125 grain CorBon 357 SIG, you will get identical wound results as a classic .357 magnum 125 grain HP.

But, just speaking of external ballistics, the .357 SIG will actually be as much as 100 fps faster than a .357 magnum out of the same length pipe, using factory defensive ammo (Keeping in mind that a 2.75 inch .357 magnum barrel is actually a 4.5+ inch pipe, which is easily comparable to a 4 inch semi-auto barrel, because the semi-auo includes the chamber in the barrel length measurement whereas the revolver does not).

It would make sense to me that with the additional velocity, the 357 SIG would actually surpass the .357 magnum in "stopping power".