Hunting successes with .357 Sig

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HB said:
If a long bow works I’d bet 357 sig will.

If you can hit a beer can with it Id say thats your range.

Poke a hole in both lungs and hopefully one out the back for blood trail.
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I agree with the comment on the bow. In handguns your looking at two distinct groups, guns with ability similar to a bow, or a gun with similar ability as a light rifle. 357 sig tends to be at the upper end of the bow range right alongside of its parent case in the 40sw. Yes numbers show that it is in theory comparable to 357 mag in some instances, but practically its a big step down. Hot sig is comparable to mild magnum. As a hunting sidearm to use as a secondary or for critters, heck yeah. Fast, light, compact gun... but for deer or larger they aren’t ideal. A hot loaded 10mm is on par with a hot loaded .357 so those fall into the low end of the light rifle category since they have mass and velocity enough to see significant expansion and penetration like rifles have. 10mm is the weak end of the category though, and is truly the only semiauto pistol caliber I would intentionally chase critters with, and I have. Even 10mm though is no match for a true hunting handgun in the likes of a 41 magnum, 44 magnum, or any of the x-frame calibers.
 
PDX-1's worked good for a deer 15ish yards away. She ran a little bit but dropped. shot placed in the lungs. she weighed 120ish.

She caught him off guard while his rifle was on a tree. I watched the whole thing. Where i hunt, i would get away with 9mm with handloads. I use 5.56 now. Always less then 20 yards and deer less then 150 LBS. I would not take a long shot with the 357 sig, but close would be fine.
 
mcb said:
A good bullet and good hits and the 357 Sig will do the job just fine.
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^^^This. Because of it using a .355 bullet and the caliber generally thought of as a SD/LEO round, appropriate bullets for hunting deer size game are limited and not readily available, especially compared to it's sister cartridge, the .357 mag. But, with appropriate bullets and used within it parameters, it should have no problem killing average size deer.
 
WrongHanded said:
The cartridge doesn't have enough energy to reach the minimum requirements in my State. Not for big game anyway.
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Same here. My state requires a 700 ft.lbs. minimum for hunting deer with a handgun from the cartridge, which means something like a 147 grain projectile (not FMJ of course) moving at 1475 at the muzzle. Now I wonder if I got an aftermarket longer barrel, say 6" for a Glock in .357 Sig, if that would deliver the extra speed? Maybe not....
The problem one encounters in my state is that IF I used a semi-auto carbine, I could probably reach the 700 ft.lbs. standard, YET when you hunt with a rifle, the round must then deliver 1200 ft.lbs. to be compliant. So if I found say a 10.5" barrel or longer would work, I'd probably have to have it in a "pistol" configuration like some of the AR "pistols" for it to only need to meet the 700 ft.lbs. threshold.

I wonder if one could build a 9mm AR-Pistol with a 13.5" or a 10.5" barrel, then have the chamber cut to accept the .357 SIG cartridge, if one could find a bolt face that would work with the rear end of that round? :scrutiny:

LD
 
I have to say those energy levels seem a bit high for deer.

700 ft-lbs from a handgun makes it hard for 357 Mag and 10mm to make the cut. Both can exceed 700 ft-lbs but unless you are reloading or buying from Buffalo Bore, Double Tap and similar boutique loaders you probably are not getting 700 ft-lbs from factory 357 Mag or 10mm Auto ammo.
 
What mcb said. It took me a lot of experimenting and a lot of time shooting over my chronograph to get the required 500 ft/pounds required in Colorado out of my 10mm. It was easier to reach with the lighter 155 - 165 grain bullets than with the 180 - 200 grain bullets. The 700 ft/pounds threshold looks interesting. I would like to see load data that would produce that.
 
Colorado require handguns to have 550flbs of energy at 50 yards "as rated by the manufacturer". So a 147gr would need to be at 1300fps at 50 yards. Might be doable, maybe, with a 6" barrel and handloads.

A 125gr would need to be around 1410fps at 50 yards. Again, might be doable with a longer barrel and handloads. Though I doubt there are appropriate expanding bullets in this weight for hunting.

At a guestimate between the muzzle and the 50 yard mark, there may be around 100fps velocity loss. The margins are too tight for me to want to try it for hunting. And I have better options.

Interesting thought though.
 
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