Greetings: I am a former Marine who owns a Sig 229 with both a 357sig & 40 S&W barrels. This sig 229 is part of my home defense. My question is what (357sig or 40S&W) with
good shot placement will have the better chance of incapacitating a home invader who is threating to use lethal force?
Thank-you for your time.
Semper Fi
Pick the one that gives you the fastest, most accurate follow-up shots. No magic bullets, especially handgun caliber. With your choices, I would probably pick the 40 s&w. Not because the 357 is no good, but the former is easier to come by for practice rounds.
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Agreed. Shot placement is more important.
You can practice more with the 40 because rounds are more plentiful and cheaper. All things considered. The 40 and practice. Lots.
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I echo these statements.
As a Die Hard Sig .357 guy, I would suggest you go with 40SW as well. Strictly on cost of ammo and availability. If you could get either ammo free 
, go .357.
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I really like the .357 Sig. but I’m always leery of ammo availability. I’d go with the .40.
Best advice I can give is , carry what ever caliber you can most accurately shoot best with, I have seen 22rimfire kill “the badguy” and badguy survive multiple hits of 45, 9mm, and all other pistol calibers with different types of ammo. Best terminal ballistics come from rifles with min 2200 or 2500 fps (can’t remember) according tonthe FBI
All that matters with handgun terminal ballistics is how far the bullet penetrates and how wide the HP opens up. I’m sure the gel pics of premium ammo in both calibers are near identical since the companies are engineering the bullets to perform in a certain range no matter what the caliber. I doubt a well-shot intruder would notice a difference in terms of trauma. The .40 starts out with a larger dia. whether it opens up or not and ammo is widely available so that gives it the (slight) edge IMO.
Deep down inside we all know that a near miss from any kind of 45acp shot through a quality 1911 is more of a man stopper than a good hit with any 9mm!
Where’s your M4, Jackson?? Why not take home court advantage?
All the terminal ballistics tests out there pretty much say that the .357 sig doesn’t do anything more than a quality 9mm JHP.
This is true when it comes to the layers of denim into ballistics gelatine, when it comes to a harder barrier i.e. glass auto glass doors,wood, walls the bullets act differently
My vote would be to dump the 40 and go for a good 9mm and use good quality JHP+P rounds. Easier to control. Faster follow up. Higher capacity.
I agree to this post
Since the OP gave a choice between a .357Sig & a .40S&W, my vote would be to choose the .40 for reasons given earlier. Ammo for the .40 is everywhere, allowing for more trigger time. I haven’t even seen .357 lately, not that I’ve been looking…
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Yup. If I only had the choice the OP mentioned, .40 would be the choice according to the tests I have seen and experts communicated with. Anything from the known quality producers, Speer, Winchester, etc, GTG.
I agree with this as well. I have been carrying a G23 and have a .357 conversion barrel for it. I do find I shoot the .357 a little better than the .40, but I have decided to step down into a G19. I would really like to pick up a gently used Gen 2 G19 to replace my G23:)
I prefer 40 over the 357.
For me it really isn’t a matter of preference for the performance of one over the other, I just seem to be able to shoot a little faster with the 357. And, that is why I want to step down to a 9mm, less recoil.
I used to buy into energy numbers and all that stuff, but I have come to realize that, for me, I am better off with a cartridge that allows me to make as many accurate hits as possible in the shortest amount of time.
Plus, a 9mm is cheaper to feed, which means more shooting.
This is what is best for me, YMMV.