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Posted: 12/5/2002 6:36:06 PM EDT
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Hey, I have a few questions for ya guys... If you load a 30-rounder AR magazine to capacity, won't it damage or weaken the spring after a while? Anyone have experience with the .357 SIG cartridge? How's the recoil and accuracy? Thanks in advance! |
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Just loading mags to capacity won't hurt them. If you leave magazines loaded for long periods of time, conventional wisdom holds that they should occasionally be unloaded and rotated for the sake of the spring. However, I've seen magazines left loaded for years that don't seem to have appreciably weaker springs than those that have been rotated. I've got a SigPro in .357. Accuracy is excellent, and I'm sure the cartridge will outshoot me. Recoil is negligible, but there is some muzzle flip. How much of that is due to the high bore on the Sig I don't know, but I understand muzzle flip and blast is part and parcel of the cartridge. It takes a little getting used to, but it's no real prob. |
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Fox The recoil of the 357 SIG is more than the 45 ACP. I'm a small guy, but I don't pay a lot of attention to recoil in handguns. It doesn't bother me. This past weekend, I was out shooting my HK USP compact 357 SIG in one hand, and my Kimber compact in the other and I was shocked that the 357 SIG had that much more recoil than my 45. I hadn't really noticed before......maybe it was the 3 ft long fireball that had me distracted!? It is definitely manageable though, and the round seems to be very accurate. I load everything I shoot in the 357 SIG, and that's not much of a problem either, once you get started. I'd say try the round, and if you didn't like it, you could always get another barrel in 40. Hope this helps. J |
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1. Keeping mags fully loaded will do NO harm to the springs, PROVIDED that the mags in question are factory or military. Virtually all aftermarket mags use poorly designed springs made of inferior materials (there's a reason these mags are cheaper than factory!), and will often take a set and be ruined. Factory and/or military mags are made with high-quality materials and are correctly engineered, and won't have this problem. They will wear out from compression/decompression cycles, just like any spring. 2. The 357Sig round makes little sense ballistically. The best 357Sig loads perform almost identically to the best 9mm loads, but you have reduced capacity with the 357Sig. If you're going to have reduced capacity, you should at least have a larger diameter bullet to go along with it. When you add in the higher cost and reduced availability of 357Sig ammo, the caliber makes little sense in the real world. Fortunately, you can get a new barrel and shoot .40 out of it. (Yes, I'm aware that this is probably an unpopular viewpoint for 357Sig owners, but it is true nevertheless.) -Troy |
It is the loading/unloading cycle that actually fatigues the springs. Being loaded to capacity does not cause spring fatigue, in a properly designed magazine..... Scott www.banknotes.com/GW8.JPG |
I may be wrong, but I don't know that H&K ever chambered a USP compact in 357 SIG. They don't even have the conversion barrels (for 40 S&W to 357 SIG) as Sig does to the best of my knowledge. Please correct me if I am wrong. Not meaning to start throwing mud either. Just caught my attention. |
I would like to point out that if we really had faith in M&S, the best 45ACP loads perform almost identically to the best 9mm loads, at a even greater expense of cartridge capacity. I'd like to think of the 357 as a souped up 9mm, being able to push heavier 147gr bullets to very reasonable velocities. And I'm not the only one who is uneasy about 40's low vel. I wish they made a usp expert chambered for it... |
Lapp_Dance, I hope you are absolutely right about the USP Compact not being offered in 357 SIG, cause now mine (which must be the only one in existence) HAS to be worth a TON of money.  Seriously though, you are right concerning the availability of 40 barrels. I called HK trying to get one for my gun and they said they used to offer the 40 barrels for the compact, but they stopped. Don't know why. Jarvis will send you one though... J |
I don't know what makes you think Marshall & Sanow have anything to do with anything, or did you mean something else by M&S? I was referring to actual scientific, peer-reviewed ballistic research, as performed by Dr. Fackler, Dr. Roberts, and others who contribute to the IWBA Journal and other publications. These folks are the acknowledged experts in the field, not gun-rag writers. Their tests can be (and ARE) duplicatable. And there certainly are measureable differences in tissue damage between the better loads of 9mm vs. 40 vs. 45, but no significant differences between 9mm and 357SIG. But, carry what you want. 357Sig isn't a *bad* caliber, it just doesn't bring anything useful to the table already occupied by 9mm and .40. -Troy |
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You were probably thinking of the 10mm, which they will never offer as a USP caliber it seems. |
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It is the loading/unloading cycle that actually fatigues the springs. Being loaded to capacity does not cause spring fatigue, in a properly designed magazine..... Scott www.banknotes.com/GW8.JPG I yield. Jibes w/my experience and sounds good to me. |
Troy is absolutely right.I've got a couple of factory Colt Delta Elite mags that have been kept fully loaded for at least 15 years and the spring tension is like brand new. |
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