williamlayton: hode it Pal, ya'll shouldn't feel like that at all, it's an easy mistake to make.
The 357 Sig cartridge is a 40 S&W case necked down to 9mm and is in a bottlenecked configuration. It's a semi-auto round, not a revolver round. It is a great round for personal defense, Police work, or even small to medium game. It takes a nominal 9mm 124/125 grain bullet at about 1400+ ft/sec - I think advertised at 1425'/sec, which is on par with hot loaded 38 Supers and the 9mmx23mm semi auto cartridge.
All you need to convert a 40 S&W to 357 Sig is a barrel change. I am a firm advocate of bottlenecked cartridges for Police or defense work as they are inherently more reliable for functioning and can be loaded with most any bullet style that would not/might not function in a straight case semi auto. You can do anything with the 357 Sig that you can do with a 38 Super or 9x23 and nobody in any frame of right mind laughs at those rounds. You could probably even load properly sized wadcutter slugs for a fairly accurate plinking and small game load.
I have loaded heavy bullets in my 38 Super for years - I prefer a 160 grn round nose sized to 9mm (.356) for general plinking and fun shooting. If I am hunting or carrying a 38 Super in the field I will usually load a 125 grain soft nose or a 115 grain hollow-point. You can move the 115 grainers out at near 1450'sec or better. The old Lyman loads for the 38 Super allowed a 160 grain bullet to move out at almost 1100'/sec, which was right about where the same weight bullet in 357 magnum was moving from a typical 4" barrelled revolver, so there was little or no practical diffrence between the 38 Super and the 357 magnum in that bullet weight from similar length barrels. I do not know if anyone has experimented with the heavier bullet weight in the 357 Sig but do not see why it wouldn't move out there at about the same speed.
If you were going to hunt varmit or carry a 357 Sig for defense it should serve you very well. The only real problem is that most pistol chambered for that cartridge need adjustable sights and I don't know if most of them carry those.
Hay pal - ain't nobody here gonna take shots at ya for mixing up those two rounds, least of all me. Hay, let's not forget that Moderator Mikey here has a brother who mistook a 7.62x54R Russian for a 308 thinking he could use the 308 ammo from his Contender in a M44. HTH. Mikey.
