Our carry gun is always a balancing act, and the axiom has always held true since the Old West: "Beware the Man that only carries one gun." In this day and age, this could effectively be modified to one gun model, as most of us at some point in time carry backups. However, the balancing act some of us put on is not the same as the rest of the shooters out there; i.e. not all factors are the same for every shooter. As an example, shooters in the Northeast may be dealing with a target in extremely heavy clothing that have actually been PROVEN to stop std velocity 9mm and .38 rounds at times. However, if you are living in the Southwest, you may never have a target in more than one layer of heavy cotton. But penetration can become an issue in some shooting situations and cars and car glass are a definite possibility. Each shooter needs to be sure his round and gun can handle a multitude of penetration scenarios should he ever be forced behind cover.
Shooters with average hands may find the double-column of smaller caliber .357Sig rounds easier to both hold and hide than .40 or .45. Both larger calibers tend to be built on larger frames and some people find them harder to hold in their hand and/or conceal. There is also the issue of a flatter-shooting round if you are a laser user. Since a laser is perfectly flat, the faster the round travels, the closer the bullet trajectory comes to the visual line of the laser and therefore the more accurate the laser becomes at ALL ranges. Instead of lobbing slower, heavier rounds that rises high off of the laser and then crosses the aim point and falls quickly, a fast round stays flatter and therefore is closer to the laser's point-of-aim through the entire flight, increasing your chance to hit and lessening your liability of a missed shot. Yes, you could conceivably argue in court that your faster ammo was matched to your laser to be SAFER!
The links I put up earlier in this thread already show that the FBI testing show the .357Sig round to dump more energy than the ballistic gelatin shows. However, since most frangible and HP rounds need 1,000 fps when they reach the target to effectively expand, this is another area where the .357Sig would be more likely to have performance instead of duds. Bullet manufacturers are improving rounds every day and newer rounds are reacting at slower speeds now, but the faster the bullet is moving when it hits the target, the better chance it has to react with the target. All of this in a high quality gun/round package that has a recoil pulse only slightly more than a 9mm.
I like the lower recoil, easier concealability, and higher capacity than the .40 and .45 since I also get the same ballistic performance as those rounds. I don't feel like I have compromised by carrying the .357Sig - I actually feel like I have made my carry gun easier to shoot and conceal with the same punch!
