Personal Protection: .38 Super Auto vs .357 Sig

I rot on reigns today so please bear with gunfire Year in the background today once again we're talking about the 357 sig a lot of people have asked to see a comparison between the 357 sig and the 38 super automatic so here we are and before we go any farther let me show you a close-up where the rounds we're talking about on your right is the 357 sig and in the center is the 38 super-automatic the casing might be just a whisper longer but it's not a necked casing and as a basis of comparison on your left is the 9 by 19 now in comparing 357 sig 38 super ATO there's two very important things I have to point out first is we're comparing the calibers and not the guns because the guns are very different formats it just wouldn't be a really good comparison to talk about accuracy and recoil and things like that and the reason I'm using all the different guns is because for 357 sig had this Glock model 31 I don't have a Glock in caliber 38 super auto so I'm using this colt government model and just as a basis of comparison we're gonna shoot some 9-millimeter well I don't have a Glock or a Colt in nine-millimeter so I'm using this beretta 92fs now the second thing is ammunition we're gonna start with this Remington green and white box animal recently somebody asked if I get my ammunition supplied by Remington no I get my ammunition supplied by what I go to the store and buy Remington never heard of me and the reason I use a lot of this Remington green and white box is because in my opinion it creates a good bang for your buck balance between performance and price also it's what's available at my local stores so for 357 sig I've got 125 grand Full Metal Jacket round nose for 9-millimeter I've got 124 grain Full Metal Jacket round nose and for 38 super we have a hundred and thirty grain Full Metal Jacket round nose that's as close as I can come in this ammunition so let's take all of this to the coronagraph and see what it tells us and we'll start with our nine-millimeter hundred and twenty four grams 1069 1085 1064 1065 now let's see how that compares to the 38 super and remember the 38 super shooting in 130 grain projectile 1190 1179 1180 and 1182 now let's try the 357 sig and with the 357 sig we're shooting a 125 grain projectile 14:23 1464 14 37 and 1418 now let's go crunch the numbers so how did we do well with a 9-millimeter we got a mean velocity of 1070 and with the 38 super we got 1182 that's a hundred and twelve feet per second more so it's a 38 super auto really super well compared to the 9-millimeter I'd say yes but right about now is when someone complains that this comparison is not fair because I'm using 38 super otto plus P compared to standard pressure 9-millimeter and that's really not the case now plus P means added pressure it's a higher chamber pressure more powerful round but not when you're talking about 38 super Otto that doesn't make sense well let me take a minute to explain this and bear with me we got to go back to the late 1800s in the late 1800s thirty-eight caliber revolvers were fairly popular thirty-eight short Colt 38 Long Colt 38 Smith & Wesson the list goes on well right around 1900 as autoloading pistols were becoming popular there was a transition to something called 8:38 Auto which makes sense however about two decades later in 1928 at least according to the sources I read with advancements in firearms technology and even more so advancements in propellant technology someone discovered that you could load a 38 auto casing with a lot hotter powder charge they did and call it a 38 super Auto the problem is because the two casings are pretty much identical you can load 38 super auto ammunition into a 38 Auto gun and you might cause yourself some problems well as an attempt to solve that nearly 15 years later in 1974 the designator + P was added to 38 super ammunition so when you look at this box it reads 38 super auto plus P but in this case that is not the addition of any chamber pressure it's the same ammunition that's just added on the box to further differentiate it from 38 Auto so when you buy 38 special ammunition and then buy 38 special plus P Plus P is significantly more powerful in 38 super odd above plus P designator is just added to the box to further differentiate it from something else so in this case comparing 38 super otto plus p2 standard pressure 9-millimeter absolutely is a fair comparison however both of them pale in comparison to the 357 sig where we got a mean velocity of 14 35 that's 253 feet per second more than the 38 super otto and that's a lot more however this is just a practice ammunition what about carrying ammunition well I brought something with me now this is Sig Sauer elite performance ammunition and it's all jacketed hollow point and for the 357 sig it's a 125 grain for the 38 super Otto it's a 125 grain and for the 9 millimeter it's a 124 grain let's take these to the coronagraph and see what kind of numbers we get and where they're sig sauer ammo again we'll start with the 9-millimeter 1191 [Applause] 1198 1190 and 1186 now let's see how that compares to 38 super now we'll try our 38 super and remember this ammo is 125 grain projectile 1250 12:46 1258 1251 now let's see how these compare to the 357 sig and now our 357 sig with the Sig Sauer ammo and is 125 grain projectile 1430 $13.99 1433 and 1437 now let's crunch those numbers so how'd we do well with our 9-millimeter we've got a mean velocity of 1191 now that's a big jump up but it's still 60 feet per second less than our 38 super ATO within the mean of 12 51 now 60 feet per second more is is that significantly more I'd say yes but if you had 9-millimeter plus P ammunition you might narrow that gap a little bit of course I'm sure there's also more powerful versions of a 38 super out there so 38 super is going to be more powerful than mine but just by how much will depend on your ammo however with our Glock model 31 shooting the 357 sig we see that our mean velocity is 14 24 now there's a couple of significant things about that first our elite performance ammunition turned in a lower velocity than our practice ammunition did but still at 173 feet per second more than what we had out of the 38 super that's a lot more so we'd have to say our 357 sig is certainly a powerful handgun oh and if you're curious the reason that's written like that is because it was originally written wrong we had to fix it but anyway the 357 sig appears to be powerful but these are just numbers on a page how does that translate into real effectiveness let's ask the meet target now for those who haven't seen it the meet target is a piece of leather jacket I cut out to simulate skin behind that pork chop pectorals than pork ribs then the bag of oranges lung tissue more pork ribs on the back four layers of t-shirt on the front four layers on the back our new and improved high-tech police bullets top and I'll go back seven yards and I'll shoot it with our 38 super loaded with the Sig Sauer elite performance hundred twenty-five grand jacketed hollow-point and we'll see what happens so how'd we do well put some big holes in her pork chop pectoral where the bullets hit the ribs on the front pulverize them did a lot of damage to her bag of oranges lung tissue shattered the ribs on the back and all the projectiles were stopped by the t-shirt on the back of the target none of them actually poked a hole in the fleece bullets up now let me show you a close-up of the projectiles now one of our bullets fell on the ground and I couldn't find it but of the three I did find you can see a couple of them lost their jacket but the jacket was right there with the rest of the bullet and we see outstanding expansion now let's try our 357 sig sig sauer elite performance hundred twenty-five grand jacketed hollow point from seven yards and see how this does okay it's starting to get dark out here but how do we do on this well here's our ribs on the front and you can see where it hit the ribs devastated them and those are some big holes through there lots of damage to our orange lung tissue I mean lots of damage a ribs on the back there's some fairly good holes there and again where the bullets hit the ribs shattered them and again all four of our projectiles were stopped by the t-shirt on the back so it looks like sig sauer elite performance ammunition if you're concerned about over penetration it's a pretty good ammunition and although we see on the chart ballistically that the 357 sig is more powerful than 38 super it looks like it's doing significantly more damage to the meat target than the 38 super was and here's our 357 sig projectiles and you can see all of these kept their jackets and the expansion is outstanding and consistent so what's the takeaway from all of this well before I get to that there's a couple of questions people asked that I have to address mainly about ear protection and eye protection this is an ear plug case I wear ear plugs with every shot I take as far as eye protection I don't really feel it necessary when I'm shooting paper targets or shooting past the coronagraph but when I shoot reactionary targets or the meat target yes I do wear safety glasses I just usually take them off before I get back on camera okay all that having been said what's the takeaway from 357 sig verses 38 super well we see that ballistically the 357 sig is significantly more powerful and remember those numbers were arrived at using a gun that has a half-inch shorter barrel than the 38 super we were using and that can make a little bit of difference and we see that not only is the 357 sig ballistically more powerful but when shooting the meat target from where I was standing it looked like it made bigger holes and did significantly more damage exactly what I would expect from something that much more powerful now a couple of people have asked me about my opinion in using a 357 sig for hunting deer and the answer is I've never shot a deer with the 357 sig however I have shot a couple with the 38 super and got what I thought was very good results so if you're getting really good results with the 38 super I would have to say a 357 sig is more than adequate however given the really not a great deal of penetration we got on today's meet target I'd say you might want to use a heavier projectile than 125 grains we were using today so also people asked which one do I prefer the 357 sig or the 38 Subaru and the answer is from my personal preference I like the 38 SuperBetter because I've yet to find a 357 sig in a 1911 format and when I go to the store I find that 38 super ammunition is more available and less expensive than 357 sig now which one is the right gun for you you be the judge so as always don't try this at home I'm what you call a professional and thanks for watching the 38 super vs. 357 sig video [Music]

Channel: Paul Harrell

Views: 255,927

Rating: 4.9709401 out of 5

Keywords: gun, guns, firearm, firearms, pistol, pistols, personal protection, personal, protection, 38 super auto, 38, super, auto, vs, 357 sig, 357, sig, beretta, colt, 1911, glock, auto loader, handgun, hand gun, target, shooting, shot, shoot, review, comparison, paul harrell concealed carry, paul harrell home defense

Id: qUxlL4X9jmg

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2017