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.357 Magnum Vs 9mm: Melee Of The Medium Bores

Handgun rounds in the .38 caliber family have always been the most popular, but since some (.38 Special, .380) are a bit weak the most popular are .357 Magnum vs 9mm. Each of these rounds has a long history and pedigree of efficacy in the realm of self-defense, so that both are good carry rounds is not in dispute.

What people argue about is that .357 Magnum is better because it's more powerful, or that 9mm is better because you can carry more of them and can be more accurate with it.

Which is better between .357 Magnum vs 9mm? Let's get into it…

.357 Magnum Vs 9mm: Moah Powahhhhh!

A number of people will side with .357 Magnum vs 9mm because it's more powerful, which must mean it's more effective.

Not to the degree you'd think. .357 Magnum doesn't yield one-shot stops with regularity in the real world, but does deliver a powerful hit when put on target.

You see, when it was invented back in the late 1920s, the rounds of a similar size largely consisted of .38 Special, .38 S&W (aka .38/200), .38 Long Colt and the .38-44 aka .38 Outdoors or .38 Heavy Duty a more powerful .38 Special. They were popular for police use and self-defense, but were known to be lacking for power and penetration.

A few rogue operators that liked to tinker with handloads (among them the legendary gunwriter/tinkerer Elmer Keith) noticed the thicker case walls of the .38-44 (a hot .38 Special for the woods) could hold more powder and boost velocity by a couple hundred feet per second. Remington devised a longer case to keep people from firing the hot loads in .38 Special revolvers, and S&W put a longer cylinder for it on their Outdoorsman revolver (an N-frame) which was then dubbed the Registered Magnum - the first .357 Magnum revolver.

Quick adoption in law enforcement followed as it penetrated the body armor of the day along with car bodies and it stayed popular until the semi-autos started taking over in the 1980s. Civilians found it was a good protection round and a serviceable handgun hunting round at close ranges.

But it has drawbacks. First, outside of a few boutique guns it's for revolvers only and almost all are six shots. (There are some seven- and eight-shot models out there.) To get the best of the magnum, you need a full-size gun. There are short-barrel loads nowadays, but a 4-inch barrel is needed at minimum to get the best performance out of most .357 Magnum loadings.

Additionally, sizing down in .357 Magnum also makes for an unpleasant pistol to shoot, so you either get a big gun that's difficult to conceal or a small gun that's almost impossible to control.

9mm: All Things To All Men

The 9mm was pretty much a boutique round in these United States until the 1950s, and even then wasn't highly regarded. It's basically halfway in terms of power between the .38 Special and the .357 Magnum.

Why is it so popular? Just powerful enough to be effective, just small enough to be eminently shootable. With modern ammunition, it is much more than adequate. It's so good that there's almost no reason to size up, at least for the person carrying for self-defense.

The advantage, of course, is that 9mm can be carried in almost any size of pistol. Want a big service gun? Oh, you got them. Try the Glock 17 and get the plasticest fantasticest.

Want old school? Get yourself a Beretta 92 and don't be too old for this stuff. Something in between? So many 9mm compacts out there that it would take a year to list 'em all. Then you have slim, svelte subcompacts that positively disappear.

Are there any drawbacks to 9mm? Not really, unless you pick a bad carry load for your gun. If you carry a small 9mm, such as a S&W Shield or Sig P938, make sure to select a short barrel load.

In previous times, the 9mm was wanting for performance, so a lot of people used 115-gr +P or +P+ loads to make up for it, or sized up to 147-grain. Even those weren't the best in the days of cup-and-core hollow points. Said ammunition didn't work the best in compact pistols either. When modern JHPs came out, those issues vanished, so today...those criticisms are basically moot.

.357 Magnum Vs 9mm: Practical Powerhouse Or The Factotum Of Firearm

The truth about .357 Magnum vs 9mm for concealed carry or self-defense is that neither is a one-shot stopper. Both have a track record of working, beyond doubt. Even in the pre-semi-auto days of police guns, the .357 Magnum was found wanting at times for power and expansion wasn't exactly always a given with factory ammo, so don't go thinking it was perfection personified. It also wasn't until the 1990s that the 9mm really came good.

Neither are a ballistic wunderkind, so don't even start. No handgun short of the really scary magnums (.480 Ruger, .475 Linebaugh, .454 Casull, .460 and .500 S&W Magnum) have serious horsepower on tap, so don't go thinking the .357 Magnum does.

The truth is that most people are best-served by the 9mm for daily carry. You easily get enough power, penetration and performance from modern ammunition to put down any hostile personnel so long as you shoot true. It just works, period. So does the .357 Magnum.

While it's also true that the perceived need for capacity for concealed carry is overblown (you aren't John Wick and you won't be taking on an entire terrorist cell at the Walmart) there is something to be said for carrying more than five or six shots.

The other thing, though, is that revolver rounds are best-served by medium- to full-size pistols to get the best performance. Recoil is lighter with, say, a Model 19 or Ruger GP100 than in a .357 snubbie and always will be. That means better control, better accuracy and better performance at long range as well. That's the kind of gun the .357 Magnum was designed for, and that's where it really shines.

The handloader can get a lot out of .357 Magnum, including more velocity and heavier projectiles; the 9mm round limits at about 147 to 150 grains but the .357 can easily go up to 200 grains.

Those of us in the lower 48 will find the .357 a handier stopper of hogs, coyotes, wolves, cougars or black bears at close range, as a 200-gr. flat nose has a lot of punch. Handgun hunting of hogs or whitetail deer at close range is possible, and you can get even more punch from a lever-action carbine in that chambering, so there are uses to the outdoorsman than 9mm just doesn't offer. Some loads rival the .30-30 for power and that's rifle round.

So, the 9mm is better for the target shooter and concealed carrier. However, the .357 Magnum shines in particular niches the 9mm is not suited for.

That's on paper. For you, however, you may find you prefer one over the other. Go shoot both. The one you like best, in a gun that you can conceal and carry comfortably, that you shoot well, is the one to have.

Have you shot these firearms? What did you like, and what didn't you?
Let us know in the comments below!