stink belly

I need some help. I have a Sig 239 originally chambered in 357 sig that I bought an after market 40 cal barrel for. I am able to interchange the two barrels to change calibers. I am having trouble with the 357 sig barrel, witch is the factory barrel. The after market 40 cal barrel functions flawlessly. The 357 sig barrel jams in several different ways. It stove pipes, it doesn't shut all the way, it doesn't hit the primer hard enough to fire the cartridge, to name a few problems. These problems happen about 30-40% of the time. I have cleaned the pistol. I have changed magazines and ammo. I have called Sig. I can't find out the problem. I have made a mold of the chamber to determine if there is a problem with dimensions, but I can't find reliable specs on the P239. Does anyone have any idea where to get free specs for the chamber? I have been told that it could be an ammo problem. I believe this, but I have tried 4 different brands. Does anyone know what brand ammo Sig uses when test firing new handguns? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

bigcountry

Uh oh, same problem here but for glock and reloads. This is the reason I think this round will not survive. I had to have my smith file the feed ramp. I also had to use heavier bullets and a certain shape. I found Hornady XTP 155gr to work well. I bought the speer gold dot (made just for 357sig), and they were the worst to be pushed down in the case. It requires a long bullet but has to be a certain shape to work well.

My advise is this. Forget about .357sig. Sell the barrel. A 40cal will get the job done and then some. I gave up on my 357sig. The 40cal is so much easier to reload. Ballistics are nice for the 40. Glad to see I wasn't the only one. I know that the Deleware protrol uses this round exclusively. I am shocked they do.

stink belly

I really hate to give up on it. I purchased the 357 sig for a sidearm while bow hunting. I purchased the 40 cal barrel later because I love the 40 cal and I felt it was a better carry caliber.

bigcountry

how does a 357 round fit in the gun if you put it in there manually? Is it tight? Problem I was having was the loose neck tension caused the bullet to be pushed further back in the brass while cycling. So I had my feed ramp filed down. So sometime, it wouldn't close the action cause it was crushing the brass. The development of the round was for better cycling. I am shocked that Sig won't give you some advise.

14mercs

I have the Springfield XD in .357 sig. It had huge feed problems with the Speer Lawman
at any grain. I switched to winchester and have had no problems as of yet. A buddy of mine has a Glock 32C in .357 sig and had the same with the Speer. I guess between our experiences we can not consider this caliber universally the most reliable feeding. I had heard that Golck set their FTF record with the .357 sig caliber in their pistol.

bigcountry

I had trouble with the Speer gold dot reloading. The bullet was supposed to be made for it. Sounds like I am not the only one with trouble with the speer bullet.

I had good luck with hornady.

What is a FTF record? I assume its rapid fire time?

Aught Six

I've never used a .357 SIG in any pistol, but I've talked to a couple local dealers who reported the same jamming issues in various makes and models. That was enough to convince me not to bother buying one. I swear by SIGs, and the P239 is a great carry pistol. But I'm a .40 S&W guy 100%, and I definitely wouldn't trust the .357 SIG when I need it most.

I tried finding some engineering specs online, but to no avail. If SIG won't give you the information you're looking for, try finding a licensed SIG armorer.

stink belly

Manually placing the round into the chamber is easy. It is not tight. I am going to video tape firing the pistol with several different brands of ammo and try to determine the percentages of each type of jam with each ammo. Hopefully this will clue me into the problem. Now I know it jams several different ways and about 2-3 times per clip.

bigcountry

Lets say it jammed 1 out of 100 shots. Is that percentage good enough for a piece that supposed to protect you when all else fails? Somebody phrased that to me when I was torturing myself trying to get the round working.