.356TSW?

[Erick Gelhaus]

So here: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?26434-Apex-Tactical-is-pushing-to-revive-the-356TSW&highlight=356TSW there is discussion about Apex developing a M&P barrel for this round. Apparently the round / load was a thing in the 90s, but I never paid any attention to it. I'm interested in what Randy says he is developing it for, but I know nothing about it, especially from a terminal performance perspective.

Thoughts? Experience? Insights?

[Tamara]

It's described as the Betamax to .357SIG's VHS, but the two were never really competitors in the market. The SIG was going after the segment of the LE/CCW market that looked fondly back at the 125gr .357 Magnum as some lost golden age of Stopping Power. Since this was during the ban era, the reduced capacity versus 9x19 didn't really come into play for private citizen sales, and neither did it matter for the po-po since everyone was shooting .40 at the time anyway.

.356TSW had similar ballistics but I think development started a little earlier, and it was geared toward making Major with a .355 bullet (as the Team Smith & Wesson acronym hints.)

[octagon]

Here is a little more info on the 356TSW and 357 Sig for comparison of dimensions. I don't recall defensive loads for the 356TSW being marketed at all. I remember it just as a way to make major for competition but that was the era of Marshall/Sanow one shot stop with the 357 Magnum 125 grain holding the "record" for best.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.356_TSW

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.357_SIG This article also has some info on 9X23.

For me it boils down to what is needed to do the job. The consensus is that current 9X19 ammo does it fine for self defense with proper load selection. By going to a bottle neck cartridge you may gain some theoretical feeding reliability advantage however small but while losing capacity all things being equal and have more recoil. By going with a longer case for adding powder capacity you either make the gun bigger (38 super and similar length cartridges) and gain recoil while not really adding effectiveness. Maybe someday with powder development the 380ACP may someday be able to match the current 9X19 and guns can get a little smaller grip size front to back while keeping capacity. There may also be some new cartridge come along that offers some improvement. I doubt anything will offer any significant improvement without equal detractions from 9X19. JMHO. A pure competition oriented round will never have a large effect on consumer market purchasing but a self defense round often does especially when .Mil or LE picks it up in decent quantity.

[Hambo]

Here is a little more info on the 356TSW and 357 Sig for comparison of dimensions. I don't recall defensive loads for the 356TSW being marketed at all. I remember it just as a way to make major for competition but that was the era of Marshall/Sanow one shot stop with the 357 Magnum 125 grain holding the "record" for best.

There was defensive ammo, just not too many choices, but definitely Federal and Cor-Bon. The only .356TSW I shot was a S&W PC 940 (comped J-frame).

Tam and Octagon nailed it on the history. It was the era of blowing up guns to make 9mm Major, and .356TSW, .357SIG, .40S&W, .400 Cor-Bon, 10mm, and probably some others were going to be the next great thing competition, LE, and defense. The irony is that a 9mm STHP failure started it all and it looks like the best thing we've ended up with out of all that is 9mm using better designed JHPs.

[Erick Gelhaus]

Thanks all ... back then I just used my duty 1911 for work, training, IPSC, etc. Didn't pay attention to the weird calibers.