Did The Shield ever come in 357 Sig. And if not did any of the custom barrel barrel makers such as Bar Sto or Storm Lake make one for it?

I jumped on the rebate bandwagon and am getting a 40 so I thought I would convert it to 9mm and then one of my friends said what about 357 Sig.

These guns might be an Erector Set that no one knows about, kind of like the Glock 23, 19 , 32 game.

Never did. Someone had a link here last week on a new company that is making some other barrels for the Shield now, but they were like $225 or so.

You are not limited to just what the aftermarket barrel company has listed in their on-line inventory.

Most of the barrel companies will make you anything you want as long as you are willing to wait for it

Just call them and talk to them

This might be a stretch but couldn't you make a 9mm barrel into a 357 Sig? The Sig round is just a 40S&W necked down to 9mm. I see no reason a good machinist/gunsmith couldn't ream a 9mm barrel and make it a 357 Sig.

To answer your question nobody makes a 357 Sig barrel for the Shield that I know of. I've got one for my full size M&P 40 and really like it.

I posted an earlier comment here on the Forum about the NC Highway Patrol's problems with the .357 SIG round, leading to the NCHP's return of all of the .357 SIG M&Ps and a shift to SIG P229s.

My son is a NC State Trooper and I learned of the problems they were having as they happened; the NCHP were very open about the problems, and their problems were covered in the press once S&W started working with them.

S&W sent their experts down to NC, took back some duty guns for evaluation, and tried to find on solutions -- but were apparently unable to do so. S&W, it appears, discontinued offering the .357 SIG round in any of their weapons soon thereafter. If you go to the S&W website you'll not find any .357 SIG weapons offered, even though they were once available.

I think there's more involved that just a barrel change...

SIG, when developing a .357 SIG semi-auto, started by trying to convert the 9mm P228 to that round. They found that the 228 couldn't handle the .357 SIG round in it's stock form, and made a number of slide and frame changes and that resulted in the P229 (which looks the same, but isn't.)

Slide velocity was a lot higher when using the .357 SIG round, and a heavier slide and more robust frame components were needed and included in the 229 design. (A heavier recoil spring for the 228, which was a first attempt, made racking the slide very difficult.)

A .357 SIG might work more easily with a conversion barrel for a .40 version of the weapon. I doubt that ANY barrel-maker would consider creating a .357 SIG barrel for a weapon designed to fire the 9mm round. I don't know of any barrel-makers that now do so -- and are clear about that on their websites. There are all sorts of conversion barrels for guns designed/upgraded to use the .40 S&W round.

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I agree. Probably should have been a bit more clear in my original post.

To convert a Shield to 357Sig you would want to start with one chambered in 40S&W, purchase a 9mm barrel and machine the chamber to accept the 357Sig cartridge. Aside from the return spring assembly the extractor on the 9mm slide is located closer to the centerline of the breech face than the 40 and Sig which would likely cause both feed and extraction issues if using the 9mm slide.

Personally I find little to no difference in recoil between 40S&W and 357Sig.

This may be true in full size guns. In my experience shooting 9mm, .40 S&W and .357 Sig in the original Keltec P11 series pistols with short barrels and light weight, there was a lot of difference.

I know a Keltec is not a Shield, but some principles transfer directly.

Or, shoot .357 mag through a 2" snub gun. It's like holding a grenade when it goes off. There are intelligent limits to souping up handgun cartridge terminal performance that sometimes even manufacturers mistakenly exceed.

Short barrels do not allow for complete burning of the powder of higher pressure cartridges. They are designed for barrels of at least 4" and preferably longer, and almost always tested for velocity and pressure in 5" barrels.

Max SAAMI pressure for the .357 Sig round is 40,000 psi. When using the European CIP method of measurement, it is 44,240 psi.

Max SAAMI for standard 9mm is 35,000 psi.; +P = 38,500; NATO = 36,500.
Max SAAMI for .40 S&W is also 35,000 psi.

The effects of pressure are not a linear increase, I do not believe. Thus, the 5,000 psi higher rating of the .357 Sig will beat up a gun much more than .40 or +P 9mm.

When .357 Sig is shot from a short 3.1" Shield barrel, it will create a large blast, increased muzzle flip, much louder report and more felt recoil. The ammunition is limited in loadings and manufacturers, and expensive because it is a boutique (low volume) cartridge. The short Shield barrel does not give the cartridge the time/length to get up to velocities that are much more effective than 9mm or .40.

I see no advantage whatsoever in trying to put a .357 Sig barrel in a subcompact handgun, especially the Shield. S&W would offer it if it was marketable, economical, reliable and safe. Pistols that break because of using over-pressure rounds for which they are not designed are not safe, or at least not reliable for self defense purpose because they will barf when not expected, IMO. One does not "need" the .357 Sig cartridge to maximize the effectiveness of a Shield. In truth, it will decrease the effectiveness of the gun.

Barrel makers know this so they do not bother to offer such barrels. Sure they would custom manufacture a one-off .357 Sig barrel for you, probably with a bunch of disclaimers, and it would set you back far more than the cost of the non-discounted gun. Shops did this back in the 90's when the cartridge was new and people were still learning its limitations. They are much better known now.

Some of this applies to .357 Sig in a full size handgun, but on a reduced scale. In a Glock 35 with an aftermarket extended (Possibly threaded) .357 Sig 6" barrel, it makes sense.

However, please do whatever you want, but be sure to base your decision on good information. See if you can find anyone with a .357 Sig Shield (you probably can't) and shoot a box of 50 through it. Then decide.

Are the 9mm and .40 barrels interchangeable? I'm pretty sure the 9mm barrel will be quite a bit smaller than the opening on the front of the .40 slide, but that may not matter. (9mm barrels are generally quite a bit smaller in diameter than .40 barrels.) With some lockup systems, the front of the slide -- where the barrel slips through as the slide moves to the rear -- plays NO role in consistent lockup; in others, it matters. (I don't have a Shield.... just an M&P Pro.)

All that said, I suspect there may be too much emphasis on a given caliber's "POWER" (ala .357 SIG) -- as a 9mm caliber self-defense round that penetrates appropriately (12" or so, and expands) may give essentially the same results as a .357 SIG round that also penetrates and expands -- be less hard on the gun and the shooter, but no less hard on the target. (Some police agencies have selected the .357 SIG round because they believe it does a better job of penetrating windshields; that may be true, but most civilians don't really need that capability.)
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I don't know about the Shield 9 & 40 slides since I don't have a .40, but usually in anticipation of a 40-to-9 barrel switch, and for lower manufacturing cost, the two different calibers will use the same slide with the same slide barrel opening. The 9mm barrel is therefore the same outside diameter as the .40 S&W barrel. That is actually oversize for the 9mm, but the only drawback is a little extra weight, although S&W lists both pistols at 20.8 oz.

Re: same size barrel diameters across 9mm and .40 caliber guns of similar models/designs, etc.

You may be right with SOME guns, but it is NOT the case with a number I've owned:

• I no longer have a Glock 34 and 35, but know that their barrels were not the same, nor were the 17/22, or 19/23.
  
  
• I do have FNS-40s and have compared them to an FNS-9, and their barrels are NOT the same diameter. (The conversion barrel for the 9mm barrel in the .40 is larger than the stock 9mm barrel. I have one of those conversion barrels.)
  
  
• I had both 9mm and .40 Third Gen guns (5906 and 4006) and I'm pretty sure they didn't share a single barrel diameter. I'm sure someone here on the forum can correct me if I'm wrong.
  
  
• In the past the only guns I've owned that had the same diameter barrels between those two calibers were the small-framed Tanfoglio CZ-pattern guns. (I've only had .45s in the large frame version; it wouldn't surprise me if the 9mm and .40 large frame guns used the same barrel diameter, along with their 38 Super.)
  
  
• I don't have both 9mm and .40 CZs anymore (just several 9mm CZs and CZ-pattern guns), but those guns didn't share a common common barrel diameter, either.

I had both 9mm and .40 M&P Pros, but have only the 9mm now, so can't address similarities or differences in those models.

I'm pretty sure that is NOT the case with most 1911s, either, but I could be wrong about that -- there aren't that many .40 1911s and ever fewer .357 SIG 1911s. (Not a lot of 9mm 1911s, for that matter.)

As I said, you may be correct on this point, but shared barrel diameters isn't a common practice with a lot of gun lines. (One reason being is that a different slide is used with similar guns of different calibers, particularly when .357 SIG is involved -- as it's one of the easiest [most practical] ways to control slide velocity. If they've got to build a different slide, there may be little economic advantage to having a shared barrel size.)

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In the complete absence of an S&W .357 SIG pistol, you might want to consider getting a SIG P320. P320s are easily converted to other calibers using SIG's Caliber X-Change kits. As several of the other posters have said, changing calibers is not simply a matter of "dropping in" a new barrel. SIG's Caliber X-Change kits contain new barrels, new recoil spring assemblies, new slides, and new grips. The only thing you keep from your original P320 is your fire control unit (the trigger-sear assembly housed in a sturdy chrome steel frame).

I thoroughly enjoyed my P320 Compact as a 9mm. It was accurate and reliable, and had a great trigger right out of the box. However, converting it to a .357 SIG took it to a whole new level. It 's just as reliable, and even more accurate, and I didn't have to "learn" a new trigger. It's also easily returned to a 9mm if I wish to do so. However, I'm having so much fun shooting it, it may stay as a .357 for a long time.

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What, me worry?

Here is a 357sig barrel for the Shield:

.40 to .357 Sig M&P Shield Conversion Barrel

Go to that well known auction site. They sell S&W factory barrels there, as well as other brand names.