.40 S&W the bullet of the new millenium

[armedpolak]

is it true that people move away from 9mm for self defense to more powerful rounds, aka .40S&W ? wasn't it invented just for that purpose, to deliver more stoping power ? lot of police offices are switching to .40.

so what's up with .40 S&W ?
tell me, why do I carry it ?

 

[orionengnr]

I owned six .40s not that long ago...down to one now.

Summer-9mm pocket carry, Winter--45 acp (IWB) do all I need.

BTW--
Glock 23 for sale, approx 400 rounds through it, seven mags, DFW area.
PM me.

 

[Soybomb]

How am I supposed to know why you carry it?

People choose .40 for a lot of reasons. Some are valid reasons, some are simply not true.

 

[Big Calhoun]

I carry the .40 because of its reputation as a performer, its a fun and snappy round to shoot, and b/c it was the first handgun caliber I ever shot with and am comfortable with it. I also carry .45. A little bit more punch than the .40...for when you want BANG! instead of POW! Just go with what floats your boat!

 

[History Prof]

My oldest brother was a serious shooter/collector before he passed away. So is his wife. After the introduction of the 40S&W, he and his wife traded all of their 9MM firearms away and he started buying at least two of everything - one in .40 and one in .45ACP. If it didn't come in both, he generally didn't buy it, except for his collection of 1911s.

After he died, I was helping his wife sort out parts of his collection when I found a loaded 9MM Ruger magazine. She was shocked, because not only did they give up on 9MM, but they gave up on Ruger, too!

 

[Standing Wolf]

If I were going to buy the .40, I'd buy the 10 mm.

 

[Alan Fud]

9mm for compacts & sub-compacts

.40 for compacts & mid-size

.45 for mid-size & full-size

 

[M2 Carbine]

I've got a lot of 40 S&W ammo loaded, a lot of brass, a Kel Tec P-11 9mm/40cal and IMI compact Eagle but I just can't seem to get interested in the 40 cal.

If I want a serious handgun round I use the 45ACP. Usually if I can carry a 9mm or 40 cal I can carry a 45.

 

[zoom6zoom]

.40 S&W the bullet of the new millenium

Repeat after me:

Cartridge
Cartridge
Cartridge

Cartidges go in, bullets come out.

Thanks, I needed to be anal for a moment and get that out of my system. Now back to our regularly scheduled thread.

 

[Deer Hunter]

I wish the 10mm got as much praise as it's bastard child, the .40 S&W.

 

[lycanthrope]

Feell free to quote me. I've shot about 40 deer/elk.....only a magnum with expanding bullets folds them fast.

"The .40 SW.......Good enough.......unitil you can put magnum caliber rounds on target."

 

[BullfrogKen]

armedpolak said: lot of police offices are switching to .40

Police departments. Don't infer the act of a department making a decision means an officer chose it.


The reasons why a police department makes a decision has very little do to with us or why it would be good for an individual. Hell, it might not even be good for the individual officer, but he very often has little choice but to accept it and adjust to it as best he can.

armedpolak said: wasn't it invented just for that purpose, to deliver more stoping power ?

Actually, history suggests it was developed as a reduced power alternative to the 10mm, which was cited as too powerful for the average shooter on the force to manage.

armedpolak said: tell me, why do I carry it ?

I don't know, why do you? Are you merely looking for validation? "More power"? Objectively, the increase in power is an incremental level.


Remember - All handguns are marginally effective at best.

 

[Lonestar]

Repeat after me:

Cartridge
Cartridge
Cartridge

Cartidges go in, bullets come out.

is it true that people move away from 9mm for self defense to more powerful rounds, aka .40S&W ? wasn't it invented just for that purpose, to deliver more stoping power ? lot of police offices are switching to .40.

Pretentious lot

 

[Werewolf]

is it true that people move away from 9mm for self defense to more powerful rounds, aka .40S&W ? wasn't it invented just for that purpose

Actually no (at least I'm pretty sure). The FBI needed a cartridge/caliber that would fill the need they decided needed filling after that fiasco shoot out in Florida. Voila - the 10mm was invented. A heck of a magnum round with perfomance almost equal to (but not quite) that of a .44 Mag. Turned out though that your average every day FBI guy - well - to put it nicely - was somewhat overwhelmed by the 10mm's power.

S&W stepped in and made the 10mm's baby brother - the .40 S&W. I won't go into the pluses and minuses of it - those are almost as numerous as the arguments made in a 9mm vs .45ACP discussion. I will say that I don't feel undergunned at all carrying a piece loaded with 180gr XTP's popping out of the barrel at 980 FPS.

 

[CountGlockula]

To me, anything with a .4_ or a .4_ and above, is a good stopper.

 

[GroovedG19]

I like .40S&W

2 .40 pistols here.A FN Hi Power and Sig P229.They are range/home defense pistols and also serve as back-up to my front line pistols.

 

[kentucky_smith]

With a ban in most states, the high-cap 9mm's weren't reaching their full potential and 7 .45s just don't seem like enough to some people. Since the ban went out, I think hicap 9's have made a comeback.

I got rid of my 40s cause I got too many calibers to keep up with.

Purely speculation though.

 

[ptmmatssc]

Have a few .40s as well as .45s . Carry both . .40s in compacts for summer , .45s full size in winter . Never have had to shoot anyone(yet) , but would trust either of these to do the trick . not to fond of the 9mm , but wouldn't mind a 10mm .

 

[Wes Janson]

I don't know too much about my cartridge history, but wasn't the 10mm around before the FBI started looking for a pistol cartridge with a heavier punch?

 

[MachIVshooter]

I don't know too much about my cartridge history, but wasn't the 10mm around before the FBI started looking for a pistol cartridge with a heavier punch?

Yes. It was devloped by Dornaus and Dixon with help from Norma in 1982 and introduced in the Bren Ten pistol in 1983. The FBI adopted it in the S&W 1076. The 1076 was designed specifically for the FBI and is the only one of the 10XX series to use a sig-type frame mounted safety/decocker. The 10 lite or 10mm FBI was also developed for the FBI. Some opportunist at S&W observed that the same ballistics of the 10 lite could be achieved in a shorter case, which could in turn be chambered in a slimmer pistol and the 40 S&W and 4006 were born. Ironically, Glock got the model 22 to market before the 4006.

 

[3rdpig]

Not long ago I had three .40 handguns, now I'm down to one. The recoil is just too snappy in a compact or subcompact for my tastes, it's unpleasant to practice with and it's slow putting successive rounds on target. Doubletaps with the .40 are absurdly slow using identical sized 9mm and .40 subs. I made my tests with a Glock 26 and Glock 27, subcompacts in 9mm and .40. I've made similar tests with a KT P11 and P40, both which I owned and a Kahr 9mm and 40, both which I rented. The resuts were the same.

I wound up selling both the P40 and the Glock 27 (sold the P11 too, but that's another story). The Glock 26 is a joy to practice with and quick to recover from the recoil for successive shots. I can simply shoot it much better than I can any similar sized .40 pistol. And for me that's the main thing, putting rounds on target accurately and quickly is more important than the size of that round. Since no handgun is a one shot stopper, and since I've usually got 45 rounds on hand (10+1 in the gun and two 17 round spare mags) I'm not worried about running out of ammo if I put three 9mm's on target instead of one .40.

And why should I care what the cops do? Most cops have no choice, they use the gun issued to them, like it or not. While I feel a Glock 22 (.40) is an excellent choice for a full sized sidearm, it wasn't their decision. If you really want to know what knowledgeable cops use, look at the cops that have a choice, SWAT team members for example. And no, an MP5 is not a sidearm!

In a mid sized or full size gun .40 is much more controllable, but no more so than .45. I've still got a Glock 22 and it's my nightstand gun, but only because it holds 15 rounds in the mags and my .45's only hold 7. Well, also because I'm now very familiar with the Glock trigger pull, it wouldn't make much sense for me to carry a Glock and use a DA/SA (P220) or SAO (1911) gun as a nightstand gun.

In summation the .40 is a good caliber and it fills a niche that some people may need (mostly due to the size of the grip), but there's not anything special about it.

 

[Zen21Tao]

is it true that people move away from 9mm for self defense to more powerful rounds, aka .40S&W ? wasn't it invented just for that purpose, to deliver more stoping power ? lot of police offices are switching to .40.

so what's up with .40 S&W ?
tell me, why do I carry it ?

Werewolf is rigfht, the .40S&W was developed for people that can't handle the 10mm. If you want the most power possible with the largest magazine capacity possible then the 10mm is the answer. In fact, My daily carry gun is a Glock 29 subcompact 10mm, I have a fullsize Kimber 10mm, I just bought a S&W 610 10mm revolver and I reload for 10mm. I hope this tells you just what I think of this round.

 

[Soybomb]

The 1076 was designed specifically for the FBI and is the only one of the 10XX series to use a sig-type frame mounted safety/decocker.

Actually the 1026 is also a frame mounted decocker with a full 5" barrel, the 1076's big brother if you will. While the FBI had their own variant without a mag safety I'm not sure if they were the only reason s&w made their frame decocker 10mm's or not.

 

[kd7nqb]

Alright now I am confused

So, first of all I love .40s/w infact my next gun purchase will be the Springfield XD in .40cal, an old timer told me that a .40 was a necked down 10mm because 10mm is a propriatary caliber owned by Glock. Reading this thread I think he may have been wrong but I still have only seen 10mm in Glocks, does anybody else make 10mm guns?

 

[BullfrogKen]

kd7nqb said: but I still have only seen 10mm in Glocks, does anybody else make 10mm guns?

Yes. Lots of manufacturers, but its not as popular. One reason of many is it requires a large frame to accomodate the 10mm.

kd7nqb said: an old timer told me that a .40 was a necked down 10mm because 10mm is a propriatary caliber owned by Glock. Reading this thread I think he may have been wrong

I'm sorry, but your friend is quite mistaken.