Tallball
Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2014
- Messages
- 7,842
I am not generally a "technical" person, nor do I consider myself to be any kind of firearms expert. I'm actually more of a revolver guy than anything, and a pretty mediocre shot in general. I used to hunt quite a bit when I was a young man, but now due to age and health my hands are a little shaky, and my firearms "adventures" consist of going to the shooting range every few weeks to shoot handguns with family members or friends.
At any given moment I owned ten handguns or less for most of my life. In the past five years or so, shooting handguns is one of my main hobbies, and I have more money than I used to, so I've bought, sold, and traded quite a few. Lately it seems like police departments are ditching their 40 caliber pistols in favor of 9mm. I've gotten some nice pistols inexpensively as a result. But I don't really know a lot about the caliber.
1) Is it really much more effective than 9mm? Mine are just range toys (I prefer dogs and revolvers for HD), but I am curious if they are supposedly much more effective than my similar 9mm pistols. I am a simple guy, and to me a bigger hole at the end of the barrel gives me a little more confidence, but I am not scientifically knowledgeable in that area.
2) Does 40 caliber S&W seem to have more recoil than 9mm or 45acp for some people? Frankly, I can barely tell them apart. Keep in mind that all I have to compare them in is full-sized service pistols: That's all I own in 40 and 45. But my 9mm and 40 caliber "Berettas" (the 9mm is actually a Taurus) feel about the same to me. My Ruger P-series 40 and 45 feel about the same to me. Generally, if I pick up one of my full-sized service pistols, the recoil seems about the same to me regardless of caliber. I am a very large person with XXL hands, so maybe that's part of it.
3) Does the caliber have a bright future? I never have problems finding 40 caliber ammo at any store that sells ammo, but it seems like PD's are starting to move away from 40 caliber. It won't matter to me anymore because I'll be gone, but in 50 years would my kids have trouble finding ammo for these pistols? (I'm assuming they'll keep a few apiece and sell the rest.)
4) Has anyone else been taking advantage of the police trade-in pistols? I'm very happy with the ones I got. Maybe we can do some show-and-tell.
5) Related to Question #3, does anyone think that things might come full-circle and some PD's might eventually go back to 40 caliber, after using 9mm again for a while? I have no idea, I'm just curious on hearing opinions.
At any given moment I owned ten handguns or less for most of my life. In the past five years or so, shooting handguns is one of my main hobbies, and I have more money than I used to, so I've bought, sold, and traded quite a few. Lately it seems like police departments are ditching their 40 caliber pistols in favor of 9mm. I've gotten some nice pistols inexpensively as a result. But I don't really know a lot about the caliber.
1) Is it really much more effective than 9mm? Mine are just range toys (I prefer dogs and revolvers for HD), but I am curious if they are supposedly much more effective than my similar 9mm pistols. I am a simple guy, and to me a bigger hole at the end of the barrel gives me a little more confidence, but I am not scientifically knowledgeable in that area.
2) Does 40 caliber S&W seem to have more recoil than 9mm or 45acp for some people? Frankly, I can barely tell them apart. Keep in mind that all I have to compare them in is full-sized service pistols: That's all I own in 40 and 45. But my 9mm and 40 caliber "Berettas" (the 9mm is actually a Taurus) feel about the same to me. My Ruger P-series 40 and 45 feel about the same to me. Generally, if I pick up one of my full-sized service pistols, the recoil seems about the same to me regardless of caliber. I am a very large person with XXL hands, so maybe that's part of it.
3) Does the caliber have a bright future? I never have problems finding 40 caliber ammo at any store that sells ammo, but it seems like PD's are starting to move away from 40 caliber. It won't matter to me anymore because I'll be gone, but in 50 years would my kids have trouble finding ammo for these pistols? (I'm assuming they'll keep a few apiece and sell the rest.)
4) Has anyone else been taking advantage of the police trade-in pistols? I'm very happy with the ones I got. Maybe we can do some show-and-tell.
5) Related to Question #3, does anyone think that things might come full-circle and some PD's might eventually go back to 40 caliber, after using 9mm again for a while? I have no idea, I'm just curious on hearing opinions.