what's the deal on .40 SW?

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thunderbyrd

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since i've been reading up on all things gun-related, i've noticed that the .40 sw isn't very popular, but i don't know why. the .40 was the first semi-auto cartridge i ever shot, other than .22. on my job, we'd been carrying SW 686 then went over to the .40 glocks. i was impressed by those glocks in a big way. about 15 of us were qualifying and we all shot somewhere between 200-300 rounds and in all that, i saw exactly one malfunction, a stovepipe. my gun never malfunctioned at all. i took it out to my father's farm and put a bunch more through it and no trouble at all.

i was talking to a guy who is a big time long time gun guy the other day and he was telling me how awful the .40 is, but i never got exactly what was so awful about it.

if there's really something wrong with it, i'd like to know cause i've got about 200 of 'em sitting on my shelf.
 
Nothing wrong with .40 S&W especially in self defense rounds. But since there are 9mm defensive rounds available with very good ballistic capabilities. It means that someone can carry a 9mm with great confidence in its stopping capabilities. 9mm may be bit cheaper, they may have more than one handgun in 9mm so it becomes an attractive choice over .40 S&w.

For me personally after this past ammo and component shortage went strictly to 9mm and sold my last .40 handgun so I could load for just one caliber. I also shoot 22lr but have no problems obtaining ammo. Now I shoot more 22lr than 9mm. Even though I do have components and can load more 9mm.

Now .40 s&w has been very popular with people shooting competition such as USPSA for limited major etc.
 
My opinion… there’s nothing inherently wrong with 40 S&W. It’ll do just fine in terms of effectiveness for self defense.

I think what’s hurt the 40’s popularity has been a switch back to 9mm from 40 by a majority of its early LEO adopters. And a lot of non LEO folks have also followed this trend.

Why? I don’t know other than most will say the 9mm performance is really close with the added perk of having more rounds in a comparable sized firearm. But I’m no ballistics expert. That’s just “what I’ve heard”
 
I like 40S&W a lot I own multiple 40S&W handguns and no 9mm handguns but 40S&W a dead man walking as far as pistol cartridges go. Go to the various manufactures and compare how many 9mm and 45 ACP guns versus 40S&W. Sig does not even currently offer a 40S&W.
 
There's nothing wrong with it. I used to hate it because I thought it was a "snappy" round.

I later realized I was the problem and not the cartridge. I was shooting it from guns that were not good fits for that cartridge, so it was harder to control. Bad combo for me, not a bad cartridge.

It's the same as someone asking what's wrong with 357 magnum? Nothing really, aside from the noise level. But there's plenty wrong when you shoot it from an air weight J frame.

Maybe it does nothing better than some other cartridges, but I'm a firm believer that anyone saying it's a bad round has just shot it from a gun that didn't work for them with that particular cartridge.
 
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I think it is because we already had 9mm and 45ACP and didn't really need a middle ground round but it was forced upon us by the FBI having limp wrists and even then, they were so limp they couldn't even handle the 40.

I too sold my XD40 last summer and wanted to just load 9 and 45 but then I found 2 40 slides in my safe and had thousands of cases, so now...

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The 40 S&W was popular with law enforcement but many decided to go back to the 9mm Parabellum. The reason, I was told by someone who should know, was that some shooters (females) could handle the 9mm better because of less recoil. A few years ago, one could get a LEO reject pistol in 40 S&W at a very good price because of this.
 
Law enforcement is going back to 9mm in a big way, and for good reason. That's definitely a big contributing factor.
 
The reason people have switched back to 9mm is simple. It's been proven over and over that good hits on target are what matter. Good hits on target trump everything else. I agree that there is nothing wrong with 40 S&W, however, the simple fact is it's easier to get good consistent fast hits with a 9mm. The FBI tested this extensively and that's why they made the switch back to 9mm. Police depts are following suit and the military has known this for a long time.
The only people using 40 S&W in competition, are the folks who want to just shoot what they have or they compete in a division where 40 gives them a point advantage.
I'm not sure I would say 40 is awful but there is a distinct disadvantage when it comes to good hits in a timely manner.
 
I'm sure the 40 S&Wis a fine cartridge but for me it arrived too late. For years I had been shooting older equally proven cartridges namely the 38 Special/357 Mag and the 45 ACP. When the 40 S&W came on to the scene it was just another cartridge that I had to invest in to hand load and shoot and since it doesn't do anything that what I was already shooting couldn't do I never found any interest in buying a handgun for it.
The gun industry is constantly challenged to innovate to maintain sales and coming up with new "miracle: cartridges is one of them but the there is very little room for improvement in that area. All these new cartridges that some folks run to guns stores to buy are mostly little if any better than cartridges that have been around for a century. Lions and grizzlies are the same (maybe even smaller) today than they were 100 years ago and the old cartridges killed them then just as well as they kill them today. To me the 40 S&W fell into that category.
 
i've noticed that the .40 sw isn't very popular, but i don't know why ... if there's really something wrong with it, i'd like to know cause i've got about 200 of 'em sitting on my shelf.
There was a time where:
  • Flint lock was popular then not
  • .45 Colt was popular then not
  • .38/.357 were popular then not
  • 38 Super was popular then not
  • 10mm was popular then not
  • 40S&W was popular with match shooters ...
  • 9mm Major was popular with match shooters ...
  • .45ACP was popular ...
  • 9mm was popular ...
  • 380Auto was popular ...
  • 22LR was popular ...
I think it's just a fad ... that cycles ... or not. :D
 
I have never owned handgun in 40S&W nor if my memory/recollection serves me correctly fired a handgun in 40S&W. I am and was to heavily infested into the 45ACP and 9X19mm perhaps and did not see the merits of the 40S&W. Apparently the attributes of the 40S&W are at this point not appreciated?????. Soon to pass the mid point of my seventh decade my enthusiasm for certain or new things is at this point diminished.
 
did not see the merits of the 40S&W. Apparently the attributes of the 40S&W are at this point not appreciated?
I appreciated the merits of making USPSA Major Power factor readily with mild recoil match 40S&W loads.

I appreciate the attributes of 40S&W Glocks where I can drop in 9mm conversion barrels to shoot 9mm for practice with option to go .357 Sig.

Recently, I got Advantage Arms 22LR slide kit for my Glock 22 and I will certainly enjoy the "cheaper" attribute of shooting 22LR with same trigger and grip.

What's not to like about 40S&W?
 
There's nothing wrong with .40S&W. For a variety of reasons, some people don't like it. Those reasons may be their own, or adopted from someone else. They may be real and based on experience, or perceived and imaginary.

Personally, I prefer it to 9mm and .45acp. Other than the 1911, I can't really understand why .45acp is still so popular. But others really like it.
 
What's wrong with .40 S&W? Nothing, if you like it, have a gun that chambers it and you shoot it well. What's wrong with 38 Super? Nothing, if you like it, have a gun that chambers it and you shoot it well. Too many people spend too much time worrying what other people think about their brand, model, caliber, firing mechanism, magazine capacity, etc. Find a gun you like shooting, you shoot well and can stockpile a sufficient amount of ammo and spare parts then practice regularly in a manner you think covers your needs for said firearm. Your opinion is the only one that really matters.
 
In the 1980's LE was looking for a semi-auto that held more rounds than 45 ACP, but was more potent than 9mm. The FBI decided on 10mm briefly, but found it was just too much recoil for some agents to shoot well. Plus the long cartridge required a larger framed gun than 9mm.

When the 40 S&W was introduced it checked off all of the boxes. With a Glock 22 you got 15 rounds of a potent cartridge. At one point something like 65-70% of all LE officers were carrying Glocks in 40 S&W. But many departments decided to stay with 9mm.

Over time LE noted that while the 40 looked better on paper, there was no measurable difference in effectiveness. The LE departments carrying 9mm were stopping bad guys at the same rate as the ones carrying 40's. On average the number of shots fired and percentages of stops vs failures were exactly the same. Both were effective somewhere above 90% of the time. And since you can buy 9mm practice ammo for about 1/2 what 40 S&W costs the current trend is to 9mm. Lots of used LE 40 pistols out there cheap.

I don't dislike the 40 S&W and have had a few over the years. Against human threats I don't think it is any better than 9mm though. But the ability to shoot 180-200 gr bullets does give it an advantage if you ever had to use it against large 4 legged predators. But then if I need to do that I have a 10mm which does everything 40 does, and does it better.
 
It’s a perception based thing. 9mm has become the lowest common denominator and is in use by more and more law enforcement organizations, thereby creating the perception that 40 S&W has “fallen out of favor”. The fact remains that 40 S&W is more powerful than 9mm, uses the same expanding bullets that 9mm does and therefore delivers larger holes, and offers heavier weight bullets potentially offering deeper penetration, albeit at the cost of more recoil. But there is an increasing body of evidence that suggests hand guns from 38 special through the 45 cals deliver very similar results - ie there is no clear and obvious evidence that larger calibers in this range are more debilitating or lethal in actual use. So, a more manageable cartridge from a recoil perspective makes sense for law enforcement organizations but has little to no meaning for those that train with and are comfortable with larger caliber cartridges.
 
The 10mm was going to be grand, and then it turned out the FBI was a bit too limp to handle a man's cartridge. . . hence the .40 Short 'n Weak was born. Wedged in that uncomfortable gap between the effete European 9mm Luger and the Manly Hairy Chested .45ACP (the way John Moses Browning intended, dammit!) it just doesn't do much that something else doesn't do better.

The spawn of high aspirations and small wrists.

:neener:
 
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i remember that .40 recoil didn't bother me at all, but that was some years ago. and i have never fired a 9mm. i might prefer it these days.
 
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