"40 is a dead caliber"

Your statement is disturbing to me. Are you saying you get a 180 gr. bullet at 1200 fps in 40?

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I see some of the guys straightened you out on being disturbed. lol I never said a 180g bullet. Ever heard of 155g or even lighter? Probably not. Glad you intend to move away from me as ignorance is not needed at "the range". I have a 6 inch barrel for my glock 20 in .40sw. It safely puts out 180g bullets at 1300fps and 155g at 1500fps. I imagine that is "disturbing" also. I have various 10mm pistols and factory ammo is incredibly weak. American eagle 180g only runs 1000 fps out of a 5 inch barrel. BTW my sig 226 carry gun is the one that runs 155g handholds at 1200fps. I am not recommending these loads to anyone. You might want to check out Buffalo bore ammo for perspective...although i think some of their stuff is hard on guns.

Casefull said:

I see some of the guys straightened you out on being disturbed. lol I never said a 180g bullet. Ever heard of 155g or even lighter? Probably not. Glad you intend to move away from me as ignorance is not needed at "the range". I have a 6 inch barrel for my glock 20 in .40sw. It safely puts out 180g bullets at 1300fps and 155g at 1500fps. I imagine that is "disturbing" also. I have various 10mm pistols and factory ammo is incredibly weak. American eagle 180g only runs 1000 fps out of a 5 inch barrel. BTW my sig 226 carry gun is the one that runs 155g handholds at 1200fps. I am not recommending these loads to anyone. You might want to check out Buffalo bore ammo for perspective...although i think some of their stuff is hard on guns.

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Condescending ain't we? Not that I need to qualify myself to your remark, but I have reloaded from 155-180 gr. But only for target. I leave my OP as is. I perceived in your OP, you were that stating that you could run your 40 as a 10.

Not only am I a deplorable, now I'm ignorant. No if that ain't THR!

I have Walther PPX's in both 40 cal and 9mm and while the 40 cal has more recoil, I shoot it just as well as the 9mm.

The HK P-30 that I bought last month, is the softest shooting 40 cal pistol I've ever shot.

What may be contributing to the lower popularity of the .40 vs 9mm is the proliferation of small pistols for concealed carry. At these sizes and weights, recoil and control of the .40 suffers more in comparison to the 9mm than in full-size or even compact guns. I know that at a big LGS, pre-owned subcompact .40's outnumber 9mm's at least two to one in the case. Having fired more than a few in both calibers, it's easy for me to understand why.

That I get. Although I carry a Glock 23 on my hip, I back it up with a Glock 26 because the 27 did not really do it for me. I'm willing to deal with the overhead of an extra caliber to have a backup gun that I feel confident in firing.

chardin said:

That I get. Although I carry a Glock 23 on my hip, I back it up with a Glock 26 because the 27 did not really do it for me. I'm willing to deal with the overhead of an extra caliber to have a backup gun that I feel confident in firing.

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Yes; I had a Glock 26; traded it for a 27. Now wishing I had kept the 26. The 27 really stings the hand. The only thing keeping me from going back is the mental addition I do to figure out what the double swap would cost me in the final sum!

The .40 is not dead... it's just not the hot seller it was a decade ago. Funny thing... it's parent cartridge, the 10mm Auto, has made an impressive comeback in recent years.

Folks thought the 10mm was dead when Colt discontinued the Delta Elite...Dornus & Dixon (Google it!) went belly up, etc. Glock was smart, saw the benefits and was the leader of the revival. Want a dead caliber, look up .41 AE (Google it, too)...except I just bought a gun in .41 AE (NIB Tanfoglio, for $159), found brass on Armslist (2600 new pieces of IMI in original bags), bought .41 Mag dies, 9mm shell plates and .41 Berry and Hornady bullets...pretty tough to truly "kill" a caliber. Hell, Reed's makes ammo for it. .40 dead? Never happen.

I never thought that the 40 was dead, not even in passing when reading such stuff from the "experts".
For a long time I felt the 40S&W was an in between caliber. I already had a some handguns chambered in 9MM. 357 SIG, 44 MAG, and 45 ACP. I reload for them all and never thought I needed to invest in the additional caliber. Then the ammo drought was upon us. The last boxes of any type of handgun ammo left on the shelf at the local WM was 40 S&W! About that time the light bulb went on. I had already collected a large bucket of fired brass and ordered some dies and a bullet mold. Then I added a couple 40 S&W pistols to my assortment just to have another option to shoot. IMHO the 9MM is only marginally lower on the felt recoil/power aspect and the bullets when purchased are less expensive so I would shoot that more than a 40 but now have the option to do it differently. I actually went to 38 SPL to shoot econmically this last three or so years. YMMV

I have a P226, P229, G27, and a USP in 40s&w. I never figured it to be a dead cartridge. The "40" is not my go-to pistol, but, I do enjoy shooting them.

There are some really good deals right now on used LE trade-ins, as police departments are unloading their 40 cal pistols in favor of 9mm.

The good, the bad, and the ugly. (In reverse order) :
Them big ole 40's aire so ugly, but make an ugly hole too.
The bad part aire, it be a'dyin'.
The good part aire, ye mite be a'gitttin a GOOD DEAL on some used .40's !!!!!

Can't win either way on this one. Nothing is dead, it just may not be as popular this year as say 3 years ago. Chances are it will get popular again when someone writes a well recieved article on the ballistic advantage of one over the other, "doesn't matter which one it is". Marketing will always try to get you to buy something you don't have or need. That's the American way. Gotta have that. Bellbottoms will come back, I am convinced. Imagine the possibilities for holster companies.

Not dead, not really dying, but not very healthy either. The 9mm is in ascendancy and the .40 is on the downslide. At least for now. At one point I kept a .40 around so that no matter how bad the ammo scares got I'd have a good chance of being able to get something I could use. Ultimately though it made more sense to just make sure I never got too low on 9mm and .45 ACP.

To me the .40 doesn't fill any genuine need (at least for me). The difference in recoil between it and the 9mm isn't radical but it's pronounced. I can shoot it just fine (same for the .45 ACP) but followup shots are slower than with a 9mm. Of course they're faster still with a .22 LR. But you have to set the floor somewhere.

What really drove the last nail in the coffin of the .40 for me was that I always worried I'd grab the wrong mag for a given gun. Most of my sidearms are HKs and nearly all of them will use the same magazines (VP9/P30/P2000/P2000sk/P30sk). Since my final remaining .40 was a P30L that used a mag identical to my other mags in 9mm there was a legitimate risk of having the wrong mag, especially when I rotated CCW guns. No matter the sidearm I carry a spare mag at 10:00 on my belt, horizontally in a Safariland 123. It was a pain to keep swapping out the two mags and I always worried I'd forget to do so one day and actually need the spare mag.

.45 Colt goes back to 1873 and it ain't dead. I still see .38 S&W on shelves in some stores and it goes back to 1877! Yet here are some people thinking the .40 S&W is 'dead'.

As Mark Twain said, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Deaf

Less popular? Perhaps but not dead. Until they stop selling ammo for 40S&W, it's not dead.

I tend to use spent brass on range floor as a gauge to how "popular" a caliber is.

You will find plenty of 9mm along with 40S&W and less 45ACP and 380Auto but rarely find .357Sig and 10mm. So, how popular are 10mm and .357Sig compared to 40S&W?

I will be dead long before the .40 S&W cartridge is.

glock 23 is my concealed carry piece... .40 SW is the new 9mm of the 21th century...the price is not much from the 9mm and less than the .45 ACP.

About 1/2 of my HG's are .38Sp., and the other 1/2 are 9mm.
I guess I might have about 10 other various calibers in between for fun.
Of course I have to have the ever present .45ACP with a couple of 1911's.
It was .38Sp., 9mm, or .45ACP for SD. I didn't feel the need for a .40.S&W.
Besides, that would be one more type of ammo I'd have to stock up on.
But I couldn't refuse a .40 if offered as a gift. You are supposed to receive gifts graciously.

I'm afraid the .40S&W will probably go the way of the .41 Magnum.
Hey, I'd like to have a .41Mag., too !!!!

Gun Master said:

I'm afraid the .40S&W will probably go the way of the .41 Magnum.

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I will bet you lunch we'll be picking up 40S&W brass from range floor 25+ years from now.

I bet your correct and our grandkids will have this same discussion 9vs40vs45 will go on for decades to come all 3 of these are alive and well!
I reload look at a reloading book how many calibers that are listed and have components available none are extinct
The only thing that will kill the 40 or any other caliber is a politician in my opinion and as said above 40 brass , bullets , ammo and guns are everywhere including the XD'S 40 that was added to the line up. To say the 40 is dead is just silly talk

bds said:

I will bet you lunch we'll be picking up 40S&W brass from range floor 25+ years from now.

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Absolutely!!!! Funny thing is I pick up .357 Sig brass a lot on the public range here! .40 is EVERYWHERE! I have buckets of it. Yep, 25 years and I have no doubt .40s will still be there in abundance.

Deaf

Just had a 40 cal delivered today! Oh, yeah, it's a flintlock...

There are no reliable studies regarding the knowledge of gun store clerks. Were their gun store experts in 1900 that declared the .45 Colt and the .45-70 were having an Irish Wake.