.40sw ???

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.40 appears to be a fine round, it may suffer on the internet only due to the mightly influence of nostalgia.

9mm and .45 has a lot of history and classic designs.

.40 just needs a little more time.
 
oh i forgot, with some .40 handguns you have the option of 3 handguns in one. and 2 in one in other cases. change out the barrel and you have .357 sig and no one can discredit how great of a rd that is especially if they like 9mm so much, and even if they don't. and with the xd line up and a .40 model simply change the barrel and you will have a 9mm handgun, so essentially 3 guns in one.
 
...

Unpopular, hmmm, just had a thought, again..

Next time your out and about, especially in need of some ammo, out in the rural country, chk out the availability or the 40cal, and the 357 sig, along with price.

I could be wrong, but let's hear some input..


LS
 
I'm shocked to hear that it's not "more popular". It sure is popular with me. When I go online to buy ammo, a lot of people seem out be out of the brand and weight I require. It's used in many, many police and sheriff's departments.

Heck, I wish it wasn't quite as popular. Maybe I could get a better price on it and it would always be in stock.

I think 9mm and .45 are great, no knock against them, but for me the .40 S&W gets it done.
 
.40S&W problems...

I think the .40S&W was considered a fad or "wildcat" load by many in the US gun industry and never really developed the way 9mmNATO/9x19mm or even the bigger .45ACP loads did. The .45acp round had a military background so many US shooters knew it had power. The 9mm had large mags(15-20rds) and a good rep for feeding/function.

The .40S&W was a middle range handgun round that never had much use. The .40 was picked by more than a few US police agencies but was never considered "better" than a .45acp or 10mm. I like the .357SIG over the .40S&W for several reasons but would not feel "undergunned" with a well made .40, loaded with some good .40S&W JHPs ;) .

Rusty
 
"9mm works using velocity to expand,45 uses momentum. 10mm has both.40 gives up both.if you look at what the trend has been most 40 SD ammo is of the lighter end of its range"
Sorry I blacked out there is nothing wrong with the 40. all the accepted SD calibers will work well.its the software not the hardware.we all agree a 32 COM is better than a 45 that hits the wall 4' left of BG
I personally never warmed up to the 40 because 9mm and 45 work when 10mm came out I fell in love (somthing about a 200 grn bullet at 1200fps) it mooves stuff like evil bowling pins.but ultamatly the 40 is fine the police are
well armed with them.
 
The .40 is plenty popular! I like the cartridge just fine, but I haven't invested in that caliber personally, because I'm already invested in 9mm and .45. There isn't enough difference in effectiveness between 9mm, .40, .357 (Sig and magnum) and .45 to make it worthwhile to add another caliber to keep track of and reload for.

My original reason for getting involved with 9mm is low cost, low recoil, ease of training new shooters and availability of platforms I like. I'm not into "cartridges" as much as I am into the guns themselves.

I chose to carry a .45 mostly, not because it's some magical 1 shot manstopping beast, because like ANY other handgun cartridge, it's not. I chose to carry it because it's a low pressure round. If you've ever touched off a high pressure round in an enclosed area, you understand why.

Actually, I did prefer the .40's precursor, the .41 AE. With it's rebated rim, swapping to 9mm was as simple as a barrel change and maybe a recoil spring. Alas, it was treated as a wildcat and never gained much popularity.
 
.40 a fad round? Huh, that might make sense a few years ago, but every gun company offers a .40 handgun as an option, only a few companies offer .45 as an option on most of their handguns.
 
I shoot both .40 and .45, I prefer .45 personally, but wouldnt cry if I was limited to .40. A few things I try to remember when thinking about .40 is:

  1. The police switched to .40 from 9mm for power, but didnt go to .45 because of cost, not performance factors.
  2. The police Downgraded from .45 to .40 again because of the reduced cost, but also so the female officers who get to pass through the academy with lower physical standards then males can control the recoil.
  3. They dont call it 10mm retarded for nothing...its a great cartridge but for the power hungry that would carry a .45 or 10mm, its almost insulting to ask them to switch to this cartridge.
I personally use it in my sub compact because the recoil is controllable and the weapon I wanted isnt made for .45. The price difference I see in .45 vs. .40 ammunition isnt that great, so that wasnt a big selling point for me. The fact is that its a low recoil controllable cartridge and when my only choices were 9mm or .40 it was a no brainer....however, on a standard size gun, you would have to outlaw .45 ammo before I would switch....40 just isnt 45ACP no matter how you cut it.
 
Have you actually looked at the ballistic data on .45 JHP rounds vs .40 JHP rounds? The wound size is pretty much the same, the .45 does it damage via a larger bullet and overall momentum where as the .40 does it via greater expansion because of it's velocity.

If I was limited to FMJ rounds I would want a .45 over a .40, but using JHP rounds if you need more shots a .40 is better choice for you.

Personally I use all three, as a SD round the .40 is a better choice because you get more capacity out a subcompact, but I like the .45 because it's subsonic so I can suppress it a bit more easily.
 
From what I've seen, the .40 is very popular. Nearly every LE agency I know of issues it. It is winning converts every day, as well. I was a big .45 fan, and refused to even consider a .40. Then all the reading I've done on the effectiveness of the round, plus the advantage of higher capacity in a smaller weapon switched me over to .40. Plus, I heard the rumor that SOCOM is considering the .40 S&W over the .45 ACP.;)
 
I love my .40 S&W, but have to say that the .357Sig feels more rifle-like and I'm more accurate with it. Still, I have a fondness for the round which won't be shaken by internet-hype. I shoot more .45 ACP than anything else and won't get into a "this vs that" about it. The .45 has always felt better to me than anything else when shooting. I was about to say that I'd love to combine the .357 Sig with a .40 S&W, 9mm and .45ACP, but I figured that would be the 10mm... ;)
 
There's nothing wrong with a 9mm, a .40 or a .45... they all have about the same stopping power according to research.

The argument that the .223 isn't nearly as deadly of a round as the .308 has been dismissed by most, and I've only ever heard very old men say that the .223 is just a plinking or varment round that doesn't have the power to stop a man.

Gun folks seem to stick with what is battle proven without considering new technologies or concepts to be a good idea. The marines issue 9mm H&K pistols now and .223 m-16's. They used to issue .45acp 1911's/thompsons and m1 garands/carbines... so I'm thinking the military has done more research than I have.

The .40 is a good round, just like the others...but has the same cost as .45 and about the same recoil. Police shoot the holy snot out of .40 cal as I've seen by the buckets of brass a LEO friend of mine brings to my place from the local Police range, it's about 80% .40sw, 15% 9mm and 5% .45acp. So either the cops that are shooting 45 are taking their brass with them, or there's a lot less of them with .45's.
 
nothing wrong with it...but 9mm is cheaper and i prefer the recoil of a .45 to the sharp recoil of the .40 That being said, I have come up with a few handloads for the .40 that I like very much. With regular factory loads I prefer the 9 or .45
 
#2 The police Downgraded from .45 to .40 again because of the reduced cost, but also so the female officers who get to pass through the academy with lower physical standards then males can control the recoil.
Click to expand...

Since it is generally agreed upon that the .40 has more snap recoil to it than .45 I find this statement absurd.
 
I think it is all about marketing.

The late Col. Cooper thought the 45 acp was the alpha & omega of pistoll rounds.

Rightly or wrongly, many people felt that Cooper was an adle minded old coot who was totally out of touch. Naturally, to those people, anything Cooper said HAD to wrong. So they felt the 9mm was the end all and be all.

Then came the 10mm. Great round for a subgun, lousey round for a pistol. Much too hot. So it was downloaded. Then the case was shortened, and thus was born the 40 S&W.

It was a larger frontal area then the 9mm, but worked well in hi cap mags. It wasn't as big the 45, but you could have 15 as opposed to seven. And it was bigger than the 9. It split the difference.

Is one better than the other, well, I wouldn't stand in front of any of them. Personally, I think anyone is great. I own all three. Shoot what you like.

Joe
 
Around here, its annual quailfing time and that means practice at the range. I'm a brass whore! I go and pick up brass at least twice a week. Last couple of years, I could get a five gallon bucket or two of 40S&W, plus alot of nickle pieces when the LEOs did their night and duty ammo shoots. This year, I only got two coffee cans full. Its all 9mm or 45ACP. I'm seeing alot more 45GAP than 40S&W. Seems to be the next "new" thing.

Personally, I like a 45ACP or 45GAP over the 40S&W. The 45GAP in a 9mm size frame is not a hard on the weapon as the 40S&W loads. Plus, its alot less snappier.

Another personal "enlightenment", I noticed the 40S&W loads are getting hotter. This is causing ALOT of problems in the 9mm size frames. I don't know why they have to make the loads hotter, but I noticed alot more recoil and lower scores on my quailifing and others. And I shoot my 40S&W in some "bigger" weapons, like the Glock G35 and the XD40 Tactical.

Between the 9mm, 40S&W, 45GAP, and the 45ACP, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. I like the 9mm for cheap practice (when I don't have a 22lr conversion kit) and the 45GAP for a normal size weapon and low recoil. Its just what you wnat. If you want a normal size weapon with the highest amount of rounds, then go with a 9mm. If you want a normal size weapon with a good amount of ammo and a larger caliber, you might want a 40S&W. If you want a larger size weapon with a proven caliber, when you have a 45ACP. If you want the best of it all, then you need the 45GAP :neener: !

Its the reason there is 31 favors!

Jerry
 
I prefer the .40 myself. My only complaint is that it is more expensive to shoot than 9mm. I wish that the military would adopt it as I think it is easily the best of both worlds. Stopping power and capacity in one package. What is not to like?
 
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