Why? (and who would care?)
Glock is following the early 20th Century Colt and S&W model: all manufacturing decisions are driven exclusively by police and military sales.
I think the Ruger Max 9 is more like to spur Glock, M&P, Springfield, etc to rethink things.
How exactly? Besides Glock, they all have high capacity micro 9s and with the Glock you can buy 15 round flush mags.
I think the market is large enough, but they are facing tough price-point competition from Brazilan, Turkish, and Balkan manufacturers for civilian sales, whereas those makers are not usually even considered by US and W. European Govt. agencies.Glock is following the early 20th Century Colt and S&W model: all manufacturing decisions are driven exclusively by police and military sales.
If any large federal, state, or municipal agency places a large order, then Glock will make enough for that order and some civilian sales. Fact is, the civilian market just isn’t big enough to drive investing in tooling up for a long run.
The Max 9 competes with the Sig P365, Hellcat, Glock 26, and Shield Plus.
It comes with 1 ten and 1 twelve round magazines.
It has a tritium fiber optic day/night front sight
It comes optic ready for direct mounting of co-witnessed JPoint™ and Shield-pattern micro red dot sights. Size, weight, capacities of the close competition listed below are comparable.
Below are comparative street prices for the Max 9 and its competitors. Features vs. price the Max 9 wins.
I think the market is large enough, but they are facing tough price-point competition from Brazilan, Turkish, and Balkan manufacturers for civilian sales, whereas those makers are not usually even considered by US and W. European Govt. agencies.
I really don’t think there’s much of a market for a new .40S&W civilian pistol. I’m not saying there’s no market, just that it’s not large enough to justify tooling up for a large enough run to sell at a competitive price-point. New model buyers tend to fall into a couple of categories: features buyers who compare checklists of jargon, and list price buyers who compare price points and extras. Those two categories combined are better than half the market. Don’t get their interest and what’s left isn’t enough for a reasonable profit. That’s just simple economics.I think the market is large enough, but they are facing tough price-point competition from Brazilan, Turkish, and Balkan manufacturers for civilian sales, whereas those makers are not usually even considered by US and W. European Govt. agencies.
I think the Ruger Max 9 is more like to spur Glock, M&P, Springfield, etc to rethink things.
40 has terrible internal ballistics, and terminal ballistics are on par with 9mm. Of you want guns to disassemble themselves, 40 is a great choice!
It's really simple economics. We are talking about a small subset of gun buyers (.40 S&W) inside another subset (single stack carry guns) in a caliber that LEO is largely moving away from...
This is the current fad, driven by the FBI limp-wrists and bean-counters.
An 8/10-round, 4" Bbl'ed, slimline .40 would be ideal for civilian use.
An Apex SD pistol.
GR
And when the next "Miami Shootout" occurs and a group of agents are lost because they were "inadequately armed" with WunderNines instead of "real guns" then the FBI will go to the firearms industry demanding a new and improved law enforcement weapon their agents can carry easily all day, shoot through solid walls without over-penetrating and inadvertently injuring innocent bystanders, etc. etc. and the next Unicorn cartridge will be invented and every LEA will adopt it and excess inventory will find its way into the public - and all will be right with the world again. The FBI's leadership - from Hoover to the current crop - seems expert in blaming the equipment.This is the current fad, driven by the FBI limp-wrists and bean-counters.
An 8/10-round, 4" Bbl'ed, slimline .40 would be ideal for civilian use.
An Apex SD pistol.
GR
That is your opinion, I don't happen to agree. I've yet to see any evidence that for civilian CCW the slight, very slight in some loadings, increase the .40 offers in actual terminal performance significant enough to justify the recoil, abuse to firearm, and lower capacity.
But getting into yet another caliber war here does seem boring, so we can just agree to disagree
Edit: but you are correct, this "fad" could change again and increase the .40 demand, then the ROI on such a development would make it a lot more enticing.
Here's an interesting take on the selection and use of the .40S&W by the FBI. Written by one of the participants in the 1986 Miami Shootout and observer of the testing which led to the creation of the .40, Edmundo Mireles, author of "FBI Miami Firefight: Five Minutes that Changed the Bureau."It's a better round, with a little extra recoil because of it - just bother to look at the Twenty-Five Years of field data. (that is buried buy the afore mentioned 9mm sycophants)
If one can't shoot the .40 well enough?
They are either physically deficient, or in need of remedial training.
P.S. lose the stopwatch - it is a mental disorder.
GR
Here's an interesting take on the selection and use of the .40S&W by the FBI. Written by one of the participants in the 1986 Miami Shootout and observer of the testing which led to the creation of the .40, Edmundo Mireles, author of "FBI Miami Firefight: Five Minutes that Changed the Bureau."
https://gundigest.com/tactical/1986-miami-shootout-the-aftermath
To me, the question has nothing to do with "caliber wars" - that's kind of a childish argument to get into and I stay away from childish arguments - but it is all about marketing, doctrine and training. Nothing much of real significance has changed about the 9mm bullet in the last thirty years. Small caliber hollow points are still unreliable, sheetrock and windshields still defeat small caliber projectiles, velocity is still secondary to mass in the force equation (F=ma; always, everywhere in the known Universe) and bigger bullets still cause bigger wound channels and bigger holes in things. The .45ACP is still the most effective man-stopping, manageable, and commonly-available pistol cartridge ever issued; but, it is a big, slow-moving bullet which is not affective at punching holes in engine blocks - and for some odd reason, the FBI is fascinated with the idea of stopping cars with handguns by shooting through steel doors and engine blocks. Also, any concealable .45 is going to carry fewer than seven rounds, an insufficient number for a field operative, and a lot of small-framed agents cannot shoot a .45ACP accurately - their hands are too small for the grip. The .40 was chosen because it came closet to the .45's performance in a small, manageable package. And it could punch through a windshield without deflecting or losing significant mass.