DeadEye9,
Excellent points.
Not anti 40 there just is simply not enough even differences between the 9mm and 40 to get excited about.
When looking at Law Enforcement Agencies such as Police Departments that use the 40 it is easy to form the opinion about how well they are satisfied they are with it.
I have posted this before but I will again. A large nearby metro police department (400 +/- personnel) issue Glocks in 40 cal. The range master, instructors and training department all want for the department to switch to the 9mm. The 9mm results is less wear and tear on the guns meaning more long term savings since the guns will not have to be repaired and replaced as often, easier to train and qualify new officers and significant cost savings in 9mm ammunition over the 40.
The 40 high water mark crested years ago. The metro police department I am talking about is sticking with the 40 cal. because
1) police top brass are not “gun guys & gals”
and
2) they are buying and equipping the officers with body cameras so there is not enough money in the budget to make the switch.
Bullet design has made a lot of advances since the 40 was originally introduced.
In addition my primary edc is a SIG P239 9mm. For me this is a excellent blend of size, weight of the gun, recoil and stopping power.
The numbers the O.P. posted look nice on paper but are largely meaningless in the real world stopping power.
This is exactly true and why I don't get caught up in velocity, energy etc numbers. That stuff is all voodoo on the street and what actually matters is where you put the bullet and what it actually does when you put it there. You can have a 1500fps .40 or .45 auto load that expands to nearly an inch but if it only penetrates 6-7" and doesn't hit anything but null soft tissues the odds of that load being a good manstopper are very slim. I think these days people get too hung up on the numbers instead of worrying about what a given load is actually doing in real world shootings. This is the age of technology after all so the days of needing to work inside the hospital or courthouse just to get the information held within are over. I'm guilt of being a velocity nerd at times with my handloads, trying to push the envelope and get faster and faster loads, but that is for punching paper and steel, not defending my life. What many fail to realize is that in human tissue a lot of times the faster a round is & the more a round expands the LESS it penetrates. Yes we do want defensive handgun ammo to expand as that is how JhPs are designed to perform, however we do not want so much velocity/expansion so as to disrupt the key stopping factor of handgun rounds, penetration. Also with a lot of bullets, even bonded ones, manufactures spec velocity at certain thresholds. When
Boutique loaders like Underwood and Doubletap, etc crank the velocity above that point many times they actually cripple their overall performance. Too much velocity can cause a bullet to come apart/fragment, penetrate to shallow to hit vitals and also break apart on barriers. Even Gold Dots have their limits and Underwoods cranked up GDHP typically Penetrate a few inches less than any Speer factory product and turn a nearly barrier blind load into a marginal barrier defeater at best. Same exact bullet and caliber just different speeds and it gives you two totally different end results when they hit things. In the end, it behooves anyone interested in protecting their own lives with a daily carried handgun to do a little research and see what actually works well on the street and not what X Y Z reccomends or what load is the fastest. The best loads are ones that will pass FBI testing for barriers like heavy clothing, penetrate sufficiently and expand regularly but also go bang every time in YOUR handgun(s). Also familiarization with your carry load will be worth more than any velocity spec sheet ever will. Running a couple mags worth of your carry ammo then calling it good is simply not enough. I suggest to interested parties that after their research they choose a FEW loads they feel suit their protection needs and then go run a couple HUNDRED rounds of each through your carry guns to check function, feel and point of impact. This is a multipurpose process and allows you to 1) know your weapon and your chosen loads will function when you need them, 2) know exactly where that load hits when you aim in your usual style and 3) choosing a few loads initially saves you from having to choose an untested load should your primary choice not be available at one time or another. Too many people buy a 20rd box of some random JHP, load their mags and forget it. Maybe shoot a couple rounds at the range but by and large practice with carry ammo is rare, and it shouldn't be. The time to learn how a carry load will perform in your handgun is not when you need to depend on that combination to save your life. When it comes to personal defense, Stack as many cards in your favor as you can by choosing reliable loads in a realistic caliber that YOU are comfortable with, through a reliable handgun platform that again YOU are comfortable with and feed that handgun with loads YOU have proven to function well in practice.
For me, my everyday carry in moderate climates is 9mm. In the coldest winter months I switch to .357 Sig, solely because it has some superior barrier penetrating loads that lend themselves well to shooting through layers of heavy clothing. My platform for both is the exact same pistol, so training is simplified.
(Glock 19/32)
As far as carry loads, my chosen are:
9mm
124 HST (Full Size pistol)
124 +P HST (for Shield 9/P11 backup pistols-gives same velocity as standard load from full size barrel so performance is the same from both guns)
124 Gold Dot +P (both pistol sizes)
147 +P HST (both sizes)
124 +P PDX1 (both sizes)
Critical Duty 135 standard pressure
For .357 Sig-
125 Federal HST
135 Critical Duty
125 Gold Dot
125 CorBon DPX
These are only a portion of the excellent loads available but these are all rounds I've chosen based on what I know they will do in the field and how I know they will shoot for me and my guns.
