I think we all know that the 40 S&W was derived from the 10mm, however until today I never heard the entire story. I had some time to do a little browsing this afternoon on one of my favorite sites, this one! Many of the people that participate in the auto section also participate in the revolver sections and have read the postings of 29-1 and Doc44 on the early years of the 44 Magnum. I always find historical info to be fascinating, especially with the detail that they write with.
This got me thinking there really isn’t much historical data in the auto forum, one of the most interesting reads I’ve found on the auto forum is a discussion of why the FBI chose the 10mm over the 45 ACP. With the resources of this forum there were members that contributed to this thread that were involved in the FBI’s decision making and implementation of the 10mm. If you haven’t read the tread it is a very interesting read:
F.B.I. why .10mm. over .45ACP. ?
While this is a fascinating read the 10mm originated from the work of Jeff Cooper in the early ‘70s, Cooper worked on a concept originated by Whit Collins. The 40 G&A, Collins’ design of the 40 G&A would ultimately become what we know today as the 40 S&W. From Cooper’s work with Collins he developed the 40 Super which later became the 10mm that was originally chambered in the Bren Ten.
Many of us appreciate the craftsmanship of pistols that come out of the S&W Performance Center however many don’t know how this came to be. This is where the story of the 40 S&W really began; enter South African world-class IPSC competitor and gunsmith Paul Liebenberg. When Liebenberg came to the US he went to work for Pachmayr Gun Works. While at Pachmayr one of his projects was to adapt what was known at the time as the Centimeter cartridge to the 1911 for IPSC as possibly a cartridge that might replace the 38 Super, this was the original design of Collins’ 40 G&A.
When Liebenberg left Pachmayr Gun Works he started his own company building custom 1911 IPSC pistols, Pistol Dynamics. Here Collins and Liebenberg continued their work on the Centimeter cartridge. Through his competition in IPSC Liebenberg and friend Tom Campbell tried to get S&W interested in the Centimeter cartridge, but to no avail. It wasn’t until S&W President Steve Melvin approached Liebenberg about converting a couple of 5906s to the Centimeter cartridge then the 40 S&W was born.
After this Melvin approached Liebenberg about the concept of the Performance Center, Libenberg teamed up with fellow gunsmith John French to create what we know today as the Performance Center. As the director of the PC Liebenberg developed the pistols while French headed up revolver development. The rest as they say is history.
It was shortly after this timeframe that I became enamored with one of Mr. Liebenberg’s creations, the Performance Center Shorty 40. This is a pistol that came about due to a senior engineer at S&W saying that it couldn’t be done indicating that peak pressure and slide velocity would be too high. Liebenberg brought his prototype to the next staff meeting and laid it in front of the senior engineer saying “There’s the impossible!”
There is really no historical significance to this pistol other than it was one of the first 500 Shorty 40s (PCS0442) produced, but it is an illustration of what a talented gunsmith can do. To this day this is one of my favorite pistols.
Cheers,
Sam