I thought the .40 caliber was dead?

[otis24]

I thought that the .40 S&W was dead; or dying??? I stopped at the local Cabelas Saturday night. They had a huge selection of brand new .40 S&W caliber pistols. Seems unusual for a “dying “ caliber. I personally don’t dislike the.40. For me, it comes down to cost. 9mm ammo is considerably cheaper.

 

[Eric300]

Maybe they had a boatload of .40 cal because nobody's buying it?

 

[LVSteve]

Various surplus places are selling police trade-in 40s for under $300, so nobody is buying new 40s at Cabela's prices. Nope, nope, nope.

 

[AJ]

I have a 610 and can shoot 40's or 10MM's in it. I prefer to use the 10MM. I see a fair amount of .40 brass at the range, so someone is shooting it. Our LGS has a fair selection of .40's in the display case.

 

[reddog81]

New? Seems odd. I know various manufacturers are still making some models but I can’t think of any of the top of my head.

 

[Rubone]

I like .40 and would buy a new one if it was priced right. Ammo is easily found and not that expensive if shopped right. I have plenty of 9mms but they are pretty boring..

 

[heeter3]

My son still carries his .40 Walther pps off duty.He still likes the round and how well the gun carries.He did say however that if the 9mm round was as well developed as it is today back when he bought the Walther he would have probably gotten the 9mm version.

 

[Echo40]

.40 S&W is the ultimate Zombie Cartridge, it has allegedly been dead since 2016, yet it continues to walk among us.

 

[kraynky]

I keep a .40 S&W in my nightstand, a 14 + 1 round FNX 40. I can shoot it well enough to trust my life to it, and I trust the results I will get from a 180 gr HP if I need it. My 610 revolver also shoots it very well when I'm slapping steel plates out back.

The .40 S&W is currently in a slump with the "hipsters", but so was the 10mm not to many years ago. Media hype and gun rags will spout all sorts of "*******" that proclaim the 40 S&W is "old news and has seen its day", but I challenge anyone of them to volunteer to step in front of one of the "slow & weak" .40 S&W rounds. Even wearing a ballistic vest.

Not me. I myself can tell the differences in recoil when shooting a 9mm vs a .40 s&w, and I'm pretty darn sure that difference is also felt on the other end. I'm keeping my mine close at hand in case I need to stop a criminal act and protect my life.

 

[AlHunt]

I don't care for the way .40 shoots, it just has an unpleasant recoil impulse. But it's here for the long run. So many PD trade-ins on the market for short money make it a great SHTF kind of gun. Probably also good for people wanting an inexpensive nightstand gun.

 

[Bullet Bob]

Everytime I read about the decline of the .40 S&W I check the premium ammo in that caliber, the prices don't indicate a decreased demand. I have plenty of the Winchester white box stuff. Love my 646 .40.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

The .40 was on top for 25 years after the Miami-Dade shootout. Which showed the 9mm as inferior.......Now have frail small statuerd people Gov/LE went to the 9mm.......People on here as well as lots of other places.
"were like Lemmings" went uh uh uh. And dumped their 40's for 9mm.

I laughed the frantic replacement

All I can add is "Be an engine----NOT a caboose."\

I had 9's in 1972(before they were cool??) and 40's since 1989. NONE are going anywhere.

 

[CH4]

The 40 S&W is far from dead, in fact, it was never sick. A bunch of 9mm conspiracy theorists perpetuated those rumors.

I just picked up 3 boxes for 6.5x55 Swede. It’s out lived all those silly super duper short mags.

 

[S&W-Keeper]

I have 1 revolver and 4 auto's ,3 of them I have .357sig barrels. I hope the ammo does not get scarce.

 

[hkcavalier]

9mm won the Great Accounting and Qualification Wars. It's cheaper and easier to shoot. All of the "performs just the same as .40 or .45" doesn't pass the sniff test. A .45-70 410gr solid leaving the muzzle at 1100fps has the same muzzle energy as a .204 Ruger 24gr at 4400fps, but you're never going to convince me they have similar terminal effects (extreme example).

I like the .40, it's a good suppressor round (in 180gr form) and still delivers great capacity. In a full sized steel gun, it's barely less controllable than a 9mm. It's a better short barrel cartridge than 9mm. While not a big advantage to most, it's easy to convert to .357SIG.

Now to go find one of those $300 police trade ins...

 

[Mainsail]

It's cyclic. Not because the popularity of the caliber changes, but because of the way manufacturers build their guns.

They tool up and build a boat-load of 9mm and the stores are full of 9mm. They afterward tool up for .40S&W and likewise. People think they build all the calibers simultaneously but that's not reality in manufacturing.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Everytime I read about the decline of the .40 S&W I check the premium ammo in that caliber, the prices don't indicate a decreased demand. I have plenty of the Winchester white box stuff. Love my 646 .40.

It ain't going anywhere........We still have (on the shelf to buy) 38/40-44-40-38 S&W-32 S&W-32/20 -45 LC-45ACP which are ALL over 100 years old and still going strong....Don't fret the 40...It's here for the long haul.

 

[otis24]

I think the.40 S&W is a great round. The recoil makes it iffy for me. As does the price of ammo. I’m seeing.40 ammo about 1.5 times the cost of 9mm. If I didn’t have hand health issues, I would own a .40. I may get one yet. If I find one cheap enough.

 

[AlHunt]

Now to go find one of those $300 police trade ins...

Buy 'em cheap and stack 'em deep!

 

[Abbynormal]

I picked up a Sig P229 .40 S&W twenty some years ago for $350.
Gun shop had 7 of them and I picked up the one with the best action.

A year or so later, I saw a Sig factory .357 Sig barrel for the P229
for $100. I bought it and the gun came alive. Now it's a 100+ yard
gun and the recoil is easier for me to handle than .40 S&W.

That's been my primary carry gun for over 20 years and I've use it
to win a number of bowling pin matches and works great for
me in 3 gun matches.