Is the .40 dead ? Let's see some !

[WildBillWJW]

Soft shooting you say? You must be lying! Everyone knows shooting 40s&w is the equivalent to shooting a canon.

With my Glocks I have always enjoyed shooting the 40 over 9mms…the report/noise bothers me more than the added recoil. Plus the 9mils is more snappy to me, as well. I do use my Glock 19c for my cc classes: the ammo is cheaper and the compensator makes the 9mm feel like shooting a .22…but so noisy! I also find the 40 s&w more versatile than the smaller bores. You can go heavy and slow, like a 45. Or light and fast like a 357…what is not to like?

 

[WildBillWJW]

Sig P229 40S&W. With an accompanying 357 Sig barrel, Bought in 1997. I re-load for it.View attachment 777168

Awesome pair!

 

[LEO918]

Awhile back, a friend of mine had to move back to Oregon for health reasons and didn't want to haul his ammo. Offered it to me for about half price.
In the pile of ammo was 1250 rounds of factory .40 S&W. The problem was I had no .40 caliber firearm.
Not long after acquiring the ammo a .40 Caliber SIG 1911 Target walked into a show at a very attractive price and voila! I was equipped with a .40 S&W burner.

 

[WildBillWJW]

Awhile back, a friend of mine had to move back to Oregon for health reasons and didn't want to haul his ammo. Offered it to me for about half price.
In the pile of ammo was 1250 rounds of factory .40 S&W. The problem was I had no .40 caliber firearm.
Not long after acquiring the ammo a .40 Caliber SIG 1911 Target walked into a show at a very attractive price and voila! I was equipped with a .40 S&W burner.
View attachment 778076

Nice 1911 40!

 

[WildBillWJW]

About 30 years ago, while living in central KY, and packing and camping a lot in the Red River gorge area. The state started reintroducing the black bear into eastern KY. I figured something more powerful than the 380’s we were carrying at that time was justified. So I purchased my first Glock, a model 23, and the rest is history. I was immediately surprised at how well I could shoot the light weight forty. And decided to give the model 27 a try for warm weather CC. And again, could not believe how easy that pistol, with pinky under the mag, was to hit with. Here are my two edc and cc carries:

 

[phm14]

Dead? Not hardly. I have a number of .40 handguns. I pulled a M&P .40 out of the safe yesterday, placing it in service on our boat. I keep a P226 .40 LEO trade in in my truck. Due to the current popularity of 9mm, with keyboard warriors screeching ".40 short & weak!", there are good value deals out there in the .40 world. Given current ammo performance, these days I choose 9mm for most primary EDC chores, valuing the added capacity, over the ballistic performance edge the .40 has over the 9mm. That doesn't mean the .40 isn't an excellent choice for primary or secondary handgun, as well as PCC use.

 

[mckenney99]

I hope everybody keeps screaming at the top of their lungs that the .40 S&W is dying.
I love that LE agencies are dumping their .40 S&W guns and AMMO. This government divestment of .40 S&W has enabled me to pick up some very good deals on new in the case premium self defense ammo. While .40 may still be priced higher than bulk range 9mm, the price of bulk practice .40 has come down significantly also. Buy it cheap and stack it deep before the next Crisis is manufactured.

 

[st regis]

Atlanta PD issue. No mag safety, decock only, bobbed hammer.

 

[A-300 Dave]

No pic, but you can put me down for a S&W M&P M2.0 Metal .40 cal.
Refitted it with a Timney Trigger and a 19 lb recoil spring and it now shoots like my old Browning Hi-Power 9mm!! Luv it....

 

[Mongo Safari]

View attachment 777948


I shoot more .40than anything else.

Happy to see a 96D. I carried one for several years in the Border Patrol and loved it. As a firearms instructor the 96D made an east transition for the agents from revolvers into the semiauto world. Half the guys liked them, and half hated the Italian tomahawk but the never failed, except operator error. Several kept trying to cock the double action pistol and some got minor injuries. The other agents laughing hurt more than the slide bite. It wasn't hard to master the trigger; I really miss my old 96D Brigadier.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

I too can't believe this is still going , and I'm the one who started it . I bought these two CHP pieces when they first started to show up . I got them from the original owner of Summit Gun Broker . I called up about the 4006 TSW CHP's and ordered one . Then he said I have some 4013TSW CHP's , would you like one , and I said of course . I read here somewhere that there's like 500 of the 4013TSW CHP's , don't know if it's true or not .

 

[dshuf118]

Classic 4006.

 

[dshuf118]

SIG P226 Legion. I've also got a 357 SIG barrel for this. I actually like the 357 SIG better than 40 S&W.

 

[dshuf118]

Glock 35 with Holosun. Once I put the Timney trigger on it, I was much happier.

 

[Kabong57]

My first Semi-Auto and my latest.

 

[muzzlestuffer2012]

I love the .40 and the 10mm both I just bought a Springfield Armory EMP .40 Contour 4" I have not received it yet pics as soon as it comes in I hear these were great guns back in the day.

 

[duke2002]

I got no complaints on the .40. I started my job carrying a 40 30 yrs ago. Got 5 yrs left even though they changed to wonder 9's i end my career with my 2nd .40.

 

[StevePi]

I pay little to no attention to what’s popular and selling or what ammo is flying off the shelves, or what the gun magazines are pushing!
I look at ballistics, bullet caliber, weight and velocity. That tells me all I really need to know.
The 40 S&W still has what it takes!

I bought a Wilson combat Baretta in 40 for $450. One hole accuracy. Also bought a .40 12 gauge barrel insert for my single shot Ithaca.

 

[1000island]

Another 40 to add

Here’s mine… Beretta PX4 Storm Compact. It’s very comfortable to shoot and seems to be a nice trade off between mag capacity and punch. Added night sights and a Pachmayr “boot” to the grip. The only minor drawback is the rotary bolt. The slide is getting harder for me to rack as I age, but I still love the pistol.

 

[Law-dog]

One of the interesting things about the 40 vs the 10mm is how they were optimized for performance at birth but then along came new powders that made them much closer in power.

First start with the industry standards and ammo design. The 40 SW is made for a 4 inch barrel and ammo created accordingly decades ago. The 10mm was designed for a 5 inch barrel and ammo invented for best performance in that case capacity.

Now enter new powders since them, CFE and LilGun. The case capacity has a little room that allows for light weight bullets in the 40 SW to increase velocity dramatically, that only applies to 135 and 155 grain bullets, as the heavier ones need the additional powder that you can cram into the longer 10mm case.

Now pull out the latest manuals, the 2022 version of the Nosler manual or it is copied in the Hodgen data.

You can drive the 135 grain bullet in the 40 SW to 1,400 fps. That is 10mm range of the past.

Here is the Hodgen data for the 4 inch barrel, for those above 1,300 fps.




At 1,300 fps that is 507 FPE, at 1,400 fps that is 588. That power level did not exist then the 40 SW was actively sold to shooters and police. In fact, the load was a 180 grain at 950 fps which was 360 fpe and the Black Talon was about the same. Only the early Corbon ammo was above 1,350 fps, and now all of the premium ammo brands are hot like this. Point is, back in the day, the 40 SW was sold as producing under 400 FPE, all of the premium brands today exceed 500FPE. What we knew about the 40 forty years ago is totally unrelated to what we know today. Because of new powders.



Bottom line. If you want a 357 magnum level semi auto that is reasonable in size, like the Glock 23 or others, the 40 SW is the round of choice. Of course the 357 Sig will do the same.
My 2 cents.