I've never shot .40 but I just bought my first one, an M&P 40c. I wanted to have the 3 major calibers covered.

My hate for the 40 began with gen 2 police trade in g22.

It began to lift  late last year with curiosity of the .357sig. why buy a .357 sig when I could buy a cheap 40, then spend $100 bucks for the .357 barrel? In fact, I could spend another $100 and get a 9mm barrel as well!

3 calibers in one pistol? Even as an admitted .40 cal hater, that's hard to beat.

Plus being a reloader it seems you can load anytwhere from mild to wild, 135 gr up to 200 gr, and having 15 rounds of 1000 fps 200 gr hard cast would surely take care of anything I would come across hiking or camping in the woods.

I went with a G20 for this reason. I can get all kinds of conversion barrels...and the first two will be a 9x25 Dillon and a .40 S&W barrel.

I have multiple 9s, 40s, and 45s, I like all.  I take a slightly different stance on this entire issue than most.  I actually don't view the 40 as competing with 9, I view it as competing with 45.  So, in my case the 45 is the odd man out and I don't really shoot it much and I use 9 and 40.  The 40 has all the capability of 45 if for whatever reason I wanted something better than 9 for barriers.  Vs. soft targets the 3 are are comparable with good ammo.

Why 40 over 45 for ME, two reasons:

1.  More capacity
2.  The glocks share holsters with the 9's and other accessories, like sights, with the 9's.
3.  AMMO availability during  panics

So in a nutshell, my 19/17 are my core but I have a 22 and 27 on stand bye.  My 45's don't come out much.  The FBI and DEA are both going back to 9 by the way.

I love my m&p 40c for CCW purposes.  Good stopping power, 15 round mags, but my only complaint would be the snappy recoil.  Seems 40 cal. has fallen out of favor?

I've got a P226 in .40 and a Kel Tec P40 for shits and giggles. While most of my semi's are 9 or 45, I like having all three major service calibers covered for panics when the only thing on the shelf might just be .40. Sometimes you just find a certain caliber on sale and it's nice being able to grab it when you see it.

My PD tradein .40 P226 is a joy to shoot and runs like a scalded cat, it was pretty cheap too. The P40 is somewhat abusive to shoot but reliable.

All true, but if you prepare ahead of time, 9mm is plentiful and cheaper.  I get your point, but just sayin.

I got back into .40S&W due to all the cheap police surplus Glocks that are out there. Great pistols at .mil surp prices.
And the caliber starts with .4" so Colonel Jeff Cooper approves.

And for all the naysayers, I got my mom, my sister, my daughter, and all the nieces a G19.

For all my brothers in the Four-O gang, get some .40 Winchester Bonded.  The cheapest handgun HP ammo in any caliber to be found.  Supply & demand, like M885, only opposite.

Nah.  What I think's going on here, is that all the service calibers (everything from .38 spl to .45 ACP) have always performed about the same, FMJ, old school HP, newfangled HP, or what have you.    Almost all the difference that has existed, has existed only in the minds of shooters and the bullet salesmen.   Ask any medical examiner.    


The .357 Sig and .40 aren't useless, but they really should never have been born.   They don't do anything the others don't do just as well.

Bottom Line:   the ME can't tell the difference between the major calibers, so we shouldn't either.

Thanks I'm going to pick some up.

very interesting thread. People keep saying that the three major calibers have achieved parity in terms of effectiveness in gunfights. I'm willing to believe this, but I have a serious question:

- the FBI HRT uses .45. They can use anything they want, and they aren't military, so they get to use HP's instead of ball ammo.  But they use .45 instead of 9mm.

-why?

-like I said, I'm willing to be convinced. I'd be happy to carry a 9mm.

The one place the 9 falls behind is in intermediate barriers; if that is a concern for one then I would say don't choose a pistol chambered for that round. Maybe that is behind the HRT's thinking, or maybe they just choose on preconceived notions, who knows. I don't really care what they are using. As for energy or some of the other things brought up, any differences between the 3 rounds doesn't matter in SD handgun performance.

A lot of guns that chooot .40 are just scaled up versions of the 9mm model.  This approach will cause the gun to wear out faster than if you were to buy a gun specifically designed to chooot the .40.  

There are tens of thousands of G22's and G23's out there that disagree with you.

The FBI HRT is the same organization that shot Vikki Weaver in the head.  Other than murdering innocent women, I'm not sure what firearms expertise they have.  

.45 is the only logical choice

Because no 9mm will open up to an inch.  

I prefer .40 cal because it's what I've always trained with. the 9mm even if improved left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouth after the fact that the .40 took the Law Enforcement market from the 9mm  20+ years ago after 9mm failed in real life scenarios and lost ballistics tests when compared to the 40. I personally just have more faith in the 40 caliber working. If someone were charging at me with an axe and you asked me which round would i rather put in his chest to stop him from burying the axe in my head. I will choose a 40 every time. To me faith in a round out weighs a few cents more or less per round.

If cheaper equates to being able to afford to train more and become more proficient, then that would be one way to justify it.

Most people can shoot 9mm better, i.e. more rounds on target in less time. That would be another way to justify it.

Just saying everyone that chooses to shoot 9mm doesn't do so because they have been duped or are misinformed.

ETA: I should add, though, that if I were a LEO like you, I would prefer to carry 40 because it has been shown to be superior for barrier penetration and I can shoot .40 well enough. As regular guy CCW holder, I don't concern myself with shooting through barriers.

Keep in mind that one of the switchers has had trouble remembering why they picked the .40S&W.

The FB1 used a Federal 9mm 147 HydraShok load at about 950fps developed especially for them.  They had Federal make them a 147 grain .38 Special +P+ loading with the same ballistics as the 9mm using essentially the same bullet.   147 @ 950fps.  This was the original Miami answer.

In 1997 when the .40S&W Glock 22s and 23s were adopted, it was done with a specific Federal loading of the .40S&W that moved a 165 grain HydraShok at 950fps.  This was the FedLite .40S&W. It worked slightly better than the 9mm loading and was stilleasy to shoot.  Which was the whole point.

In the Glocks, the felt recoil was just like the 9mm loading in the other 9mm pistols then currently being used.  Federal had the exclusive contract and then its was dual sourced to Speer with a 165 grain Gold Dot .40S&W at the same velocity.  All was good for years.  Effectiveness up.  Shootability same as a 9mm.

In the early to mid 2000's, some rocket scientist decided that the .40S&W in use had to be changed to the standard 180 grain bullet at full .40S&W velocity.  It was no longer the FedLite .40S&W, but a much noisyer beast with some hop whether Federal made it or Speer made it.  Thus begins trouble with ease of shooting and trainability.

Now the FB1 is going back to the original 9mm, but with silicone in the Gold Dot cavity ala Hornady Critical Defense/Duty.  Why they didn't just adopt the already fully successful Hornady Critical Duty 135 round is beyond many people.

I think its called coming full circle.

They might be like me and still go for a 1911 due to the platform, not necessarily the caliber. And the standard 5" government 1911 in .45acp is the most reliable/proven system.
Im issued a G17, and it would be one of my top choices in a duty/combat handgun even if it wasn't issued to me. But I still have a handful of 1911s, because I shoot them better than any other. As a secondary weapon, I would take a 5" 1911 in a heartbeat. This is the capacity it is used by HRT, as a secondary weapon. As my duty weapon, or as my CCW, a pistol is a primary so I want a high capacity 9mm with a good load.