I know this has been beaten to death, but besides snappy recoil, what is there to hate about it? I've been on message boards and Facebook pages where grown men stoop to name calling if you happen to like the caliber. I don't have any hate for 9mm or 45, matter of fact i have pistols in both, but I prefer to carry 40. Plus, I have a spare barrel for 357 Sig, if I so desire. I understand about the recoil and follow up shots, but dang, it's not that bad. What am I missing?

People will tell you what they don't have isn't worth having.  They made their decision, and they need to convince themselves it was the right one.

There's nothing wrong with .40.  It's all I carry.

I don’t like it because it reduces capacity and increases cost over 9mm and in a Glock its unsuitable. I only shoot 9 and 10mm.

I hear what you're saying, but I'm only giving up 1 round in my USP compact .40 vs 9mm. The cost is about 7 cents more for target ammo. I usually take the 9mm to the range when practicing anyways. Definitely don't practice with the 357 sig ammo. You don't go blasting with that 10mm, do you? That could get expensive quick!

.40 is basically 10mm Short. How are you giving up any capacity?

if I have to have an extra training gun that’s an additional cost. Plus I hate having two magazines that are identical except for caliber. It’s easy to mix them up.

My G19 holds 15. A G23 holds 13. Two rounds down.

What I use a 10mm for I can’t do with a .40, or a 9mm. Its competition is .45 Super.

Reload and the price difference is pretty small between 9/357/40/10

I love shooting my S&W 4006. I guess the cool kids decided to hate the fotay. ??  who knows.

I am enjoying buying up cheap .40 handguns and ammo because of all the folks jumping on the hate bandwagon.

I didn't even own a .40 gun or desire to have one until the FBI led the hate-train out of the station and people began dumping them.

Anyone saying it is bad is being dumb. There are some legitimate arguments that 9mm does better on barriers or in general. If you look at the Luckygunner tests some of the penetration/expansion tests in 9mm outperform .40. https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#40SW

I dont think gel tells the whole story but it is interesting. Personally I would probably prefer to defend myself with a 180gr .40 but I would not think it is a huge deal.

Also just FYI ive basically been told a shotgun is also the WORST self fefense weapon. Haha. Well if anyone kicks my door down I guess they will see how ineffective that 24 pellet #1  buckshot really is lol. Haters gonna hate!

I went to all 9mm for a while but with the prices of .40 Glock trade-ins I picked up a 22 and 23. I don't mind .40 at all.

Pick any one of the many worn out and tired platitudes:

Too snappy

Short and Weak

Too expensive

Kaboom

Advancement in bullet tech

10mm is best mm

The answer to a question nobody asked

Diminished capacity

Guns were designed around 9mm and will be less durable.

Causes ED

Etc and on and on.

These are what people tell themselves to hate the 40, then spew it everywhere as gospel to reinforce their decision to hate 40.

It’s a fine defensive handgun caliber. As is 9mm and 45acp.

But everyone is operator as fuck here and a weapon in 40 suddenly makes them less tactical...bro.

Well one persons opinion......
Reality is it's not THAT much more in costs, look if you shoot guns these days it's going to cost no matter what.
Capacity? 2rds? Please you have people creaming over the 6rds in a G43.....My G27 is 9 & not that much bigger.
OP it's the age of hate so just suck it up & stop caring what others think.  If it works for you continue on.

40 caliber is the colin kaepernick of pistol calibers.  Enjoy your flat brim cap.

I'll carry it regardless, just wondering what the fuss was about. I'd just got off a Facebook page where this guy was blowing snot bubbles and pouting about the devil .40 round.

I typically carry a 15 and 33rd mag for my G19.

It's not that it's really that bad, but it's just not that great either. For me if I want something powerful I'll go 10mm. If I want something powerful that suppresses well, then 45acp. If I want something cheap and easy to find and easy to shoot, then 9mm of course. 40S&W just doesn't fill any of my needs very well. I will say the 40S&W is the best for finding cheap handguns, since people don't want this caliber handgun, and it's great when all other bullets are sold out you can usually still find 40S&W in stock to buy, because again it's not a very well liked caliber.

I hope people keep hating on it. All the more for meeeee. 

Save for a few exceptions such as but not limited to 10mm, 357 mag, and 44 mag all pistol calibers are underpowered. 9mm, 40, & 45 are all underpowered.

When you actually spend some time watching video of ppl being shot in police and self defense shootings and almost everytime the bad guy takes 6 or more rounds of 9mm to become Incapacitated you realize just how weak pistol rounds are.

Despite recent advances in ammo technology 9mm is still underpowered.

Consider that 9mm, 40, and 45 are each a small not large but a small step up on one another. The arguement that one the three calibers is the magic answer and the others are stupid is asinine.

Take the biggest caliber that you can shoot well and can afford to practice with.

OP why do you like .40 and what do you carry?

Id prolly carry 180gr Rangers or Gold Dots.

But I am interested in your opinon.

I carry it because the ballistics, to me, were great. The recoil is minimal. Not sure what the fuss is about it??? Since I finally found some, I've been carrying the 165gr Federal HST.

The .40 brings a lot to the table, but a lot of people can't see that.  There's any number of reasons why people hate it, for instance some don't like it because a few guys they like that have TV shows or internet channels don't like it.   Some don't like it because as mentioned earlier, people will defend what they own, what they're financially invested in.   Also some still view handguns as poor performers and as such, many gravitate to the 9mm because of the "all handguns suck anyways" mindset.   

I like the .40, I don't think it's magical but it's a good cartridge and can be just as effective as any other handgun out there, anyone who says otherwise is just biased. 

I don't hate 40 but I choose to carry 9mm. If I want something bigger I go to 10mm, I don't need anything in between.

However I am considering getting a 40 barrel for my Glock 20 just to be able to shoot another caliber and I won't be upset if I loose brass like I am with 10mm.

There is nothing "wrong" with the .40.
It's a compromise.  Like all compromises there are some advantages and disadvantages.

9mm or 45 acp are both easier to shoot due to the snappier recoil of the .40.  For new shooters, or non-gun people (like say 95% of cops), the higher muzzle blast of the .40 is harder to overcome.  As a result, police qualification scores are much better with the 9.  Departments across the nation are going back to the 9 mainly for this reason.


In a double stack, the capacity of the .40 is significantly lower than a 9mm, and in a single stack the capacity is usually only +1 over a .45.

I certainly wouldn't feel under-gunned carrying a .40, but I can certainly shoot a .45 much better.

The one place the .40 has a notable advantage over the 9mm is penetration through auto-glass.  So while police departments across the nation are moving back to the 9mm, highway patrol departments are sticking with the .40.   Ex: Arizona DPS just bought brand new FN  Longslides in .40 last year.

I load 9mm, 40, 45, and a lot more on my DILLON XL650

I like them all.



It's a good defense caliber, and dominates USPSA-IPSC Limted Division.

nothing wrong with 40

Maybe if I was 5'2" and spent my days in mommys basement playing call of duty, I'd think differently

It's the "Caitlyn caliber"   ... for the folks with wuddle hands who can't handle the 10mm AUTO.  

Not common.  Period.

I dunno about hate but it offers no advantage over the 9mm in comparable loads and it breaks guns. The last is a simple fact.

It doesn't break my guns

You can put 10,000 rounds a year, for many years, and the STI 2011 will keep on ticking

M&P's and CZ P-07 seem ok too

I'm sure I'm wrong because no one else has mentioned it...

Smith and Wesson was universally hated by gun owners right around the same timeframe that LE agencies were embracing .40. (and it was beginning to go mainstream)

Coincidence?

This...it nails it.

http://captiongenerator.com/725292/Hitler-discovers-MiamiJBTs-40cal-army

Must turn on captions

4.5 grains of WST, that's lower than the start load in my Lyman 47.  

I would hope that load is nice and soft shooting since it's about half the pressure of factory ammo.

Good looking CZ.  If I were to carry a full size sidearm that's the one I'd carry.

Nothing wrong with .40 I've own a few and have no intentions on getting rid of them.

It comes down to cost for me. I can shoot more 9mm.

.40 S&W is cheaper than 10mm Auto. If you reload you just created two different types of primers needed, and two different powders instead of combining both to use just one size of primer and just one powder simplifying things...which just created more expense.

There is not one word in there that isn't true.

I don't carry .40 S&W but holy geez, the way some go about it is seriously

Then again, I only do it when a certain JBT in Florida pontificates it's superiority and needs to have a little wake up call from time to time

Only .40 breaks guns??





Too much internet tonight. This is Tech and not GD, correct?

I don't really hate any caliber.

I wanted more capacity than my 1911 .45acp had with all this gang and BLM / Antifa crap going around now. I was carrying Chip McCormick 8rd mags with one in the pipe for 9rds, but I wanted more. I decided on 9mm since it's adequate and has twice the capacity in some firearms.

I started to stick with the 1911/2011 platform since I've been shooting them exclusively for the last 20 years other than a few others that I've had but never kept.

I was going DBL stack in 9mm, but I carried a Para P14-45 for years, and while I had no trouble concealing it, it was really too big for my hands with the LDA trigger it had. I thought about the standard SA trigger models but decided I wanted something different. I started to go with the P320 but it got the drop safety aids right when I ordered them. So, I went HKP30. I was going to get it in 9mm, but they had the P30 with the LEM in 40SW for $200 less, per gun. With me getting two guns, that's $400, plus the 8 free mags. ( One gun is for my son ).

Anyway, I had bought a bunch of 9mm since I was ordering that, and ended up having to sell it. I bought .40SW to replace it from SGAmmo. I paid $1 per 50rd box more for brass cased plinking ammo in 180grs ( replacing the 124gr same brand ), and $3/50 more for 180gr Gold Dots ( replacing 124gr Gold Dots).

Considering the the extra material in the projectiles, that's really not much cost at all.

Further, the dies were the same price, I'm using the same powder, and primers, so that's all the same price. There are 7,000gr of powder in a lbs, and the load data is about 1.9gr difference, so not even enough to make any real difference. The plinking projectiles from Xtreme are within a few bucks per 500, 147gr 9mm is $44/500 and the 180gr 10mm is $55.

There is no cost for brass because brass is once fired from the ammo I've bought. Once it's fired it's free.


So, with 5.0gr of HS6 and 147gr 9mm bullets, the cost per round is 12.9¢, $6.54/50 and per 1000 is 128.71.


And, with 6.9gr of HS6 and 180gr 10mm bullets, the cost per round is 15.7¢ , $7.83/50 and per 1000 is 156.69.

They have .40 on sale right now for $70/1000 so if I used that it would be $116.69, $5.83/50 so if you catch sales, it's not really any difference. I've seen the 9mm on sale for similar or rather a tad lower.  

Also you can get lower weights cheaper in each caliber.


On average the 9mm is about $25-$30 cheaper per 1000. If that's a lot of money, you might be in the wrong sport. Most people don't go through 200rds a year. You're talking about $4 total difference for that. Those same people grab one box of defense ammo and load a few mags and don't fire it for years.

I don't shoot like I used to. I used to shoot probably 5K rds of pistol and the same of rifle a year. Now I shoot maybe 1000rds per at the most. Health reasons for me.

Both operate at the same pressure. lol If you shoot 9mm+P, or +p+, you're way over the .40SW operating pressure for any .40SW load.

And, the .40 has a wider base, so the slide face pressure is actually spread out and less than a 9mm. If you're breaking .40cal guns you're buying cheap guns, or you're not replacing recoil springs on time and battering the slide and frame, or the take down lever / slide stop pin.

ETA: didn't see this isn't GD

4.4 - 4.9 gr
Attached File

Because it is a weak cartridge but too snappy according to many. 

Basically people follow trends, can't think for themselves, and have whimpy girly wrists. 

Count me in w those who hope the 40 hate continues, folks dumping new/like new Glocks at fire sale prices, 180gr HST's for $15 a 50, it's all good.

Damn, i may as well buy a .40 barrel for my glock 40 lol

That makes sense Id carry that over any 9mm personally.

They need to make a 210gr HST for 10mm I think

You can now get a 200 grain GDHP 10mm from Speer. Cabelas has them online.

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/06/jeremy-s/40-in-a-10mm-glock/

I love the .40 Hate.  I'm buying up used ones at firesale prices and I'm stacking them deep.