Is .40 S&W dead 💀

[MAUSERMAN]

I try to keep a wide variety of handguns in different calibers. Revolvers and autos for different purposes. I keep hearing that the .40 is dead. Yet in this Ammo craze I find .40 rather easily. I know that 9mm has advanced in technology, but I find nothing wrong with the .40. So what gives?

[billt]

The .40 S&W is available in periods of heavy demand, because it is becoming less popular among today's shooters. With that said, the .40 S&W is not "dead". However it's popularity has been going downhill for a while now. The reason is because it was a solution to a non existent problem. But back in the 90's it was Smith & Wesson's biggest money maker. A "Cliff Notes" version of the rise and fall of the .40 S&W is as follows:

1.) The FBI Miami shootout occurred on April 11, 1986. Resulting in 2 FBI Agents killed, and 5 others wounded.

2.) In order to improve it's weaponry, the FBI quickly made the change to the then new 10 MM Auto cartridge. Along with the large framed, heavy S&W Model 1006 auto pistols that fired it.

3.) They quickly discovered that several agents, (in particular women agents), could not handle the gun well, and several were having difficulty qualifying with it because of it's size, weight, and recoil.

4.) The FBI then went to Federal, and asked them to produce a reduced power load to help cut recoil, and in the process increase control. Federal then introduced the lower powered, "FBI 10 MM Load". By doing so the FBI along with Federal, managed to create the worst of everything. An underpowered load in too big and heavy of a pistol.

5.) While all of this was going on, Smith & Wesson was sitting on the sidelines watching all of it, and came up with a brilliant, $$$"solution"$$$. They discovered they could shorten the 10 MM case by .100, and call it the .40 S&W. This round gave better paper ballistics then a 9 MM at the time, and could be built on existing 9 MM frame pistols. It was also very easy for police and law enforcement agents to control.

6.) Everyone and their brother started producing and selling .40 S&W pistols. And many in law enforcement and the civilian market thought it was the best thing to come along since Monday Night Football, and 3 men in the booth. Sales took off.

7.) While all of this was taking place in the 90's and well into the new millennium, modern self defense pistol ammunition was improving drastically across the board. With better, more positively expanding bullets, that improved the 9 MM's performance to much higher levels. With less recoil and wear than what the .40 S&W offered. Any minor "advantage" the .40 S&W may have had, was quickly negated by vastly improved 9 MM ammunition

8.) The result of all of this was the .40 S&W slowly fell from grace, while the 9 MM once again began to rise back as the premier caliber for law enforcement.

9.) The final nail in the .40 S&W coffin was when the FBI made the decision to change back to the 9 MM in 2015. Pretty much admitting in the process the .40 S&W did not produce the results they had originally hoped for.

It's not that the .40 S&W was a "bad" cartridge. It's not. Or that there was anything "wrong" with it per say. There isn't. It is just as I said, a solution to a non existent problem. Or perhaps more accurately, a solution to a problem the FBI managed to create for themselves. But that Smith & Wesson was able to brilliantly capitalize on from a financial standpoint.

[crusader rabbit]

Bill, that was an excellent and concise expository history of the .40 S&W. 

I carried a Glock 27 in .40 S&W for many, many years as my EDC.  In all that time, and with countless rounds sent down range, I never grew any affection for that gun.  The .40 barks hard and even with my 220 lbs. and years of weight training, it jumped enough that it always took a moment to get back on target.  I just never particularly liked the gun even though I learned to shoot it well.

In 2018 I saw a good looking 9 mm Sig Sauer P226 in a local gun store.  It felt good in my hand.  I made the purchase.  I have never regretted the move to Sig over Glock, and never regretted the move from .40 S&W to 9 mm.  And, at the risk of setting under the skin of Glock fanboys, I will say the Sig is a much superior gun in almost every respect, and it allowed me to do something I could not do with the Glock--add some great looking wood grips.

I did get a .40 S&W barrel with my Sig with the thought that I still had a safe load of .40 S&W that needed to be shot.  But, after a mag or two of .40 S&W through the Sig, that barrel and attendant magazines remain ensconced on a back shelf in my safe and may not see the light of day until I've used up all my 9 mm in the Zombie Apocalypse. 

And in another one of those unforeseen and unexpected life events, shortly after I sold the Glock 27 I was gifted a CZ P-40 in .40 S&W by an elderly friend.  So now I have another .40 S&W that I have shot a single magazine through and will likely never shoot again.

To somewhat echo what Bill T said, there's really nothing wrong with the .40 S&W other than it solved a problem that didn't need a solution.  At the time, however, it reflected what Mr. Browning is reported to have said:  Never get in a gunfight with anything that doesn't start with a 4.

FWIW,
Crusader Rabbit

[tombogan03884]

Yet in this Ammo craze I find .40 rather easily. I know that 9mm has advanced in technology, but I find nothing wrong with the .40. So what gives?

That should tell you all you need to know about .40 S&W.
It's like the bullpup rifle, lot's of agencies adopted one when it was introduced, no one adopted a 2nd one.
It isn't good enough to compete with calibers that spent 100 years being perfected and building their market.
Just as good isn't good enough to justify any extra expense .
AK 74 is the same.
US sportsman bought more of them than even Russia did. They are sticking with the 7.62 X 39.
Really pissing them off too.   
They REALLY want a new gun, but can't find one any better.
They should do like us, just buy the cool one and F%CK justification.   

[alfsauve]

I toyed with it, actually shot a couple of matches with it.

If you want to have a wide variety of calibers so that you can always find ammo, then by all means get the .40SW.  Want to shoot "major" in USPSA, sure .40SW can fill that roll.   It's a compromise between .45ACP and 9mm.  Less power but more rounds than the former, more power but fewer rounds than the latter.


In my final quarter of life, I embrace Marie Kondo theory:  If it brings joy keep it.
My simplified armory is 9mm & .45 for semi-autos, and .38sp & .44mag for revolvers.

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

I bought a couple of 40 S&W chambered gun.  My son owns them now.

I kept the 10MM's.

I kept the 9MM's.

I kept the 45's.

[TAB]

Why shoot 40, when i can shoot 10 mm? 

I carry a 1911 every day.   Its 10 mm more often than its 45.   

[MAUSERMAN]

Wow guys thanks for the info. Bill you knocked it out of the park. Maybe I’m not recoil sensitive or don’t mind carrying I large handgun. I’ve carried a G22 while backpacking, sometimes a G20 in 10mm in cases where the critters get bit larger. My Sigpro 2022 super accurate and very mild mannered. My edc currently is a Xd subcompact in .40sw. I do keep a beretta m9a1 for my bump in the night gun. I do like the magazine capability of 9mm.

[billt]

.....It's like the bullpup rifle, lot's of agencies adopted one when it was introduced, no one adopted a 2nd one.........

That is an excellent comparison.

[billt]

Just another tidbit I thought I would add. Back when I was living in Glendale, I was just 5 minutes from both Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse. On several occasions while browsing both stores, I would see many Sig's, Beretta's, S&W's, and even a few Browning Hi-Powers in both 9 MM, and .40 S&W at the gun counter. The 9 MM guns were gone in a matter of day's, or even hours during times of panic buying.... While the same guns in .40 S&W would languish on the shelf for sometimes months before they sold. And they were usually heavily discounted when they did.