Re-engaging that stubborn student with a surprise ending

[CCT125US]

I shoot and carry 9 mm glock, and I have a 617 for trigger control practice. I wonder if it would be worth getting a 40 for recoil management practice?

Since you asked for my opinion I would say no. My reason back then for picking up the .40 was I wanted a carry gun that I could also practice with. This was durring the great ammo shortage of (insert year) and 9mm was impossible to find and my LGS had skids of .40 sitting around. My primer supply was dwindling down and I could forecast running out in several weeks. I picked up the .40 to fill a need at that time in my life based upon my situation. The upside was that I could continue to shoot (granted it was a less than ideal setup IMO) and I had to learn better recoil management based on my physical size. If I had a choice I would have gone a different route but I did not. I found the silver lining in the cloud of my experience. Another upside is that I have another option if that situation should happen again. But I am more inclined to stick with one gun if given a chance.

[matman]

I too started on a Glock 21 and then switched to a 23. I put well over 3k through each in the beginning, but the cost was killing me! I wanted to train more for less, so I went to all 9mms (still own the .40 barrel for the 23, and the 21 I still shoot occassionally). I was in the Glock instructor clad and had the opportunity to shoot some LEOs .40s there and honestly didn't see that big of a difference. I could shoot it faster sure to the cyclic rate being more positive then my 9mm. But I felt no major differences. Going from one to the next. I have seen them however very pronounced amongst other shooters so I do believe they exist. I try to force new shooters to shoot my or their 9mms until they have a good grip on the fundamentals. Then I slowly introduce them back to other calibers. Seems to help once they can see how to transition those fundamentals back to .40 or .45. I do shoot the .40/.45 from time to time to instill the fact that fundamentals ARE fundamentals no matter what the caliber or gun model your shooting. Obviously a Kahr .40 caliber will require more help then a .40 Glock 35 to drive at a higher speed... But trigger press and sight alignment are the basis for everything.

[jmjames]

40's are an interesting caliber. The chamber pressures associated with the round make the recoil a distinctly different experience for the shooter. My take is that recoil is compressed into a shorter time frame so it is more noticeable. I've shot a lot of 45 and vastly prefer the overall higher level of recoil spread out over a longer time period.

IIRC, Bill Rogers has observed that the easiest pistols to shoot are 9mm's. Next are 45's. Bringing up the rear are 40 & 357's.

Mods, feel free to fork as needed...

I was trying to find a video showing what the pattern of a TLR-1 was, and I found this video from Streamlight:
http://www.streamlight.com/documents...=530&width=522

In it, they happen to mention that in their testing, .357 SIG was the fastest recoil they've encountered, on *anything* (including shotguns and rifles). I thought that was an interesting data point.

J.Ja

[MDS]

Just dip your 9mm in axle grease. That's about what that sub-compact felt like.

BTW, if we hadn't introduced a speed drill into the session, might have missed the "squirm out of your hand" issue.

Hah! That's not a bad idea. The image in my head involves a kiddie pool full of baby oil and a Bill Drill competition... not sure how the Safety Board would feel about that, though.

In all seriousness, I think I'll take my USPc45 on my next range trip. I'll do a few Bill Drills with my G19, then a few with the USPc45, then see if I do any better with the G19. Fun!