I'm glad I have a couple of 38 Supers around. The ammo is never cheap, but the price has only gone up a little bit recently and it is available. I have a couple thousand rounds of 45 and 38 Super on hand, but in order to keep shooting without depleting my stock I plan to buy more 38 Super soon and do most of my shooting with that in the near future.
After snagging a 96G slide and barrel the other day, I need a dedicated frame for it. It's shootable, but definitely not as pleasant as 9mm.
I only started stocking about a year and a half ago, but there's, em, significant amounts of ammo around here. I've actually bought some 5.56 here the last couple weeks. .46/round is more than I want to pay, but it's not as bad as it could be. Got plenty of powder and primers and some bullets for .223/5.56, but I really need a better powder scale.
https://palmettostatearmory.com/s-w-...10118dpdu.html
Detroit PD trade in S&W .40 M&Ps for those that now desire such a thing. $299.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
I actually like .40 and shoot it fairly often. Not what I use at work, although it and .45 are still authorized. I find I am just a bit slower with .40 than 9mm and my accuracy will deteriorate a bit quicker if I am shooting a lot in a day. I sometimes wonder if the .40 would have remained more popular if individuals and agencies stuck with 180gr instead of 155 and 165, and if they had avoided the really small and light guns?
Anyway, unless I find myself unable to carry a 9mm round that I trust, I don't see going back to .45 or .40 on a daily basis, although I would not have any heartburn about doing so. I have a couple pistols in those calibers that would be happy to jump in a holster and go to work.
Never shot an M&P in .40
My experience is pretty much the same as yours. My hands are full of arthritis now and the 9mm is generally easier to shoot but I still like the .40 in smaller doses. I carried a Kahr K40 for years and found that the weight of the steel gun made the recoil very similar to that of my CW9. I never did try a CW40. I'm no physicist but I figured that would be painful.