40 S&W full-size 1911

[KevH]

Any 10mm can be converted to 40 S&W by having a new barrel fit and a little tuning by a competent smith. The question is, why would you want to?

The 10mm OAL works well in the 1911 platform whereas the shorter cartridge OAL of 40 S&W require mags with a spacer and sometimes have feeding issues.

About 12 years ago now a friend worked at a department that only allowed 40 S&W guns so he had Nighthawk build him a 40 S&W GRP. It worked, but shooting it side by side with a 45 ACP gun left me always going "meh."

To me the 40 S&W 1911 is more a novelty than a practical alternative.

Now the 38 Super loaded to its potential is a whole other matter...

[JSGlock34]

For what it's worth, there's an article titled '40SW magazines for 1911' on page 62 of the May/June 2021 USPSA magazine. The author discusses the difficulty in getting the short .40 round to run in a 1911, and loading long in order to get the round to function. The article focuses on testing Wilson 47FX magazines in a pair of STI Trojans with Federal Syntech ammunition. One pistol seemed to run just fine and the other had some failures to feed.

[Bucky]

For what it's worth, there's an article titled '40SW magazines for 1911' on page 62 of the May/June 2021 USPSA magazine. The author discusses the difficulty in getting the short .40 round to run in a 1911, and loading long in order to get the round to function. The article focuses on testing Wilson 47FX magazines in a pair of STI Trojans with Federal Syntech ammunition. One pistol seemed to run just fine and the other had some failures to feed.

IME, Tripp is where it’s at for .40 and / or 10 mm SS magazines.

[TCB]

2 other Agents I know shot 1911 in 40 due to getting it from work. One had a Sig Max Michelle that always ran good at matches and the other shot out an STI Trojan (2x cracked slides and a frame) with 80,000+ rounds of our very spicy .40 on it when he finally replaced it with a Dan Wesson as a training gun. I shot all 3 and the Sig was nice but the DW was nicer…the STI was beat up really bad by the time I shot it and not really a fair comparison.

[ECK]

I used to shoot Single Stack quite a bit in USPSA and have 1911’s chambered in 9mm, .40SW, and .45ACP. The first was a STI Trojan in .45 that I was fairly monogamous with for a couple years. Then I discovered 2011’s and Limited div, which most of you know is a .40SW game. Because I was heavily invested in .40 components I got the hankering for a 1911 chambered in .40 to share the same ammo and not have to change over my press as often. A local gunsmith built one for me using STI frame/slide and Kart barrel, and EGW internals since for approx the same cost as a Trojan in .40 I could spec my own internals. My reasoning for going .40 was largely logistical, but it was a fun gun to shoot and I liked how it was snappier than the push of the .45. Ammo cost was marginally lower than .45 (180 gr vs 200/230 gr bullets).

Added advantage of the .40 was with the right Tripp mags I could also load 10+1 and choose to shoot Single Stack Major or Minor (depending on the stages) or Limited-10 with the same gun.

The major/minor experiment led me to realize that if one was going to shoot Single Stack minor, 9mm was really the best way to go. So I had the same gunsmith build me one in 9mm. 9mm in an all steel 1911 is a hoot, plus its fairly affordable.

So to sum it all up:

.45ACP because it is synonymous with apple pie,‘Merica, and JMB.
9mm because it is pure fun in a 43 oz all steel 1911.
.40 because it is a Goldilocks and all-around utility player but I don’t think I would have gone down that rabbit hole had I not been shooting Limited at the time.

[Bucky]

The major/minor experiment led me to realize that if one was going to shoot Single Stack minor, 9mm was really the best way to go. So I had the same gunsmith build me one in 9mm. 9mm in an all steel 1911 is a hoot, plus its fairly affordable.
.

Is there any reason other than cost? With the right load, my minor .40 single stack is as soft, if not softer, than my 9mm.

[ECK]

Is there any reason other than cost? With the right load, my minor .40 single stack is as soft, if not softer, than my 9mm.

Other than cost I had two main reasons for preferring 9mm for SS minor:

I found .40 minor to be pretty soft, but I actually prefer the snappier feel of 9mm recoil.

The other factor was the real deal-breaker. I had issues with the .40 mags feeding reliably when stuffed with 10 rnds. The follower would sometimes pop out the top of the mag at slide lock which meant I had to strip the mag by hand, or the top round would sometimes nose dive despite recutting and polishing the feedramp.

The mags worked perfectly with 8 or 9 rnds when using a different follower, but in order to squeeze the 10th rnd in you had to use a different follower. I didn’t always have problems, but it seemed like I would have one or two issues per match. A friend was using the same mags and had the same issues.

With 9mm mags I didn’t have the above issues when loaded to 10 rnds.