Nobody wants a 40 anymore

[358156hp]

I know a guy who shot IPSC, IDPA, and the local steel and pin matches with a a pair of Glock 23s. His reasoning was that it's (was) the only caliber that you could get in a high cap gun that could be loaded to either major or minor and he couldn't turn that down with all the shooting he was doing. I mentioned the lower magazine capacity and he told me that the capacity was plenty, but was also an incentive to not miss much. To my knowledge, he's still out there mowing 'em down. He wasn't a one trick pony by any means, the guy is the type who shows up for matches and people say something like "well, the hunt for second place is on".

I was recently gifted with a bunch of .40 brass. A retired cop moved into assisted living and had a sale, but nobody wanted his .40 brass. Since I'm the only one who admits to owning one three 5 gal. buckets of once fired brass mysteriously showed up on my doorstep. I am slowly working my was through the first bucket, sizing, bulge busting, and wet tumbling it. At least most of it has round primer strikes, there's not a lot of Glock striker marks. Duty & practice ammo must have been loaded really hot back then. Especially Winchester. I've tossed a lot of Winchester brass so far because the extractor groove and rims were pretty scarred up. Now I'm looking for more 40 S&W pistols to feed.

[Velo Dog]

Isn't the SAMMI pressure spec higher for 9mm +P higher than for .40?

It is...and 357 SIG is even higher at 40k psi.

The 9x19mm cartridge can have lower bolt thrust/breech pressure even with higher maximum chamber pressure due to its smaller case head.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolt_thrust

[claymore504]

I was a 40 only guy years ago. My first two handguns were a Gen 3 Glock 22 and 27 for carry. I ended up with many more 40 pistols later. Today, all I have left is a 1990s Sig P229. I dont shoot it much at all. I think out of all the 40 pistols I had over the years, the M&P 5 inch was my favorite and it was really a pleasure to shoot.

[BobM]

Within the past couple months I shot CCI shotshells from 22, 39, 9mm, and 40 S&W pistols. The 40 throws more shot and had a denser pattern. That’s another reason I’m considering using the 40 more in some environments.

[Lex Luthier]

My brother's gen 2 Glock 23 is fairly awful to use. The gen 2 P99 QA in my holster is pretty much the antithesis of awful, though it does snap a bit more than it's 1mm smaller brethren. Dry fire helps, as always.

[Screwball]

As soon as I saw that P2000 on PSA (Friday), I ordered.

No, .40 isn’t my caliber. Prior to that purchase, my only .40 was my M&P40C, which I also have a .357 SIG barrel. Debating about getting a similar barrel for the HK. Only reason I have the gun is to shoot that caliber.

Reason why I ordered it… I was issued the same P2000 when I went thru the CBP academy. Had the gun for about a year and turned it in to be destroyed with less than 2,000 rounds thru it (we now have Glock 19s). I wish I could have bought that back. For me, I did want a copy of it since that’s what started my career here. Doesn’t hurt that I have holsters and a crap ton of magazines.

[KevH]

I know a guy who shot IPSC, IDPA, and the local steel and pin matches with a a pair of Glock 23s. His reasoning was that it's (was) the only caliber that you could get in a high cap gun that could be loaded to either major or minor and he couldn't turn that down with all the shooting he was doing. I mentioned the lower magazine capacity and he told me that the capacity was plenty, but was also an incentive to not miss much. To my knowledge, he's still out there mowing 'em down. He wasn't a one trick pony by any means, the guy is the type who shows up for matches and people say something like "well, the hunt for second place is on".

I was recently gifted with a bunch of .40 brass. A retired cop moved into assisted living and had a sale, but nobody wanted his .40 brass. Since I'm the only one who admits to owning one three 5 gal. buckets of once fired brass mysteriously showed up on my doorstep. I am slowly working my was through the first bucket, sizing, bulge busting, and wet tumbling it. At least most of it has round primer strikes, there's not a lot of Glock striker marks. Duty & practice ammo must have been loaded really hot back then. Especially Winchester. I've tossed a lot of Winchester brass so far because the extractor groove and rims were pretty scarred up. Now I'm looking for more 40 S&W pistols to feed.

If you can find a S&W M&P 40 2.0 5" for cheap my personal opinion is that is the epitome of the caliber.

Just a plain-jain S&W M&P 40 though is a fantastic gun and those can be head for quite cheap these days.

[Wonder9]

The 10mm marketing campaign is just a way to sell all the unwanted .40S&W components.

[358156hp]

If you can find a S&W M&P 40 2.0 5" for cheap my personal opinion is that is the epitome of the caliber.

Just a plain-jain S&W M&P 40 though is a fantastic gun and those can be head for quite cheap these days.

That's kind of what I was thinking too. I seem to recall Hilton Yam saying something about looking at the M&P in .40 first. I don't have the exact quote but he said the M&Ps being specifically designed around Smiffs signature caliber. I already have an M&P 9C for carry, so we already have a start.

It took me a long time to forgive S&W for making my first-run Sigma in their new signature caliber, the new 40 S&W. I paid a lot of money for that POS when they first came out. It was embarrassing, me and my newest model S&W in their newest law-enforcement caliber. Oh well, I still have the free range bag.

[KevH]

That's kind of what I was thinking too. I seem to recall Hilton Yam saying something about looking at the M&P in .40 first. I don't have the exact quote but he said the M&Ps being specifically designed around Smiffs signature caliber. I already have an M&P 9C for carry, so we already have a start.

It took me a long time to forgive S&W for making my first-run Sigma in their new signature caliber, the new 40 S&W. I paid a lot of money for that POS when they first came out. It was embarrassing, me and my newest model S&W in their newest law-enforcement caliber. Oh well, I still have the free range bag.

My department foolishly replaced our 659 and 5906's in 2003 with the S&W SW99 40. Complete piece of trash gun. It was so bad S&W replaced every single SW99 in LE with a M&P for free and even bought department's new holsters. The SW99's weren't allowed to be sold in the US secondary market which is why you rarely hear or see anything about them today. We were super skeptical of the M&P at first, but we had our M&P 40's for nearly 10 years and I can count the issues we had with them on one hand (we moved on to M&P 9's and now M&P 9 2.0 OR's). The M&P is a great platform in 40 S&W. If S&W had come out with that gun in the mid to late 1990's instead of the whole Sigma debacle I think Glock never would have dominated the market the way it did and the 40 S&W would probably still be more dominant in LE.