Nobody wants a 40 anymore

[revchuck38]

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.

Strangely enough, there's a lot of love for SW99s on the Walther forum in the P99 subforum. Then again, there are a bunch of folks there who vociferously proclaim that the PPK is the best defensive handgun ever. I've got two P99Cs in 9x19 and they're excellent, and the seven SW99 mags I have (two full-size, five ten-rounders) run perfectly in them. They should; Mec-Gar was the vendor for both Walther and S&W.

I remember when the M&Ps came out. There was a whole bunch of folks who dismissed them as re-branded Sigmas and declared they were trash without having seen or shot one. They were probably the same folks who declared that the accuracy problems with the original 9x19 version were due to the rate of twist being too slow. Good thing my 5906 never heard that.

[CSW]

Over the course of my pistol hoarding, I've had several 40's:

P229
4043
USPc
Para Ord. P16
Beretta 96a1
Glocks 22 and 23.

The Beretta 96, and G22 were probably the most accurate and easy to shoot, the 23 was 'different', that whole 19 grip, snappy recoil, and too many aftermarket parts. Out of them all, the 22 is what I would have kept at the time.

I still have a good quantity of SD ammo on hand.

I don't own a single one anymore. I've been tempted by the relatively low cost of them now, and would only serve as a 'woods gun'.
Another gun I don't need. The juice isn't worth the squeeze at the moment, when you factor support gear and mags.

[mmc45414]

My yammering moved to Decline of the 40 S&W thread...

[Stephanie B]

I bought a LEO trade-in P226 in .40 some years ago. It's a decent gun. With the high-cap ban, I don't feel as though I'm giving up as much as I would with one in 9mm.

[Sammy1]

40 S&W is a good caliber. It's not the greatest range gun or competition piece but it is a good self-defense caliber. I purchased an LE trade-in P226 in 40 and M&P 40 for cheap $. They make a great dedicated night stand pistols and or truck gun. Or, for the really paranoid, you can stage one in a lock box on every floor of your house!

[KevH]

Strangely enough, there's a lot of love for SW99s on the Walther forum in the P99 subforum. Then again, there are a bunch of folks there who vociferously proclaim that the PPK is the best defensive handgun ever. I've got two P99Cs in 9x19 and they're excellent, and the seven SW99 mags I have (two full-size, five ten-rounders) run perfectly in them. They should; Mec-Gar was the vendor for both Walther and S&W.

I remember when the M&Ps came out. There was a whole bunch of folks who dismissed them as re-branded Sigmas and declared they were trash without having seen or shot one. They were probably the same folks who declared that the accuracy problems with the original 9x19 version were due to the rate of twist being too slow. Good thing my 5906 never heard that.

The Walther P99 in 9mm is a great pistol.

I cannot over emphasize how bad the SW99 40 was.

My first one would de-cock itself mid string of fire at random. S&W replaced all SW99's we had in inventory with another batch. The same problems manifested themselves. After about a year and half there were less than five people in the department still carrying the SW99 because no one trusted them. Almost as soon as the M&P 40 came out they offered to replace all our guns and buy us suitable Safariland leather gear. We accepted and for the past 15 years have had great guns with great service by S&W.

I was told that S&W would not allow any of the SW99's to be sold in the US or in Europe. Years after ours were long gone we received an INTERPOL hit that one of our former guns was used in a crime in South America. I'm guessing the third part re-seller sold them all down there.

To compete against Glock in the plastic pistol realm S&W copied Glock with the Sigma in a dismal failure, got sued, and partnered/screwed-up Walther, before finally succeeding about a decade later. I really with they had spent some more time and just come out with the M&P to start with. It's such a solid design.

[ECK]

I have a few 40’s in the collection, two 2011’s and two 1911’s. All of them are dedicated competition guns that haven’t been shot in a while.

.40 in a 2011 was a no-brainer 10+ years ago for USPSA Limited division. Because major PF and because 20 or 21 mag capacity. That’s where you ended up if you were a Limited division shooter.

I also have a couple single stack 1911s chambered in .40. I was already loading.40 for my 2011 above, had plenty of components and .40 is slightly cheaper than .45 to load for. Plus I didn’t have to change the primer bar out for LPP and could keep it with the SPP bar installed. Lastly, Tripp System .40 mags held 10 rnds, giving me the option to shoot SS minor in .40, L-10 major in .40, or load 9 rnds for the barney mag if shooting SS major. Plus I came to prefer the snappier recoil of .40 180 gr 170-ish PF ammo than the push recoil of a 230 gr .45acp. And when flying to a match, 500 rnds of .40 weighed a little less than 500 rnds of .45.

But aging eyes have steered me toward dot gun divisions, and currently all those (with exception of Open) are 9mm divisions. Hardly anybody is shooting Limited division at my local matches and even less are shooting major PF.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Had a G27 and it was snappy. Didn't see it offered anything more than a 26, so it became a 26. I can see having one stashed for the end of the world and having easier to get stashes of ammo. However, if it comes to that kind of survival situation, I'm more Moldy Max than Mad Max.

[revchuck38]

Had a G27 and it was snappy. Didn't see it offered anything more than a 26, so it became a 26. I can see having one stashed for the end of the world and having easier to get stashes of ammo. However, if it comes to that kind of survival situation, I'm more Moldy Max than Mad Max.

You and me both, Glenn!

[LockedBreech]

My fond opinion of .40 likely comes from the fact that I don't have any "bad" ones.

Beretta PX4 - Awesome .40 platform
Gen 5 G22 - Awesome .40 platform
M&P 40 - Awesome .40 platform
Beretta 8040 Cougar - Okay some I just own for Beretta nostalgia but at least it led to the PX4

Also the fact that I'm super stocked up on .40 and barely ever shoot it so those stocks remain a viable fallback for an ammo drought.

I probably ought to buy a few more pallets because I'm sure eventually it's going to be like rocking 10mm was 15 years ago.