Question regarding .40S&W

[AdamG247 (Navy-Ret)]

I have had several 40 cal handguns. I am not certain, but I think the 40 was overpowered so it could stand up to the FBI penetration test.

I find the round to have an extremely harsh recoil, flash and muzzle flip as compared to a 9mm or 45. In my experience on the range, these characteristics showed up on paper as considerably larger groups.

As a side note. My wife hates the 40. After a few rounds she put the gun safely down and said "Holy Cow, What is that?" She felt the gun was uncontrollable for her. That was with a full size Glock 22.

Maybe with some tamed down hand loads it may be a fun round to shoot?

[bttbbob]

I like the .40, bought my son a H&K USP .40 C great gun, good caliber.

[dwsmithjr]

Now .357sig, that is sharp! If you've shot 10mm just about anything else can be comfortable.

As I understood it, .40S&W was developed as a compromise over 10mm which in turn was designed to produce the effectiveness of .38 special used at the time by the FBI, but in an auto load handgun. However, 10mm proved to be too much for many of the agents, was abandoned and that gave birth to .40S&W.

It was intended to be the next generation of military, police and self-defense caliber, a succession to 9mm. Then some police went to .40S&W then went back to 9mm. Peoples considered it a "bastard" cartridge and so on. It was something that didn't live up to it's design intention and really wasn't adopted very widely.

I have a couple of .40S&W handguns and have not found them difficult to sharp to shoot but generally have stuck with .45ACP or 10mm apart from revolver calibers. I also have a few 9mm handguns which are certainly more gentle to shoot.