Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 40 S&W killing power

Hi: Any members here have any experience killing animals with this cartridge?It looks good on paper. Dan

It looks good on bowling pins too

gunbug,

When I do carry a handgun for self-defense, it's my P-229 loaded with 13 rounds of 180 grain LE ammo. I think that the best self-defense cartridge is the .45 ACP, but the .40 S&W ain't far behind. The reason I go with my P-229 is there is tactical advantage to not having to reload.

BTW, I have carried my P-229 in the Eastern Sierra where there are more black bears than trout. If a black bear can't be persuaded to change its dining plans with 13 180 grain rounds, I ain't sure anything short of an 870 with slugs would work.

Just digger squirrels....works good too.

It didn't impress an 80 pound doe my cousin shot with it. We never found her.

It didn't impress an 80 pound doe my cousin shot with it. We never found her.

Locate a good bullet into the vitals and game over simple as that. Not one that over expands and doesn't reach the vitals, rather one that gives some expansion yet penetrates to and through the vitals.

It just doesn't impress me, never has and never will. It offers no real advantage. You want stopping power, you go .45, You want penetration and high capacity, you go 9mm. You want a REAL .40? You go 10mm.

Yes.


Travis

it sure puts the smack-down on porkypines....

You beat me to it.

A 135 gr. Nosler JHP over a max charge of AA7 will make the quills fly.

180 gr. FMJ's will put the smack down on a 'coon, too.

Like ANY round.... shot placement is key. Put a 9mm, a 40 S&W, a .357, etc etc with proper type of bullet in the vitals of a deer, and its dead. Its up to you to track it if not placed properly.

I know it kills possums, raccoons, armadillos, copperheads, cats, dogs, and goats.....I can't say beyond those.

Killed this hog with a Winchester 180gr bonded JHP.



As with any other pistol round, if your hunting and can place your shots, hollow points work well but if your going to get up close and personnel with something big and bleeding you should use fmj or hardcast.

I have had to finish off a couple of deer when I carried a 40 cal. I have murdered dozens of armadillos .

Choose a .357 SIG-chambered pistol or a 10mm if you're shooting animals inside cars; .40s don't do well on coachwork. A 7.62x39 or x51 even maux betta!

I haven't met anyone willing to prove the 40 lacks in killing power hence if you put the rounds in the vitals it will kill. I like the 40 and observed it drop pins and steel quicker and with less shots than a 9mm.

Check out what the U.S. Border Patrol uses for caliber and the amount of shootings they have been in?

Well, I know the Tennessee Highway Patrol switched from .40 to .357 SIG in its Glocks several years back, after spectacular failures to penetrate auto bodies and human critters. They've been quite happy since with performance of their .357s, which include G31s and G33s loaded with Speer 125 GDHPs, last I heard.

My agency has been using bonded core .40 rounds for several years and they've worked pretty well. Were it up to me, we'd change to 9mm +Ps because they kick and cost less than .40s. In a perfect universe, Gaston would create a 20-shot .38 Super.

But my pistol is for reactionary defense. If en route to traffic where subjects have clubs, knives, guns or air power, I will dig out a 5.56x45 mm or 12 ga., because that's the biggest stuff I have.

I believe shot placement trumps everything in hunting, self-defense and war. Hits win fights, make meat, and save civilizations.

A .40 will kill most mammals if it stops O2 exchange by exsanguination or breaking big chunks of the central nervous system.

If you want to kill mammals, break devices and kill mammals inside devices more often, use a 7.62 pill weighing between 123-190 grains going from 2,300 to 3,200 fps. Been working well since the 1890s, but not usually available in handy sidearms.

Sorry for hijack, Op! I've killed same stuff as JMC except Dillos and put down crippled deer as well. Need to hunt deer on pumps with a .40 this year.

Think .38-40, in a smaller, modern package and more shots...............