Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Why No Love For The S&W .40?

The Glock 19 is sort of a gold standard by which various other handguns are judged. It is small enough to be considered a compact, yet large enough to be considered an actual duty size pistol. It can be manipulated by the majority of people, regardless of hand size, is easy enough to shoot well, and has a good on board capacity at 15+1.

I was issued one for years by the .gov while working overseas, and think highly of them, simply in terms of the practical tool that they are. I switch back and forth between the G19 and G17 quite frequently for carry pistols. In the hottest part of the summer, I tend to carry the G19 more due to the nature of what I am wearing.

It is also the smallest pistol that I am willing to get into a stand up gunfight with against 1 or 2 bad guys who are also armed. So it is where I draw the line terms of carry guns. Any smaller (such as the G26/27) and my performance drops off considerably to the point that I do not find it acceptable.

With the .40 cal equivilant, G23 I still find that I perform better with the G19. It is when I get up to the full size frame that I find that the shooting performance is close enough to be acceptable, and I the heavier projectile it can deliver is worth the tradeoff.

I often keep my G19 set up for house duty, loaded with my +P 148 grain hard cast flat point load.