Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Death Knell of the .40 S&W?

Exactly...

Just like the 9mm in, what was it, 1948?

Have patience. Another FBI report will come along.

LOL, JohnW.



http://www.thesixgunjournal.net/the-modern-9mm/

Eye roll.

The .45 was dead too. As was the 38. And the 9mm.

Yawn

Most people use their .357 Magnum revolvers as .38 Specials, in terms of what they shoot the most through them.

.40 is a good caliber IMO, and will be fine.
There's some "surplus dumping" going on these days, which is really just a good opportunity to buy.
Might be a good time to pick up ammo in bulk too. Some places will be looking to move inventory while there's a slump. I'm not selling mine that's for sure.

1000 fps with a 180gr, 1100 fps with a 165gr, 1200 fps with a 155gr. More fps for all with +P. The least aggressive bullet of the lot being a flat point with a wide meplate. Is there something I missed? Plus,some hollow points (Montana Gold) seem to have a fairly hard alloy. The one I checked in a non-desirable water jug expansion test looked 5-petal text book after penetrating something like 20" or more of water, blowing a .50 cal hole thru a 1/4" sheet of plywood and bouncing off a landscape timber. That with a 7.8gr Power Pistol load. Cases showed about a 10% instance of Glock Bulge so I have dropped the load to 7.7gr. Some innate presence tells me to never get hit center mass with such a load. In my G23 circa '92 this load is actually less snappy than the factory Winchester 155gr Silvertip.

Fads come and go. Red head, blonde, brunette. Don't want to get hit by any of the three. But in a dark time encounter.......does it matter?

Next they'll be coming after my .380 !

Powerwise, the 40 is not between the 9mm and the 45.
At Max. SAAMI Spec, 40 S&W power exceeds both the 9mm and the 45. That's why it's "snappy".

I'm glad that all the noobs are flocking to the 9mm - some really great sales on top-notch 40SW pistols because of it.

40 isnt going anywhere. I like 40 and 9mm. Personally 45 doesn’t appeal to me anymore, i find the .40 recoil more manageable than 45. Yea it may jump a bit more than 9mm but with proper training its not a problem.

One of my nicest 1911s is a 40..also the one I shoot the least...just like the 1911 to be a 45...recoil is way more comfortable ...

Bullets have gotten better for the 40 as well. And the 40 doesn't shrink, blah blah blah same old arguments. I don't GAF what other guys want or what other guys buy. The 9 will never be the equal of the 40, even with higher capacity, "controllability", etc. There is no replacement for displacement. Yes, the 9 is likely the most efficient case in existence for use in sidearms, but it isn't "better". There are always trade-offs, and in the case of the 9 vs 40, the trade-off is power.

2018 interim atf statistics on pistols manufactured:

TO 9MM 2,009,514
TO .50 502,317

Looks like 9mm is running 4 times 40 and 45 combined.

I haven't been a volume shooter for a long time but I am at the point where I usually see the sight picture and target through the muzzle flash. Recoil is mostly irrellevant to me. I got that way through simple repetition. Anyone can and the wave of new shooters will.
I figure .40 (& .45) will get popular again once people go through the same progression many of us have. It just isn't hard to handle a decent sized .40, at least no more so than a small 9mm. And the payoff is nearly the same capacity as 9mm with a lot more "pop" downrange. A bunch of people will figure that out and warm up to .40 again.
.40 is good stuff.

45 APC is a pretty weak round.

Be sure and keep us notified when the funeral will be. some of us will send condolences and flowers even though we may not be able to attend the funeral and burial.

There's no way I'm betting my retirement on that. As a matter of fact, if I had a safe full of 1911s I was going to finance my retirement with, I'd be dumping them now. As the old guys that are fixated on the 1911 leave the sport, the return on investment for those guns will almost certainly degrade. I'm thinking we're at "Peak 1911" or already past. 45 is going the same place as 40, just maybe not as fast. It doesn't need to make sense, these trends feed on themselves, an even greater divergence in ammo cost will finish the job .

I agree. The folks who love 1911s are dying off quick. The ones that will retain their value are the old, un-messed-with Colts (like my 1961 Government Model), or USGI. High end 1911s might be okay, too, like from Ed Brown or Les Baer. Standard, commercial, 1911s, though, are going to be hard to get rid of soon.

Rufus, there's a lot of sense to what you say and I agree with all of it. If Colt SAA's were more common I'd expect to have seen a drop in their value too. SASS helped there I reckon.
But I do think (OK, I'm guessing) that the number of new shooters that stick with the sport & also progress into bigger calibers will be noticeable. No real foundation for my opinion, just a hunch.

Now, if they developed a hot rod cartridge that was a 9mm bullet in a necked down .40 case, man that would fly off the shelves!

Oh, wait....


Yeah....