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Will magazine limits re-energize the .40SW

Sld1959

Sld1959

Hellcat
Will the current round of magazine limits, and any in the future, if they stand, help to re-energize what seems to be a slumping .40 SW cartridge?

It's seems that I hear more about the .40 SW lagging in sales than any other caliber. I could be wrong as I am not really interested in it so I have not been paying strong attention.

It would seem that two nearly identical size firearms both restricted to 10 rounds might make the larger caliber more appealing, at least to those who do not mind the stronger recoil impulse.

Just curious, having only one handgun which holds more than 8 rounds kind of makes me a poor judge of what others might desire lol.
 
I still stick with my compact Rocky 1911 and 3 extra mags with 200gr HP and have used 200s over 60yrs and I'm very comfortable with them. If I could afford another pistol it would be a 41magnum with a 3in barrel holding 210gr SWCHP but thats just my dream and it like my 1911 carries very nice in a Jackass rig. Prices for everything have just have put us at risk and we had to get a new oxygen machine for home so keeping what we now have will be enough.
 
I think the 40 S&W in the right handgun is a great round. For me the right handguns were a Sig P229 and a Steyr M40.
I think some people are a little intimidated by the reputation of the 40 S&W having snappy recoil. Plus there's a better selection of 9 mm ammo now than ever before.
I'd like to see the 40 S&W make a comeback but I think once some people shoot a 9 mm they don't want to shoot anything with more recoil.
I miss my Steyr M40 sometimes. It really tamed the 40 S&W recoil in my opinion and I enjoyed those triangular sites...:)
 
Belt Fed said:
Some of that 10mm is loaded pretty weak, was shooting mine a while back and shooting the SB 180 grain stuff and got used to it. then put a mag of some federal fusion 200 grain and man what a difference in muzzle blast and recoil.
Click to expand...
Usually self defense loads are close to full power while range ammo is somewhat milder, now back when 10mm first came out, all of it was full power loads, especially the Norma ammo
 
If you see it on the shelves, maybe it isn't as popular as you think. Maybe people are snapping up other calibers, leaving .40 for you to see.
I just checked a few pages of ammo prices on Natchez. Wow! Some of those prices are scary, the largest price I saw was $2.20/round!
I have nothing against .40, I've just purchased and shot guns on either side of it. I think the trend is away from .45 and towards 9mm. Yes, 10mm is trendy with some folks, but it won't become universally popular. Why are folks jumping on the 9mm bandwagon? 1- recoil 2- price. Think of it in terms of inflation. When steak is $12/lb., people buy more chicken. If you can buy 9mm practice ammo for $16 and .45 is over $40, I think many folks are being moved by their wallet. You can buy police trade ins, but the ammo is only slightly less than for a .45. If you don't reload, your .40 choice will end up costing you more over time due to the price of ammo even if you bought a new 9mm pistol.
Back to the OP question, magazine size limits won't popularize the .40. Just my opinion.
 
I would agree with YoungOldDude, magazine capacity really has little to do with the current trend away from the 40 S&W.

The underlying issue has always, I believe, been the difficulty most folks have in managing the caliber with any degree of accuracy at speed. This includes the vast majority of LEOs whose actual hit ratio in active gunfights teeters around 25%.

So, unless you’re a real practitioner of the “Art of the Pistol”, i.e., practice regularly and send hundreds of rounds down range a year to acclimate to the 40, you’ll likely find the recoil in most “carry guns” is intimidating… hence shot anticipation…hence very poor accuracy. I know, I’ve seen it first hand even in folks with a decent amount of firearms experience.

Aside from the economy of the 9mm, is the fact that the recoil is far less intimidating, i.e., disconcerting-distracting for the majority of mortals of both sexes. We just simply shoot it much better, more accurately at speed. The Europeans discovered this fact long ago and onsequently armed their police and military personnel with it almost unanimously. We’re a little slower getting to the party.

When the FBI got outgunned/outshot in a Florida hoedown several decades ago, the knee jerk reaction was the 10mm. It was discovered quite quickly that it was simply too much horsepower for the average agent, so it was downloaded, and subsequently the case was shortened by S&W to accommodate the reduced power load and facilitate stuffing it into a smaller framed autoloaders But, the inherent problem remained, it’s just too much cartridge for most folks.

I was never a real fan of the 40 caliber, although I did build and still own and shoot a custom Timber Wolf G35 long slide for hunting. When it’s popularity began waning, I found myself looking for deals on the used market because the ammo was available when nothing else was. It’s not a bad cartridge at all if one puts in the time to learn how to master it. I’m still looking for a deal on a good used Beretta PX4 in 40 S&W.!
 
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