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Old 11-24-2009, 04:28 AM
Yournamehere Yournamehere is offline
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The following is a list of factual information mixed in with elements of my personal opinion and deductions.

Back in 1986 they decided hey wanted to ditch their 9mm and .38 Caliber handguns in favor of something more powerful. I'm guessing they didn't switch to .45 because they had abandoned them earlier in favor of higher capacity handguns, or they didn't want to lose..... their high capacity handguns. With this came 10mm Auto. They had something more powerful than 9mm or .38 Special rounds, and more capacity(11+1) than single stack .45s of the era (7-8+1). However, this cartridge is comparable to a fairly hot .357 Magnum, so it had significantly higher recoil than either round. The FBI wanted more power, but they felt that 10mm was a little too much more.

So, S&W jumped at the opportunity, and decided to do the reverse of what they had done in the past. Instead of scaling up the case size (as was done with .38 Special and .44 Special for their Magnum counterparts.), they cut it down, to create the .40 S&W. Their 4006 pistol held the same 11 rounds (still more than a .45 with more power than a 9), but it didn't come out for purchase for some time. Glock, however, saw the new cartridge, and, already having a 10mm pistol of their own, the Glock 20, all they had to do was adapt the 10mm design to the 9x19 sized frames and slides. The gun that was designed and adopted by the FBI, Glock 22 in .40S&W allowed them to stuff 15 rounds into a magazine, the same amount as a Beretta 92F, the 'It" handgun of the era.

On paper it was great, power and capacity all in one. However, as mentioned by k9870, the cartridge is said to have a sharper recoil than .45 ACP which can cause flinch in some shooters and therefore a drop in accuracy. The cartridge is also loaded to very high pressures, which results in no +P loadings as well as cases (not many but more so than other rounds at least) where the ammunition has exploded in the chamber of certain guns, destroying them. For those who can't handle the .40 S&W cartridge, the FBI allows the use of other Glock or SIG designs in 9mm or .45 Caliber.

Nowadays we have modern bullet designs and good factory powder loads, so cartridges like 9mm are comparable to .40 S&W rounds, and we also have more high capacity guns chambered for .45 ACP like the Para-Ordnance P14 and Springfield XD. "Why the hell does the FBI still use .40s, or anyone for that matter?" Very rarely does a large organization like to ditch it's entire stock of handguns in favor of something that might be better. It happened in the early 90s because of a shootout that brought out the weaknesses of their current weapons' calibers. Now, when we have the means to allow "better" calibers to be comparable in terms of power or capacity, they probably don't want to take back every gun they bought less than 20 years ago to issue these new guns to (as well as have to retrain in the use of a new handgun) their personnel. As far as the civilian market goes, it remains popular in civilian hands because..... it remains popular in law enforcement hands. Some people dig having a LE caliber, or think "if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me", plain and simple.

Personally I prefer 9mm as an end all be all handgun caliber, but you better have good hollow points, or a lot of bullets, or both, or it loses it's effectiveness. .45 ACP would be a good choice too but it is about one and a half times the price of 9mm and there are less high capacity designs available, so you have to be comfortable with half the ammunition. In all honesty, caliber doesn't matter if you can shoot whatever you use comfortably, and afford it. Some people hate one and love the other, so there is no "best" or "worst" caliber when it comes to these "Big Three".
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