Saturday Survival Theater: The .40 Smith and Wesson Cartridge
A quick and lazy way to explain this cartridge to new gun owners
New gun owners can be overwhelmed with the choice of calibers and for every caliber there is a contingent of hardcore fans who are emotionally invested enough in the round to tell you it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Opposed to them will be a contingent of gun owners who will tell you the round in question is garbage made for garbage people.
No caliber suffers from this more than the .40 S&W. Widely considered the answer to the (non-existent in my humble opinion) problem of law enforcement not having enough stopping power and penetration its wide spread adoption by cops and the F.B.I. led to lots of civilians adopting it. Nowadays it’s fallen out of favor for a variety of reasons, one of which was that it wasn’t the magic bullet (pun intended) people thought it was. In the Michael browns shooting which spawned the “Hands up, don’t shoot” movement Brown ate five .40 caliber rounds and kept fighting.
One of the problems handgun caliber debates run into is the idea there is a magic handgun caliber that will stop a person instantly. The reality is even fatal wounds with handguns can leave an assailant up and fighting for a few minutes. The .40 was developed in part with the idea it would magically stop criminals with one shot. It can’t live up to that standard because nothing really can.
I’m not an expert on the .40 and can’t speak authoritatively on it. Instead I found a law enforcement video from 1998 which showed the effectiveness of the round then I’ll post a video by James Yeager as a counterpoint. The first video is missing a few minutes because YouTube allows outrageous abuse of their copyright system but the film is still intact enough for you to get the idea of the hype surrounding the round.
And as a counter point is James Yeager, a trainer by profession, listing the many cons of the round. Salty language warning:
Like I said I’m not a expert on the .40 S&W so I’m letting these films speak for the round. I do agree with him on one thing - if you don’t want to carry a 9mm then a .45 ACP will be much more controllable than some of the high pressure rounds.
So for new shooters do I recommend .40s? if you like them and will put in the work to get proficient I don’t see why you shouldn’t get one. But if you’re just looking at the most effective package you have to factor in recoil management and how well you can shoot the caliber. 9mms will be easier to master and just as effective.
Do you like the .40? Let me know on my Instagram.