9mm vs 40 cal

[Disposable Heart]

Wait, a civil discussion so far? No! Cmon! Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! I am a .40 fan.

One thing to consider regarding 9mm or .40 is that most, if not all .40 ammo is using modern designed component bullets for JHP, as opposed to 9mm still being on the shelf with 20, 30, 40 year old technology in their bullet designs. Count on every round to not work (shot placement), but the .40 designs were designed later and with better tech (the tech of the time). This is not to say that both rounds have failures in their line up (any round that hits a bad guy isn't a failure, I should rephrase that as expensive successes ) such as old tech bullets, and both have awesome designs (HST, Ranger, DPX, Gold Dot, ETC... ). I guess it's more of a mental trust thing... 9mm had some teething problems with expansion, but that has changed with better designs. .40 was designed out of the gate with the knowledge they had to gain the hard way.

One thing I like about .40 is that if I have to use ball, the ball available is usually (they do have round nose, but hen's teeth or component bullet only) truncated cone. Gives me a nice flat (almost 9mm sized) metplat, reduces richochet (look up what Jeff Cooper envisioned what 230gr FMJ should be, truncated cone going 850). If I had to carry 9mm or .40 ball, I would choose .40 any day of the week (and have sometimes).

Another thing to consider is that even during the darkest of the last buying Panic, .40 was ALWAYS on the shelves. Always. 9mm was rare enough I could have purchased a motorhome for a few boxes. But .40 is more expensive (even in handloading) and the snappier round may be the deal breaker.

 

[451_Detonics]

In general, I would say 90% of the time, the 9mm and 40 are loaded with the same quality bullets, just buy good ammo and don't depend on Wolf JHP to perform. In gel testing with Corbon the difference between the 9mm and 40 was so slight it was virtually a toss up.

 

[VERT]

i carry a pf-9 for ccw great pistol

Yep they are nice little guns. But my question is, if they were to offer this gun as a PF40, would you have bought that instead? If so why?

I think this illustrates a good point. While I like the .40 in a medium or large auto pistols, I am not anxious to purchase ä sub compact in this caliber. Just personal preference.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I think this illustrates a good point. While I like the .40 in a medium or large auto pistols, I am not anxious to purchase ä sub compact in this caliber. Just personal preference.

I have the XD sub compact in .40 and it really isn't as bad as everyone thinks. But as you said, personal preference.

 

[avengedXT]

Personal preference most definitely. 9mm is cheaper and if you're going to shoot alot, then by all means

But I prefer a .40 cal.

I prefer a .40 cal because its' price is that between the 9mm and .45 ACP. Its' knockdown power and speed (in FPS) seems to be about the same. In fact, when buying .40 +P rounds you achieve the same FPS as 9mm rounds. And you still get the good knockdown power.

Just my $0.02

 

[siliconsorcerer]

I read a good ballistic history report about 10 years ago with a lot of supporting evidence. There was no 45 caliber ammunition that was produced before 1980 that would out perform a modern 9mm produced today. I'm sure modern 45's, 40's, with modern ammo may have more stopping power then modern 9mm then. BUT if the 45 was able to "take down a horse" and good enough until 1980 then a modern 9mm is good enough for me and has other advantages on capacity and for me followup. The other big advantage I have I can shoot a 9mm all day, I shoot a 45 and after 100 or so rounds, I'm just done.

 

[Amishman44]

The Federal load with the 125 gr HP a couple of decades ago did have a awesome reputation. Even today with all the advances of bullet designs, it would still have a great record. Actually, I still have a few boxes of them around, even though my revolvers have become safe queens for the most part.

I have to agree with XtremeVel on this one...the 125 grain JHP is an awesome round...not to be taken 'lightly!' My primary carry gun is an SP101 in .357mag...why, because a) I'm very comfortable with it, b) I know how accurate it is, and c) because it will probably only take 1 good hit to have an affect on the perp's ability to shoot back! When I don't carry the SP101, I'm carrying a Glock 32 in .357SIG...a very similar round, just more of them.

For the original question on this tread...I would suggest a Glock 27 or 23 in .40 S&W...you would have the option of picking up a Glock 32/33 barrel in .357sig (use the same mags) or a 9mm conversion barrel from Lone Wolf Distributors and shoot 9mm (you would need to pick up some 9mm mags to go with it.)

Good luck!