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40s&w vs 9mm which do you carry

22K views 110 replies 91 participants last post by  Rock and Glock 
#1 ·
Hi everyone. I was just wondering what your thoughts are on the 40s&w vs the 9mm. Which one you prefer to carry and why. I carry a 40 because I like the extra knock down power vs the 9mm and just like the way that a 40 feels when fired. I love the 9mm and have a T series Browning Hi Power and have always loved it, but I think that with the extra knock down power with only having to give up a couple rounds if any make the 40 a better choice for me.
 
#68 ·
my edc is a G23 but I carry a 9mm and also .380 depends on where i'm going and what I'm wearing I choose a gun that matches place and clothes
 
#71 ·
Both, because both make decent sized holes and I can shoot well with both... and I enjoy shooting both.

A lot of people prefer the 9 (lots of them very verbose and insecure when other calibers are recommended). A lot of people prefer the 40. Some even prefer a 22lr.

Carry what you're confident and proficient with.
 
#73 ·
My primary carry gun is a Glock 27 (40 S&W), though I would feel fine with a 9mm, 45 ACP or 357 SIG. They all seem to do well with the right load and bullet placement. If I had to choose a single auto cartridge, it would be the 10mm. It offers the best possibilities. But, I compromised and went with a 40. I do not let the Coke or Pepsi logic cloud my opinion. All can do wee and all can fail.
 
#74 ·
Either a 9mm or a 45ACP....never warmed to the 40 myself.
 
#75 ·
When I say knock down I am not referring to actually knocking someone down I am referring to the fact that the 40 is a heavier bullet and thus it hits the target with a harder impact. If you shoot a dueling tree the 9mm barely flips the plate the the other side and the 40 flips it a lot harder and faster
 
#76 ·
^^^THEN^^^^^^^

Step Up/Down, whichever way you want to look at it, to .357 Sig, and watch the steel really get a workout.
 
#79 ·
That guy took a .308 to that body in the chest on one leg?! Wow thats impressive! What if someone shot him in the head?
 
#81 ·
I read about an LEO that said the only thing the .40S&W did for his Dept. was just to make it harder to qualify. They were putting down the BGs just fine with the 9mm he said. Having studied up on the issues, and being a bit recoil sensitive myself, I would choose a full size 9mm with the higher ammo capacity.

However... after experiencing what happened with the recent guns and ammo buying craze where no 9mm was available yet still seeing quite a bit of .40S&W in my area, I think it might be prudent to have at least one .40cal pistol in my line up!
 
#82 ·
I carry a 9mm almost all the time, and I don't own a .40 S&W at all (although I would like to get one eventually). I'm comfortable with having 15 rounds of 147gr Federal HST in the gun with a reload on my belt. If I can't get it done with that then there's probably no handgun that would save me.
 
#96 ·
To me the important thing is bullet placement. A 9mm to the same spot as a .40 will have the same effect on a person. There is a lot of talk about energy or bullet size as if a small fraction of an inch will matter most times. Today's 9mm will pass all hard barrier FBI tests with expansion so we are talking about slight differences in circumference and penetration. It is almost like talking about whether a 12 gauge shotgun blast to the head is better than a 20 gauge. It may be, but it does not matter.

I am reading more and more about LEO agencies moving away from the .40 due to better scores with the easier to control 9mm and in a fight when everyone is moving under high levels of stress, the ability to fire rapid follow-up shots matters a lot more than the slight advantage that a minimally larger bullet may have. I have seen very long threads about bullets where the focus was on energy. The nod went to the bullet with the most energy as if that was the sole criteria to a bullets effectiveness as a man stopper. Placement and the ability to fire rapid and accurate follow-up shots were never mentioned and yet placement is key. With todays highly effective ammo the 9mm in the same neighborhood as the .40 and .45 and with less recoil and faster follow-up times, it may even have an edge in producing the final result.

Bullet size among the major calibers when expanded are small fractions of an inch. Sure it may count in very few instances but not enough times to trade follow-up speed for it. These days talking about differences in the major calibers is like talking about whether a 12 gauge shotgun to the chest is a more effective stopper than a 20 gauge to the same area at under 25 yards. Both will stop the bad guy but one would make a larger mess. However the 20 gauge will have almost half the recoil of a 12 gauge with 75% of the effectiveness.

Some tell me that they can practice and shoot the .40 as fast as a 9mm. Sure can but that is at the range at a static target and under nothing close to life and death stress and/or having someone firing back at you. All that stuff about using trigger reset and proper stance and sight picture go out of the window when you are moving and shooting at someone who is doing the same. Personally I would choose a 9mm or .45 acp over the .40 due to the ability to recover from recoil quicker which translates into more accurate and quicker follow-up shots. The NYCPD does very well, when they hit their targets, with the Gold Dot +P. I am from there and have LEO in my family and among my friends who find it a good round on the street. In the end, we all carry what we have confidence in because confidence in our gun is an important component of surviving a gunfight.

Below is a chart that shows the differences in various calibers. Sure you can argue that if a 45 +P was used that it would penetrate more and I can come back and say that a 9mm +p+ would even it up again, etc. but the fact is that all the major calibers using the proper ammo will do the job well.

Line
 
#107 ·
To me the important thing is bullet placement. A 9mm to the same spot as a .40 will have the same effect on a person. There is a lot of talk about energy or bullet size as if a small fraction of an inch will matter most times.
A fraction of an inch has indeed mattered in some cases. How many times have we heard "if the bullet had been a fraction of an inch to the left, he/she would have died"? Michael Platt of the Miami shootout was one such case where a fraction of an inch would've stopped him sooner, thus preventing more deaths and injuries to the FBI.

Although I don't carry these larger calibers myself at the moment, there must be a good reason why so many LEO's have carried .40S&W and .45acp for so long, otherwise we might as all be carrying .380 hardball.
 
#97 · (Edited)
Agreed, Old Dog. I used to carry a 357 revolver, but when I took my carry class, they required a semi-auto. They wouldn't explain why, that's just the way it was. 40 S&W had just come out, and all the LEO's were adapting to it, so that was my choice. Not a bad one either IMO. Anyways, I reload, and got dies and such. I probably have around 3,500 40 caliber cases, so, that's where I'm staying. If I did switch to a new caliber, I would be getting a 1911.
 
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