How much recoil firing a 40 cal. Sig- P239???
I have a Sig P239 -9mm and I am considering stepping up to a .40 cal. in the same pistol. Trouble is that there are no ranges near me that have this pistol in 40 cal. to rent. I like the way this gun fits my hand when shooting. My question is - What does the felt recoil feel like firing 40 cal. Sig P239?
P.S.Thank-You for your input to this thread! My wife and I own a Glock 23-40 cal. pistol and because the gun is based on a 9mm frame the recoil makes this gun a little snappy so we rented a Sig 229-40 cal. and recoil was like a 9mm gun! ! Why am I leaning towards a Sig P239 in 40 cal.- Because the 9mm Sig P239 I own hits everything I aim at and I thought that this gun having more weight then the Glock 23 might have less recoil! Semper Fi!
About 24% more recoil with the .40
I'll stick my neck out and try to quantify the recoil difference. I believe that pistol recoil is determined by conservation of momentum. The momentum of the bullet exiting the barrel (bullet mass times bullet velocity) equals the momentum of the gun backwards in your hand (gun mass times gun velocity). Gun momentum backwards in your hand corresponds to felt recoil, which is the unknown we are attempting to determine:
Gun momentum = (Bullet mass times bullet velocity)
Since the gun mass is the same with two P239s, the increase in recoil going from the 9mm to the .40 should be:
.40 recoil/9mm recoil = (.40 bullet mass times velocity)/(9mm bullet mass times velocity)
Let's say you are using 9mm ammo with bullet weight of 125 grains and velocity of 1200 fps, and .40 ammo with bullet weight of 155 grains and velocity of 1200 fps. This gives:
(155 x 1200)/(125 x 1200) = 1.24
So the .40 gun should have 24% more recoil than the 9mm. Obviously the type of ammo you use plays a major role here.
