You know, gunnies are funny people.
I'm finding the XD40 to be something I appreciate not like I would appreciate a classic car, but rather something I appreciate like I appreciate my truck. I like it because it just makes my life easier. I respect it enough to keep it in top shape, but I won't sweat the occassional ding or wear and tear because it's my "user".
I say that to preface this discussion. Bear that sentiment in mind as you read on.
Now inevitably any sensible person with functional knowledge of firearms will ask my what caliber it's chambered in. And as you can probably guess from the name, .40 Smith and Wesson. I get one of three reactions.
First, there's the very rare "There's a good man. You chose correctly." reactions. Not too many of these.
The most common reaction is "Why? You get higher capacity with a 9mm Luger chambering." That's normally what the Glock guys tell me. These guys all have .40's too but only because they already own all the 9mm chambered Glocks ever made and had to start buying them in other calibers.
A close second is the predictable "*snort* Why didn't you just get a .45 instead of an oversized peashooter?" Well actually that's a good question. I was actually looking to get a .45 ACP chambered pistol when I first started looking.
The truth is, I knew I liked the XD series. I knew what I wanted to get insofar as what I wanted to launch it from. The perfect pistol would have been the XD chambered in .45 ACP. Yes I know they make one in .45 GAP but one of my unbendable criteria was the ammunition had to be very common. The choice was either 9mm, .40S&W or abandon the platform and I really didn't want to do the last one after going through so much work to find it.
I'd never really wanted a .40 caliber pistol for anything to be honest. But then I thought, you know, let's just divorce my own personal fascination with the never ending caliber wars and look at it objectively. So I did. I looked around the 'net and rifled through various tomes on the caliber comparison subject and I found something interesting.
For the sake of brevity, check this out.
http://www.remington.com/ammo/ballistics/pr/results.asp?cal=14
And then this.
http://www.remington.com/ammo/ballistics/pr/results.asp?cal=19
Now some people may protest that's not fair because it's only one brand of ammunition etc., but my point is to make an easy referenced apples to apples comparison of some sort. I made many "paper" comparisons. The standard old silly stuff... will it expand, how deep does it penetrate a block of super Jello, etc. I take all such things with a grain of salt because these the meaning of these things in the real world isn't exactly clear, but a consistent trend does have meaning to me. I didn't see where the bigger bore catridge really had an edge at all on the .40 S&W. They were in fact about the same.
I says to myself, would I be comfortable using a 9mm pistol for self defense? And the answer was yes. I consider it to be the minimum I would feel comfortable with for a non BUG.
And then I says to myself, do I care about the extra capacity? And the answer was no. 12 rounds or 15, to me those are both big numbers. I've never a chosen a firearm based on its capacity. It's really not that important to me. I will of course use the maximum capacity of any firearm so long as I do not sacrifice any reliability or function. I know that blows some people's minds but I'm just indifferent to 15 rounds vs. 12 rounds.
And then I says to myself, does it look like the .40 is up to the job? I had to say yes. What was the .40 really missing? Sure it's a smaller bore size but it almost always compares favorably to the .45 when it comes to penetration and velocity and whatnot. If I were a more ignorant person I'd have thought they were almost ballistic clones of each other.
Hence I picked this caliber for convenience. It was a notch above the bare minimum I was comfortable with and I didn't feel the 9mm chambering's extra capacity was meaningfully advantageous. I don't particularly enjoy it but I don't hate it by any means. I think for pure fun 9mm has it beat, and for pure visceral satisfaction and a sense of legacy .45 ACP is better, but when you take the emotion out of it, .40 Smith and Wesson doesn't seem to deserve all the slams it gets.
An older gentleman of a certain maturity (whose only pistol is the same 1911 he's had for 25 years) stroked his beard and said "Hell, close enough." He then berated my for having a sissy plastic gun but that's a matter of course.
I have to agree with him though. It's a caliber that starts with "4", close enough. It's more confidence inspiring than the 9mm cartridge, and honestly the real reason I wanted to try to for a .45 was as a consideration for future purchases.
Thus I am coming to appreciate the caliber and the loads it offers for what they are. I figure if I want to get all gun nerdy I should stick to the revolver catridges anyway because they are far more interesting. Service calibers are boring by comparison. It is acceptable for my everyday utility gun to use a boring and practical round. My truck may not be a classic car, but I like it all the same because it makes my life easier.
The whole Big 3 service caliber debate will rage on, and I sit here with the most unfairly criticized of the three in my hand. I suppose I should be smug and agree to disagree because after all my side is obviously right. :tongue:
I'm finding the XD40 to be something I appreciate not like I would appreciate a classic car, but rather something I appreciate like I appreciate my truck. I like it because it just makes my life easier. I respect it enough to keep it in top shape, but I won't sweat the occassional ding or wear and tear because it's my "user".
I say that to preface this discussion. Bear that sentiment in mind as you read on.
Now inevitably any sensible person with functional knowledge of firearms will ask my what caliber it's chambered in. And as you can probably guess from the name, .40 Smith and Wesson. I get one of three reactions.
First, there's the very rare "There's a good man. You chose correctly." reactions. Not too many of these.
The most common reaction is "Why? You get higher capacity with a 9mm Luger chambering." That's normally what the Glock guys tell me. These guys all have .40's too but only because they already own all the 9mm chambered Glocks ever made and had to start buying them in other calibers.
A close second is the predictable "*snort* Why didn't you just get a .45 instead of an oversized peashooter?" Well actually that's a good question. I was actually looking to get a .45 ACP chambered pistol when I first started looking.
The truth is, I knew I liked the XD series. I knew what I wanted to get insofar as what I wanted to launch it from. The perfect pistol would have been the XD chambered in .45 ACP. Yes I know they make one in .45 GAP but one of my unbendable criteria was the ammunition had to be very common. The choice was either 9mm, .40S&W or abandon the platform and I really didn't want to do the last one after going through so much work to find it.
I'd never really wanted a .40 caliber pistol for anything to be honest. But then I thought, you know, let's just divorce my own personal fascination with the never ending caliber wars and look at it objectively. So I did. I looked around the 'net and rifled through various tomes on the caliber comparison subject and I found something interesting.
For the sake of brevity, check this out.
http://www.remington.com/ammo/ballistics/pr/results.asp?cal=14
And then this.
http://www.remington.com/ammo/ballistics/pr/results.asp?cal=19
Now some people may protest that's not fair because it's only one brand of ammunition etc., but my point is to make an easy referenced apples to apples comparison of some sort. I made many "paper" comparisons. The standard old silly stuff... will it expand, how deep does it penetrate a block of super Jello, etc. I take all such things with a grain of salt because these the meaning of these things in the real world isn't exactly clear, but a consistent trend does have meaning to me. I didn't see where the bigger bore catridge really had an edge at all on the .40 S&W. They were in fact about the same.
I says to myself, would I be comfortable using a 9mm pistol for self defense? And the answer was yes. I consider it to be the minimum I would feel comfortable with for a non BUG.
And then I says to myself, do I care about the extra capacity? And the answer was no. 12 rounds or 15, to me those are both big numbers. I've never a chosen a firearm based on its capacity. It's really not that important to me. I will of course use the maximum capacity of any firearm so long as I do not sacrifice any reliability or function. I know that blows some people's minds but I'm just indifferent to 15 rounds vs. 12 rounds.
And then I says to myself, does it look like the .40 is up to the job? I had to say yes. What was the .40 really missing? Sure it's a smaller bore size but it almost always compares favorably to the .45 when it comes to penetration and velocity and whatnot. If I were a more ignorant person I'd have thought they were almost ballistic clones of each other.
Hence I picked this caliber for convenience. It was a notch above the bare minimum I was comfortable with and I didn't feel the 9mm chambering's extra capacity was meaningfully advantageous. I don't particularly enjoy it but I don't hate it by any means. I think for pure fun 9mm has it beat, and for pure visceral satisfaction and a sense of legacy .45 ACP is better, but when you take the emotion out of it, .40 Smith and Wesson doesn't seem to deserve all the slams it gets.
An older gentleman of a certain maturity (whose only pistol is the same 1911 he's had for 25 years) stroked his beard and said "Hell, close enough." He then berated my for having a sissy plastic gun but that's a matter of course.
I have to agree with him though. It's a caliber that starts with "4", close enough. It's more confidence inspiring than the 9mm cartridge, and honestly the real reason I wanted to try to for a .45 was as a consideration for future purchases.
Thus I am coming to appreciate the caliber and the loads it offers for what they are. I figure if I want to get all gun nerdy I should stick to the revolver catridges anyway because they are far more interesting. Service calibers are boring by comparison. It is acceptable for my everyday utility gun to use a boring and practical round. My truck may not be a classic car, but I like it all the same because it makes my life easier.
The whole Big 3 service caliber debate will rage on, and I sit here with the most unfairly criticized of the three in my hand. I suppose I should be smug and agree to disagree because after all my side is obviously right. :tongue:
