[Tommy Gunz]

my Sig 229 is a tack driver. my 938 sig is muck more snappier.
Both are metal, not Tupperware guns. Perhaps that's your issue.

 

[Pandaz3]

I like 40, I like 357 Sig, I like 10 MM. I own them all and carry 40 mostly, 357 Sig some.

I also have 380, ACP, 9 MM and 45 ACP.. Carry 380 at home and think about carrying 45 ACP some

I am a 40 guy.

 

[DonGlock26]

180gr .40 isn't bad in my G23. The 165gr and & 155gr rounds can be uncomfortable.

 

[Bren]

What is with you people and the .40 recoil? I've shot a 90-round GSSF outdoor match with a Glock 27 and police-issued factory ammo, not to mention shooting thousands of rounds in a week from my 23 and shooting IDPA with a 22, and didn't notice anything special about the recoil - it was just a hair slower to shoot than 9mm. I strongly suspect that if you have problems with .40 recoil, you should learn to shoot, cause you're doing it wrong.

 

[DaveD]

I was all .40 for a long time. The recoil eventually got to me and 9mm is the only round for me now.

 

[Sherlock913]

 

[H&K .45 AUTO]

I’ve never understood the complaints about snappy recoil with the .40 S&W. In similar pistols, I notice only a very minor difference in feeling between the .40 and a 9mm.

I like the .40 a lot and carry mine more often than any other caliber.

 

[MGGLOCK9]

One should compare the G27 with the G39. The G27 is 6.29" long and weighs 19.75 oz. The G39 is 6.30" long and weighs 19.33 oz. The height for both is 4.17". Barrel length for both is 3.46". So there is very little difference in size and weight. Recoil should be the same, mathematically. I don't know if the 40 S&W being a higher pressure round will have a higher slide velocity thereby being "snappier" than the 45 ACP. You might have to handload to get ammo with the same bullet weight and type at the same velocity. The ammo would have to be tested using a chrono as commercial ammo used different guns and or test barrels so you don't know how they arrived at their velocity figures. It would be an interesting experiment comparing apples to apples, but I'm not sure if it is worth the effort as most people will use commercial ammo anyway. So you may just have to live with the fact that the 40 S&W G27 may be a little "snappier" than a 45 ACP G39. Then again actual shooting of both models with similar ammo may show there is very little difference. Who out there has both guns?

I owned a G39-it was chmabered for .45GAP

 

[Borg Warner]

The principle difference between the G19, (9mm) the G23, (40 S&W) and the G32 (357 Sig) which are virtually the same exact size gun is so inconsequential as to be insignificant and the biggest difference is probably psychological.

The smaller lighter G27 recoils a little more than the G23 but in no way is uncontrollable or even remotely approaches the pain threshold. And I was surprised when shooting a 40 caliber S&W Shield how easy follow up shots were in that gun.

Where recoil becomes downright painful and makes follow up shots difficult, is trying to shoot teh 158 grain LSWCHP Plus+P "FBI Load" out of a 12 ounce airwieght J-frame with the skinny service grips. Adding a Tyler T-grip adapter helps to hang on to the gun better but it still HURTS like a Mo-Fo!

But unless recoil causes actual pain, it can be managed. And with a heavy recoiling gun you have to grip teh gun firmly but with your elbows slightly bent so there's some "Give" to them. once you;e able to learn this even women and children can shoot a magnum handgun. And after you've been shooting magnum handguns for a while, there isn't a single Glock in any chambering that will feel like it has any recoil to speak of. Glocks have a wide doublestack grip that distributes the recoil over a wider area of you hand and the polymer frame tend to flex and absorb recoil.

 

[Pandaz3]

What's ten years for a thread. 40 S&W never gets old.

 

[Railsplitter]

Shot some .40 yesterday. Which reminded me why I never quite could get used to it. It has a lot of kick/pop/snap to it. My .45ACP felt like nothing after that (let alone the 9mm).

Free recoil calculators show 45 to have more recoil impulse/velocity/energy than 40. In fact 40 should be roughly in the middle between 9 and 45. So why don't I experience that when I actually shoot it? I still say there is something in the nature of the .45 that tames it, like the lower pressure it operates with. Something there just makes it feel softer to the shooter than it should if you go by the numbers.

I'm giving up on 40 again for at least now. It's expensive enough just feeding my 9's and 45, especially with testing all these JHPs.

Simple.... recoil is a by product of bullet speed and weight. The 9mm has as much velocity as the .40 but not as much weight, the .45 has more weight but less velocity. The .40 has both good velocity and weight giving it more punch and so more recoil.

It's why the .40 was developed in the first place, it was offered to mitigate the weaknesses of the 9 and .45. This is why it was so popular with law enforcement agencies that were tired of the compromises involved with the 9 and .45.

 

[Glockresistor]

I really don't notice it, and shoot all the different calibers 9 357 sig 40 45

 

[Rank Stranger]

I call all weakling a bunch fat BS wussies! Love the 40S&W! You either butt hurt or just rolling for sympathy! When I did my CHL qualification long time ago the instructor gave me a hard time about it till he saw all those neat little holes less than 1" from kamikaze drill mag dump one handed.

 

[Hoss]

I like shooting.40 in 165 and 180. I honestly don’t see much difference between 40 and hotter 9mm. Maybe because my first Glock was a 23.

 

[jmaj]

I won't bother to read the thread before posting....
The 40 is a powerful cartridge and when it's put in a light gun it's going to have sharp, heavy recoil. A high bore axis will accentuate the vertical rise.

 

[cadillacguns]

Borg, I did that, back in the mid 80's I had a S&W Mdl 37 with some type of "Ghetto Blasters" in it and one day out in the Desert surrounding Las Vegas NV, my wife asked to shoot her first handgun.
What an idiot, I handed her that snub.
BOOM !!!
she dropped it in the sand and never shot another pistol for over twenty years.
Now she has a G-17/42/43/44, and a S&W Shield.
The S&W Mdl 37 Airweight, and a 4 in S&W Mdll 29 Dirty Harry were traded up straight for a Parts .M-4 Commando style .223 rifle.
Those were the days, I carry the G-22/23/27 combo exclusively, but could make that a G-17/19/26/43 system if I wanted too.
But I don't want too, and if someone doesn't prefer or utilize the .40 caliber, oh well more for me, I just cannot buy any FMJ or JHP in central Indiana now, and it sucks when I want to go to the range.
Outside of my emergency
STASH" I have one box,. plus one extra cartridge I found, so 51 rds of Wolf 180 gr.

 

[Jellymon]

Shoot a 44mag for a week, then come back to your 40. Problem solved.

 

[George Kaplan]

It's called death throws.

 

[ChuteTheMall]

Both 9mm and .45 acp are mellow old senior citizens, both WW1 vets,
but .40 S&W is a young punk trying to show how tough he is. :fred:

 

[Jade Falcon]

I have a third-gen G22, and I love it, except that it's probably not likely that I can get a weapon light on it, due to the known malfunction issues associated with such a combination. Supposedly, new magazines fixed that, right?

I should just stick my KKM 9mm conversion barrel in it with G17 mags and make it a 9mm instead. I wonder if it would still malfunction? :headscratch: