Why even bother with a intermediate caliber. If you can't hit with a 9mm or a 45 you are not going to hit with a 40. If you don't think a opponent will go down with 2 or 3 9mm rounds you need a bit more confidence in yourself. Actually, I don't care what caliber it is, if you can't put 3 where they are supposed to go, size really won't matter. I understand from a friend who recently came back from Gunsite that they do not advocate guns that shoot tight groups because accuracy doesn't matter at shooting distances and you don't want all the bullets going into the same hole - why the hay not? Non-fatal wounds may not even be debilitating so why waste slugs making unimportant holes when you can put two or three through the same hole and get quicker results.
And please, the 40 does not compare to the 38-40 from a carbine. All they did with the 40 was to expand a 9mm case to get to a shortened 10mm, or shorten the 10mm to get the 40. Doesn't really matter, the results are the same. The 40 does not equal the 38-40. The 38-40 is factory loaded soft in deference to older revolvers. In modern revolvers the 40 S&W will never catch up to the 38-40. The 38-40 absolutely shines from a carbine length barrel (16-20"), not the 40. The 40 may or may not shoot better than the 45 from a carbine length barrel, which is spodda be 16", not the 12" of a M3 Grease Gun, but I seriously doubt its trajectory is much better. The 9 is a flatter shooting round and you can hit to 200m with it but I wouldn't shoot at deer with it.....
I am a big fat bullet guy because they work. The 9 also works as does the 40 but why split the difference (if you're bored that's one thing).
The ballistics of the 40 Short and Weak are the result of testing the 10mm cartridge with a bunch of limp wristed feds (stacked the deck so to speak....). The 10 was too much for them, the 9mm loadings used then were not enough to do the job (Miami shootout), so here comes the 40. I'm not impressed. This is like saying I need to use hollow pointed flying ashtrays from my 45 on accounta (somebody with no combat experience says) ball doesn't work - anyone want to ask that question in Iraq or Afganistan??? Why is it that in Miami the 9s didn't take down the bad guy - hell, there was no decompression to his chest after being hit without the (3) bullet(s) passing through (in and out) and evacuating the lungs, so what do you want. They armed the feds with woozy 9mm ammo and it didn't work, so lets quick go to something bigger. Why the hay didn't you just use harder hitting 9s. Good grief - a battle dressed soldier running at you with bayonet fixed neither continues to run or even stand after 3 rounds of 9mm ball to the chest, but since the 9mm doesn't work I guess we need something bigger. I seriously doubt any wounded WWII vets who caught it from a MP38/40 would agree. As I said before, if you can't do the job with a 9, a bigger gun won't help. my 2 cents.
