As a noob, I see a lot of negative talk about the .40 cal. I look at the ballistics and they're better than a 9mm. Since we're restricted to 10+1 in mASS it seems to me to be a better caliber for EDC. Is anybody willing to give me the abridged version of the .40 cal hate?
-It sucks in small handguns, recoil can be annoying or excessive in those guns, compromising your split times or one handed drills
-During normal market times, 40 is more expensive than 9mm, and you're getting nothing from it, but punishment.
-It's not even available in most of the more common carry oriented handguns. The shield is the only one I know of with a .40 SW option at all. Every other 40 is either a chonk or much
larger, with the G27 being the only real winner down there.
-It's a dumb move for a newbie because like 80% of newbs that buy a 40 will soon dump it and buy a 9mm. So why not save the money and skip that expiriment?
-Resale value of common 40 SW handguns is total dog shit. (because the market is flooded with used 40s, good for buyers, bad for sellers. )
-The offset in ballistics for self defense between things like 9/40/45 is pretty negligible with modern ammunition, they all perform equally poorly vs a rifle, but better than mouse calibers like 25, 32, etc.
-It's basically slowly dying, shit caliber- LE is dumping it in droves (nearly every agency is going to back to 9mm or .45) and gun companies are loathe to make "new 40s" because everyone knows it sucks.
-10mm Auto fans are bitter because basically they took 10mm Auto and fagged it up/neutered it to make the .40 S&W. It's the product of a bunch of bad
decisions to solve fake problems that didnt exist.
It's not going away though. There are a ton of 40 handguns out there so the ammo will be around for decades to come.
Is it a viable cartridge? Yes, but its f***ing stupid. I would never tell anyone to run out and buy a 40, unless they had a specific
purpose.... like....
.....The only thing 40 is great at, IMHO, is if you're into USPSA and you want a gun to shoot Limited Major with it or
something. .40 is an affordable, simple way to facilitate that.
The only OTHER thing its great as... is you can pick them up used on the cheap, because everyone is dumping 40s constantly. So you can get them used cheaper tahn the equivalent 9mm
handgun. "Theres a reason for that, though" see above.
Capacity density? If you use that to choose a handgun I feel sorry for you, there are much more important things to consider... like can I shoot this well and put bullets where I want with
it, and do it under duress. All of those things are way more important that the specious/vague capacity density AWB pant shitting thing.