.40 S&W

[54R_shooter]

G27 sold, G22 sold it too. Now all i have in Glock pistols is 9mm.
 I spent alot of money on my G22 trying to tame it down,reloading different recipes,guide rods and springs. Had alot of peening on my slide out of the G22, which didnt effect the performance at all (which is normal). Even with the 22 pound spring.
 G40s are ok, just not for me. If i had the choice in a 40 and a 45, id go with the 45.

[LERanger]

My priority list:
1. shot placement/shooter skill.
2. see #1
3. the gun.
4. the ammo quality
5. a good holster.
6. the caliber.

Before I'll even address caliber, I must step onto my soapbox first.

A wise instructor in the academy told me under stress, a great shooter becomes average. An average shooter becomes a bad. And a bad shooter won't hit the broad side of a barn. The moral of the story is to train. And by train I don't mean head to the range and spend five minutes trying to put 8-15 rounds through the same hole so you can brag about it on a forum. Can I do that too? Sure, but why bother? You need to train under stress. Train to shoot and move.  Train to shoot and reload from behind cover. Train at night. Train to draw from the holster. Train doing immediate action drills so much that you do them without thinking. Do this with ball and dummy. In fact do most of your training with ball and dummy.

Buy a good quality holster. Buy a good quality gun. And master it. I won't fault anyone for collecting guns. I do it. But "Beware the man who only owns one gun..."  It does you little good to own 15 guns you don't shoot well. And I can't say it better than Eric about cheap vs. inexpensive. There's nothing wrong with a quality used gun.

Now, caliber. I agree that a nine is fine if you can choose good ammo. A .40 is fine. A .45 is what I've carried on and off duty for over six years now. I chose this caliber because it's been killing bad guys for a long, long time. I don't give a tinker's damn about ballistic jello, what Guns and Ammo says, or over penetration arguments. What matters to me is the 3-5 Rule (According to the FBI, LEO shootouts the vast majority of the time are:3-5 rds., 3-5yds, 3-5seconds). Knowing that my life's on the line, & I'm only going to shoot 2 or 3x, I want the bullets to have the greatest effect with those rounds. I want to shoot the tried and true caliber. Not a compromise. Even if these modern JHP's don't expand into a nice pretty mushroom like the ads say, I still put a .45 caliber hole in somebody with a 230 grain bullet that didn't lose a lot of  momentum going through layers of clothing and/or a car.

All of that said, I wouldn't lose any sleep if I carried a .40. Or a 9. If I've covered #'s 1-5 on my list, I'm content. If I can have all that and a 45 too, I'm thrilled. I used to sneer at 9's. I've softened up on that stance. I do own a 40 Beretta. It's okay. I like it, but wouldn't want to carry it. It never bothered me with recoil.

I think if you are in a proper stance, recoil should not matter to the degree that people get obsessed with it. Not sure if you're in the right stance? Get in your shooting stance with no gun. Have someone walk in front of you and give you a solid stiffarm bump on your hands. If your whole body rocked back a little, good. If your elbows flexed and your hands are pointed to the ceiling, bad. And again, if I just shot a bad guy five feet away, I guarantee I'll recover my sight picture faster than his body recovers from the shock of my bullet ripping through his chest. I've stood on the line at qual day countless times with 9mm shooters and got off three rounds just as fast if not faster then them.

Was the .40 needed? I don't know. It's a compromise that may people wanted. And people vote with their dollar. Judging by the popularity of the caliber, I'd say it was needed. I don't hate any specific calibers anymore, but I still hate a crappy gun. Sorry for the long winded, tangential post.

[Eric R Shelton]

And with that, we might as well lock the thread!  LOL.  Even this post of mine is now superfluous- well said, LERanger.

[Chris]

I'm a little irked with the poster who made the observation that " Pro Arms has sold out to XD" and that's why the Pro Arms people haven't commented on this thread.
EXCUSE ME while I re-hydrate.
OK... now I'm ready.
If the poster had read any of the Pro Arms material they would see that, as a rule, we are very much in favor of the M&P. I own three, have won IDPA Sanctioned match trophies with the two I shoot in competition, and carry the third ( a 9mm Compact) daily. Terri currently shoots one as her IDPA gun. Mas posted his best ever IDPA Classifer time (at last report) with one. Steve carries his .357 SIG M&P daily. Herman loves his, when he isn't shooting a revolver.
JB does love his custom XD, and shoots it very well. He also shoots the M&P well. Why he likes the XD is a mystery to me because I don't like them. But, that's why they make Fords and Chevys.
The gun that fits you best and you shoot best is the one you should use. Don't take someone else's word as to what is "best". Find out what works best for you.
Excuse me while I re-hydrate some more.
OK, now I'm ready to finish.
Read what the Pro Arms people have written on their site before you start making assumptions. We all know the old joke about "assume". Don't be one.
As for the .40 S&W round... the current crop of premium SD loads are excellent. Better than 9mm or .45 ACP? Not necessarily. Effective self defense loads? Definitely!
Chris Christian
 

[Eric R Shelton]

I hadn't read that, but I'd be irked too.  See, here I was with the crazy notion that you all were pretty fair and honest in your reviews!  Silly me! 

This "sell out" or "if product X is great than everything else sucks" mentality is aggravating.  Mas said very clearly (and wisely) in his concealed carry book that he only talks about good products- talking about bad products wasn't worth the libel.  If people aren't intelligent enough to realize there are multiple good products out there...?

[bshupe]

I'm a little irked with the poster who made the observation that " Pro Arms has sold out to XD" and that's why the Pro Arms people haven't commented on this thread.
EXCUSE ME while I re-hydrate.
OK... now I'm ready.
If the poster had read any of the Pro Arms material they would see that, as a rule, we are very much in favor of the M&P. I own three, have won IDPA Sanctioned match trophies with the two I shoot in competition, and carry the third ( a 9mm Compact) daily. Terri currently shoots one as her IDPA gun. Mas posted his best ever IDPA Classifer time (at last report) with one. Steve carries his .357 SIG M&P daily. Herman loves his, when he isn't shooting a revolver.
JB does love his custom XD, and shoots it very well. He also shoots the M&P well. Why he likes the XD is a mystery to me because I don't like them. But, that's why they make Fords and Chevys.
The gun that fits you best and you shoot best is the one you should use. Don't take someone else's word as to what is "best". Find out what works best for you.
Excuse me while I re-hydrate some more.
OK, now I'm ready to finish.
Read what the Pro Arms people have written on their site before you start making assumptions. We all know the old joke about "assume". Don't be one.
As for the .40 S&W round... the current crop of premium SD loads are excellent. Better than 9mm or .45 ACP? Not necessarily. Effective self defense loads? Definitely!
Chris Christian
 

I said it and you should have read the whole comment.... especially the part at the end where it says "lol j/k". That would be laugh out loud and just kidding. Or, it was just a joke, sorry if it displaced the chip of cow sugar honey iced tea from it place.