Oh boy. He’s fixin’ to get an earful if he’s talking to the owner of a .40 cal XD. That’s a passionate crowd! The meme is a riff on this scene.

 

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126 COMMENTS

  1. No matter the caliber…no matter the size…it’s bullet placement that I emphasize (…or was that epitomize).

  5. I prefer .40 over a 9MM and a 9MM over a .380. I prefer the former US Treasury round in .38 +P+ over a .357 magnum and still have an affection for the beloved .41 magnum. Each round preferred has a representative reason and application that I use and/or have used them for. All of them at first and at minimum we’re acquired for personal defense.

    Doesn’t hurt to have one each of the above for the same reasons today and such variety due to the unpredictable ammo situation that has plagued the USA on and off since 9-11-01. If I had to specify one favorite and preferred caliber over all the others it would be the .40 caliber in it’s various models. Too many reasons to list in support of this preference but the .40 is my universal favorite for semi autos.

    And as some may have guessed I can really care less what any arguments are contrary to that as I’ve most likely heard them all at least once and my preference of .40 caliber remains the same.

    • In Boston the department is retooling to the Smith & Wesson M&P in 45ACP. They figured right. Easier to shoot and makes a bigger hole. Small snappy 9mm, 40, 357 and SIG, in medium size are too hard to shoot for women and sweet tit raised millenials.
      On the other hand, Florida Troopers just traded in their Glock 45 acps because they were too heavy even though they sit on their ass most of the day. They have a majority of overweight women on the force.
      Go figure.

    • At this point in time, I believe it’s 9mm. The heyday of .40 S&W is past, as the judgment seems to be that the milder recoil and higher capacity is worth the tradeoff in ballistics.

      • With the improvements to 9mm loads over the years, they’re about the same as .40 now, except for the typical difference of one round in the mag. So shoot whatever floats your boat. My collection has both.

  7. The only 100% effective (and manly) calibre is .500 (although, the .9mm runs high on the list).

    End of arguments, period.

  9. I followed the link. That scene is pretty funny. Oh, and .40 S&W is very versatile. I like it.

    • Around here, no one bought .40 cal until there was nothing else left to buy. Often it was the only thing on the shelf during the Obama years.

      • “Around here, no one bought .40 cal until there was nothing else left to buy.”

        That’s a strong argument for having at least one .40 in your stable…

        • That’s why I bought a 40S&W barrel for my Glock 20. 10mm may be the best millimeter, but 40S&W is easier on the wallet and easier to find.

          And it makes the same size holes.

        • 40S&W is easier on the wallet and easier to find. And it makes the same size holes

          ???… I see 40 S&W 180 grain@ .60 cents to a buck a round and 10 MM (30/40% higher muzzle velocity AND 40/50% higher muzzle energy) 180 grain @ .62 cents to $1.20 for 220 grain… OBTW: can’t get 40 S&W in 220 grain… Did find some 40 S&W plinking ammo @ .42 cents… 10MM is plentiful on line… I’ll continue to feed my G29 the 10MM ammo it deserves…

      • LOL, I was the only one buying. I was in a sporting goods store in Utah recently. They had pkenty of stock in the three main handgun calibers, but all in 50-rd boxes.

        The only caliber with large 350-rd “range packs” was .40. I scooped one up.

  10. Due to the ammo crunch previously noted, and the assault on firearms generally, I’ve traded in all of my bang sticks for medieval slicers, smashers, and bashers.

    • “…I’ve traded in all of my bang sticks for medieval slicers, smashers, and bashers”

      But did you get properly trained? Do you have government-issued certificates to prove it?

  11. Official survey results of calibers achieving a first round stoppage of the hostile act was the. 380 believe it or not. I’ll hunt the info down and post the link. It was a rather large amount of data from police reports I believe.

  13. Everyone knows, and secretly agrees, that 10mm is the ONLY way to go for EDC… I personally do not engage in “caliber wars” unless my attacker has something different….

  15. 107MM Four Deuce for the win!
    “Section!, HE Quick!”

    Run if you want…doesn’t matter.

  20. .40 is superior to 9mm.

    I don’t own either caliber though. I’m a man so I shoot manly calibers.

  21. I’m up for caliber discussion, even if caliber debate is a side effect. It’d be cool to see some articles about the .357SIG, .327 Federal, 16ga, .224 Valkyrie, and some lesser-used full-size cartridges.

  22. Grains of lead on-target per second.

    I don’t shoot often, but when I do, it’s 180gr HST .40 S&W.

  24. “Can’t we all just get long?”
    Rodney King”

    No. Not unless Rodney carries/shoots .500 calibre handguns.

  25. If it goes bang and it’s got AMMUNITION to go bang then I’ll shoot it. No real favorite in the standard calibers. I shoot them well most days and days when I don’t I blame the ammunition . lol.

  28. ” (Drops mike.)”

    How often do you do that, and does Mike have anything to say about it?

  30. The caliber debate is actually far older than most people think. In the late 1800’s when black powder with its huge calibers was being dumped in favor of smokeless powder and smaller calibers as usual the Fanatical Far right screamed the smaller calibers would never work or last in popularity.

    Agnes Herbert, a Scotswoman, and huntress, read all the gun magazines of the day and came to the conclusion that the idiot prostitute gun writers back then did not know what the hell they were talking about. My how little things have changed since 1900 when Agnes penned those words of wisdom. After using a .450 double rifle she changed to a 6.5 mannlicher rifle and she also taught people to shoot with both eyes open. She hunted on 3 continents and shot more game legally than any hunter today could ever shoot. Her experience taught her she was right on the killing power of calibers. She stated the only difference she found between her .450 double barrel rifle and the 6.5 Mannlicher was that the .450 left a slightly bigger blood trail but killed no quicker or better or deader than the 6.5mm.

    The Germans adopted the .32 acp over the .380 because they found that the .380 bounced off of a military helmet. So much for the gun writer nonsense that the .32 acp is so inferior to the .380 acp

    In 1945 which was 34 years after the U.S. adopted the .45 acp they finally got around to doing a test they should have done 34 years earlier. They found that the .45 acp bounced off of a helmet at a scant 35 yards while the 9×19 penetrated it at an astonishing 125 yards and might have done it even further away but no one that day succeeded in hitting the helmet at a longer range. It proved how inferior the .45 acp was as a combat pistol cartridge compared to the 9×19 and I might personally include the .30 Mauser and .30 Tokarev

    The Chinese bridge battle between the Communists and Nationalists proved that the .30 Mauser Broom handle pistol was so deadly with its very high velocity (for a pistol cartridge of around 1,600 fps) that they were able to wipe out several machine gun nests blocking the escape route for the Chinese Communist troops. The Russians used an identical cartridge in their pistols and machine guns in WWII to deadly effect and remember it was only .30 caliber.

    In conclusion it is penetration and bullet placement that kills not bullet size and this has been now known since 1891. It takes awhile for the Conservative mind in the U.S. to learn anything if indeed they ever do.

    • Having a little experience with the 7.62X25 it’s not the killer bee its cracked up to be.
      Perhaps slightly better then the 9mm luger, but not by much.
      Never owned a .40, so cannot comment on its performance.
      My opinion on handgunm calibers is the bigger the bullet the better.

      • It is, dependent on one contingency possum, older 3A or newer lesser armor. PASGT’s, though retired from mil svs but still commonly issued to LEO’s for instance, will take a through & through from Tok out of a CZ 52 @ 5m. Much less the actual arms they were originally designed for, which had significantly longer barrels than the Tok chambered pistols.

        • I’m shooting critters not bullet proof vest. I really like the 7.62X25 however it doesn’t dump what I shoot like a .45 or .44.

      • In Massillon, Ohio a number of years ago an asshole cop pissed off the wrong guy at the wrong time and when the cop was walking away the driver he harassed shot him in the buttocks with a .30 Tokarev. The high velocity bullet glanced upwards through his body killing him instantly. The local cops conducted a Bonny and Clyde execution of the driver.

  31. I might add that in the late 1980’s Pistolero Magazine went to Mexico to get around U.S. animal cruelty laws and shot pigs in a barnyard with the 9mm , 38 Special , .357 Mag and .45 acp and saw no difference in killing power. Without proper bullet placement and penetration the animal was not killed.

    The tests were very valid considering that the pigs anatomy is actually very close to that of a human except of course that pigs are much better behaved and more civilized.

    • I dont see many people hunting deer or pigs using a 9mm, wonder why that is?
      I do agree pigs are better then humans but if both were hungry I’d rather have a hungry human after me then a hungry pig.

      • I saw on the news last year a herd of wild pigs attacked a woman in her own drive way and killed her.

    • Damien, “pigs are much better behaved and more civilized.”

      You really don’t grasp the concept of irony.

        • Typical fascist. Your mass murder desires are showing through. Can’t wait to man the cattle cars, can you, SA-Mann dacian?

  32. Overall I arguably have more of an issue with .45 ACP from a ballistics standpoint. Just too low of a pressure round. If you start getting into some of the other variants that push pressure nearer 30K that stuff’s pretty cool in my book. .45 ACP’s natural subsonic nature is pretty awesome admittedly though I will confess the US Army should have gone with .38 Auto some 120 years ago.

    My issue with .40 is the reloading side of it. The round’s a weird one and supposedly temperamental about pressure. That says nothing of unsupported chambers, Lyman even has a warning in their loading book about the round which is unique to it. Supposedly .40 was made to emulate .45 ACP firepower with a smaller gun and/or give more rounds. I think it does this well. It’s a compromise but what isn’t?

    9MM, well what’s there to say? Lots of rounds, (possibly) lower recoil (I don’t think it seems any better than .40 to me) and smaller/ yet higher capacity guns. It does make a smaller hole and I’d prefer .38 Super in a rimless variant but it’s dirt common.

    Any of em are fun to shoot overall, I still love .38 Special although it’s really ballistically inferior to all the above. I don’t need to chose or get in a war over it, they’re all a good time and they’re all fit enough to carry and hopefully get me to a rifle should I ever have that misfortune.

  33. I might add that W.D.M. Bell used the 6.5 mm and 7×57 to kill over 1,000 elephants and he stated he found that some of the big bore elephant cartridges of the day did not have enough penetration and actually got some white hunters killed.

    Bill Judd of that era, a famous hunter of the time, was smashed to a pulp by an enraged bull elephant and it took 6 rounds from two different rifles (.600 nitro express) to kill it. It was one of the reasons the .577 Nitro was invented and preferred because it had more penetration than the .600 Nitro.

    Again without sufficient penetration and bullet placement caliber is of little consequence.

    About a decade ago I watched an elephant culling operation. The rifles used were 7.62×51 FN FAL. One shot dropped the elephants like they were hit by lightening. So much for the myth that you need a .700 Nitro express to kill elephants.

    I might add most of Africa’s big game was killed off by poor white African farmers using old obsolete bolt action cheap surplus military rifles using cheap surplus military ammo.

      • Yes I do. I used to do it much more when I was a young man. But I still pop off a few ground hogs down on the farm. You do not have to freeze your lower extremities off in a deer blind.

    • I watched that same program on tv about culling elephants. Amazing how you became an expert on elephant hunting without ever being to Africa and never going hunting.

      Your mother must call you ‘special’ every day.

      • Jethro from the dumb ass things you have posted I doubt seriously if you ever went hunting.

        And by the way what I posted about the FN and its caliber was valid. Your pointless diatribe was non sequitur.

        • Awww…SA-Mann dacian’s feelings got hurt. Tell your SA-Truppfuhrer how you want to kill that race traitor jwm at the next meeting.

    • So do many other people myself included. Its the one gun you will never leave at home or under the seat of your car because it is so convenient and comfortable to carry you have to remind yourself you have a gun in your pocket.

      I think the gun makers have left a big hole in the gun market (pun intended) by discontinuing the caliber in so many of their former marketed weapons.

      I have read many news paper accounts in the past of the little .25 acp saving women’s lives and men’s lives as well. There was a lady cab driver who was kidnapped by a mass murderer and survived by blasting him with it. In another incident a man was attacked by 3 thugs outside a bar and killed all 3 with only one shot apiece. So much for the .25 acp being declared useless by no nothing prostitute gun writers.

      When I was a kid I shot and killed a big white tailed buck with a single shot .22 rimfire rifle. I was told the .22 would only make a person or animal mad if you shot him with a .22. Experience proved otherwise.

      John Hinckley blew 3 grown men off their feet with the .22 rimfire pistol during the Pres. Reagan assassination. Again so much for the baloney that a .22 will only make a person mad if you shoot him with one.

      • Yes I’ve killed deer with a .22 also.
        Not at 200 yards.
        Reagan’s “attempted” assassination.
        Had it been .44 mag we probably would have been one less Reagan. Head shot Brady crawled off.
        The .22 was for the bullet proof glass, he never had a chance to draw his .38.

      • “John Hinckley blew 3 grown men off their feet with the .22 rimfire pistol ”

        They went down from being shot, no one was blown off their feet. Hinckley shot four not three. He used a 22 caliber revolver.

        He wounded President Reagan, a police officer named Thomas Delahanty, a Secret Service agent named Tim McCarthy, and critically wounded Press Secretary James Brady.

      • “I think the gun makers have left a big hole in the gun market (pun intended) by discontinuing the caliber in so many of their former marketed weapons. ”

        I think there are only two current production guns in the U.S. market still chambered for .25 Auto – the Seecamp 25 and the 25 ACP model of the Phoenix HP. Everything else I think has been dropped in favor of the .22 version of said pistols (e.g. Beretta Bobcat, Taurus Poly 22, etc.)

        CZ makes an interesting little pistol called the CZ-92, which (IIRC) is a polymer framed descendant of the CZ-45 (itself the inspiration for Seecamp). We can’t get it here, though, because (again, IIRC) of the 1968 GCA “sporting clause”.

        • Jethro every time you open your big mouth you shout to the world your ignorance. I never stated as to weather I had a license or not so are you telling us you have a crystal ball. And by the way Moron in my state you are not required to have a license to hunt deer on your own property. Also nuisance permits are availed and not just during hunting season. So you made a complete fool of yourself not once but thrice. Its obvious you know little about hunting or hunting laws go back to playing golf. Your a joke Jethro, a complete joke.

        • Nazi boy. In my understanding it is never legal to kill deer in Ohio with a .22. According to your facebook you live in Ohio. Some of the photos do look rural.

          So, it still looks like poaching. But why the stress? the fascists love them some sex offenders and criminals.

        • quote———–Nazi boy. In my understanding it is never legal to kill deer in Ohio with a .22———-quote

          You just made another idiot post. Its too complicated to explain it all to you but yes you can shoot a deer with a .22 genius boy under certain circumstances.

        • Yes you can. It’s called poaching SA-Mann dacian. I’ve literally just left Ohio law on the matter.

          How retarded are you? You keep posting comments that can be checked in less than 5 minutes and when you’re called out on your bs you double down.

          You’ll never promote out of SA-Mann at this rate. You ain’t smart enough.

        • Again you are a complete Moron. Going to court for using the wrong weapon does not fall under the category of poaching providing you had a license or were hunting on your own land.
          Sorry Moron you are not lawyer that is for sure.

        • So you admit you went to court. Wrong weapon sounds like splitting hairs. But for a real fascist like yourself a criminal record is a badge of honor.

        • You accomplish the impossible proving that with every post you prove you are more ignorant than in the last post.

          Explaining the law does not imply or admit the educator was involved in any arrest. Your reading comprehension is at the 3rd grade level. I suggest you hire a 4th grader to explain my post to you.

        • Summons, arrest. Same same. You wound up in front of a judge for doing something against the rules. For a guy that’s openly willing to do mass murder you sure are squeemish about terms.

          A sensitive fascist. Who new?

        • No Jethro I did not receive a summons or an arrest that is your wet dream fantasy. You are really a sick person.

        • And remember Moron your original post accused me of being a poacher. When that did not work and it fell through you went into a panic with other nut case diatribes.

          If you were sane and a real man you would admit you were wrong. Your original attack was not based on anything of substance but one of a maniacal hatred of the truth about what I have posted in the past. Truths you could not refute or deny.

  35. In standard rifle cartridges anything from 6.5mm to .35″ will do the job satisfactorily. What you personally choose is down to cost, availability, and other factors.

        • You mean the pond to the East or the one to the West? The folks in the “penal colony” have all they can handle right now with the Aussie military knocking on doors making sure people are staying indoors as mandated by the Government… Either way I don’t really care what THEY call me, I know what I am…

    • Southern Cross I am afraid you just got a lot of .243 and 6mm users mad as hell at you.

      Also P.O. Ackley proved the .220 swift killed very large specially bred Mine Mules like lightening. The witnesses that day were all clamoring to let them shoot a few too. They put away the rifles they brought with them.

      • I have seen the results of .243 in the field when used by others. Accurate yes, but poor bullet choices, such as varmint bullets on pigs, did not give good results.

        Everything I hit with a 6.5×55, .308, .303, or 8×57 was a one-shot-kill. The .243 would need several shots to put down a normal sized pig.

        That is why 6.5 is my minimum. YMMV.

  36. My EDC is a Glock model 22 .40 cal. The .40 cal has proven, to me, on a few different occasions to be a more effective round than the 9mm I used to carry.

    • The ‘94 AWB probably did its share to put the 40 in more hands and guns. When limited to 10 rounds, the choice between a Glock 19 and a Glock 23 became an easy one. Go with the more powerful. Of course, you could get a 15 round mag for the 19. The going rate was about $80…in the mid to late 90s.
      Caliber wars are fought from the armchairs. At the range or on the hip, nobody gives a rats ass.

      • I never understood why people got into heated caliber debates. Its a useless activity if you ask me. It will always end up with people having what they have anyway, and it doesn’t matter what caliber it is if the person is satisfied with it for their purposes and if they want something else they will go with something else.

  39. John MOSES Browning, two world wars, 45 caliber because they don’t make a 46, stopping power, 230 FMJ (Fun, Majestic, Joyful).

  41. .40 Haters are gonna hate. Ain’t no changing that.

    Personally, I like the .40, shoot it, reload it and enjoy shooting it.

  42. My XDM40 is the best .40 I ever shot. I love it so much that it makes me want its big brother, the 10MM!
    If .380 is 9mm Kurz, then logic dictates that .40S&W is 10MM Kurz!

  43. Whatever floats your boat. Don’t like a particular caliber or gun? Don’t buy or carry one. Simple. Mind your own business.

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