Have to drive 50 miles to buy .40 S&W ammo.

[Idaho45guy]

Since Walmart stopped selling pistol ammo, that left one sporting goods store in the area that sold ammo. And they are pricey.

I bought a 1911 in .40 S&W and decided to buy a few boxes of .40 S&W to try in it. Didn't want to dip into my stash, so stopped by the LGS, which has a huge selection of ammo.

Attachment 262425

Plenty of 9mm with over a dozen flavors to choose from. A bit less of .45 acp. Heck, they had five varieties of 10mm! But a box of 50 Blazer Aluminum in 10mm was $33. Ridiculous!

Attachment 262429



Only two kinds of .40 S&W. Blazer Brass and Blazer Aluminum. That's it. And the Blazer Brass was $19 a box! I usually don't get good accuracy out of Blazer ammo, and don't like the cases for reloading, so passed on it.

Attachment 262428

Couldn't believe how quickly .40 S&W has fallen out of favor, around here at least. They didn't even have casings for it. They have casings for 500 S&W, but not .40 S&W. Crazy. So I picked up some Hornady bullets and more primers and will have to make my own.

[Idaho45guy]

Oh, and the sporting goods manager asked me if I found everything I was looking for and I said no. Only two types of .40 S&W. He said during the pandemic, they were completely wiped out of .40 S&W and they can't get any more in.

Thank God I reload for it and can find components online still.

[Winger Ed.]

At our range, few people pick up handgun brass.
I get my .45ACP and any others I come across.
They are almost an oddity here.

The ground is so covered, it almost looks like a load of gravel that is mostly 9mm,
but it looks like about 20% of it is .40S&W. It doesn't look like its falling out of favor here.

If your local guy doesn't have much- he might just be nearly sold out from the panic a few weeks ago.

[FLINTNFIRE]

I do not have any store bought 40 , bought the reloading stuff for it to show a young man how to reload as he shot a 40 , he loaded some but he was more of a part time shooter .
As it is I now have more then a few 40 caliber firearms , I like it better then 9 and almost as much as 45 .
It may fall out of favor but as many as there are it will remain for a long time , I bought some more used brass just as this pandemic panic was starting and always a good idea to stock up on supplies .

[Idaho45guy]

I do not have any store bought 40 , bought the reloading stuff for it to show a young man how to reload as he shot a 40 , he loaded some but he was more of a part time shooter .
As it is I now have more then a few 40 caliber firearms , I like it better then 9 and almost as much as 45 .
It may fall out of favor but as many as there are it will remain for a long time , I bought some more used brass just as this pandemic panic was starting and always a good idea to stock up on supplies .

Yeah, I bought a bag of 600 once-fired Winchester brass that was cleaned from my range for $30. Also have a few hundred other cases around, plus another 1000 or so bullets and boolits. That's years of shooting for me since I stopped doing matches and switched to 9mm for carry.

It's just disconcerting seeing it so expensive and hard to find locally.

[dragon813gt]

It’s fallen out of favor because of it’s deficiencies. Law Enforcement switching back to 9mm sure hasn’t helped. It’s not going away anytime soon. But many have realized that 10mm is a better round in all regards. Especially for reloaders who can dial it down to 40 performance. I never hopped on the 40 bandwagon.

The upside is if you like the round you can pick up pistols on the cheap. Dealers around here don’t like accepting them in trade. They can’t move them back out.

[35remington]

I will observe that those who no longer shoot 40 surely did not switch to 10mm in droves.

[root]

Never glt into the Short & Weak either always ben 10mm fan.

Stopped last Cri in a lgs and all they had on the shelf was S&B 9mm subsonic 147.

And 7 different makes of 10mm

No other ammo i picked up 1 50 round box of ppu 10mm just cause it was 14 and change after tax and was already in the store.

Rich

[dragon813gt]

I will observe that those who no longer shoot 40 surely did not switch to 10mm in droves.

This is certainly the case. One of the main drivers for selling so many firearms in 40 was law enforcement adoption. People like to have what LEOs have. When Law Enforcement switched back to 9mm these same people decided to switch as well.

It doesn’t matter what gun or cartridge. There is always go to be “fads” that come and go. There always going to be a “new hot round”. In most cases these die of shortly. A lot of them relegated to history books only. When old and proven cartridges do things so well I’m always amazed when people flock to the newest trend.

[FergusonTO35]

I have no use whatsoever for .40 factory ammo. I feed my Glock 22 the Lee 401-175-TC over 4.3 grains Bullseye for an accurate and easy to shoot 920 fps. It's like a 15 shot .38-40 or .44 Special!

[Froogal]

I guess I made a wise decision a few years ago when considering my first semi-auto. I was really leaning towards the .40 S&W, but then noticed that massive quantities of 9mm ammo was available just about everywhere I looked, so I bought a 9mm.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Years ago I shot a glock in 40 SW. Found the recoil impulse unpleasant. Was shooting mostly 45acp at the time and .357 and .44 mag in full size revolvers. Have shied away from it ever since.

[skrapyard628]

Thats a bit funny considering that during the last "panic buy" factory .40 ammo was about the only pistol ammo that you could find on the shelf around me. Everyone was clamoring about there being no ammo and ignoring the mountain of "useless" .40 ammo.

I will keep the .40 alive and well if others dont want to. Just send me all of your brass and I will make sure it lives as long of a life as it can!

People could argue all day about what 9mm/40/45 can or cant do. But Im happy with 40. A 180gn JHP over 6.3gn Unique moving at 1055fps is nothing to sneeze at. And with most 40 firearm magazines carrying more rounds than 45 but less than 9mm its a nice balance in my opinion. A bit of a middle ground. Whether its needed or not is not the quesiton...It exists and I like it!

[onelight]

I like the .40 it does exactly what it was designed to max power in 9mm size guns.
I prefer to load 45 , and 9mm is cheaper . But 40 is a great duty gun cartridge IMHO.

[tominboise]

I like and use them all - 9mm, 40, 10mm and 45ACP. No reason to limit oneself when it comes to fun.

[onelight]

I like and use them all - 9mm, 40, 10mm and 45ACP. No reason to limit oneself when it comes to fun.

what he said /\

[FLINTNFIRE]

I would say that yes there will always be the fad or flavor of the moment , and some are actually good ideas , the 40 was both of those , But it actually was and is a good round , I was not a fan during its heyday , but having put aside preconceived notions I have found I like it and it does offer performance over the 9 without giving up a lot of magazine capacity .

To each their own , that is why there are more calibers , some feel recoil different then others , some want or need more shots per magazine , some follow what the police do some what the gun magazines write about , some of us like choices and cheapness of once fired brass .

I remember threads on swapping and selling where sellers offered 40 brass for scrap prices as there was a glut of it and there is still plenty out there .

But then I shoot all the calibers mentioned in posts above , same as I shoot more then one style , model, make , and caliber of pistols , I even shoot oddball calibers and old ones , some you will not find any components for in most local gun shops .

I myself am glad that there are choices to make and we each can shoot what we want .

[dragon813gt]

People could argue all day about what 9mm/40/45 can or cant do.

You left out 357 Sig

[skrapyard628]

You left out 357 Sig

We gotta be quiet about that...otherwise the 45GAP and 9x21/23/25 guys will start coming out of the woodwork.

[dragon813gt]

We gotta be quiet about that...otherwise the 45GAP and 9x21/23/25 guys will start coming out of the woodwork.

Those rounds don’t matter. No one shoots them