The .40 Smith & Wesson: this round came along at the right time in the right place

Guns Magazine, Sept, 2005 by Charles E. Petty

New cartridges are the lifeblood of gunwriters like me. After awhile we run out of things to talk about otherwise. Of course it is really hard to say that anything is truly new in a technology that has been mature for a century or so, but when Smith & Wesson and Winchester teamed up to introduce the .40 S&W in 1990 their timing could not have been more opportune. And I was luckily involved almost from the outset.

The groundwork was really laid by the FBI's investigation of the 10mm Auto as a replacement for their issue handguns and the subsequent development of the S&W Model 1076. The 10mm Auto was introduced in 1983 and was a real hotrod with far too much recoil for practical law enforcement use. I had been experimenting with the 10 for IPSC competition and came to the conclusion that a 180-grain cast bullet at around 1,000 feet per second handily made major and was much easier to shoot. When the FBI began testing the 10mm they found the 180-grain bullet at 950 to 1,000 fps had great defensive potential as well.

There are conflicting claims over who did what and when. There had been some work done with shortened 10mm brass with the thought of using it in a smaller pistol platform, but both Winchester and Smith & Wesson executives told me that the project was begun with a blank sheet of paper and a handshake between presidents Jerry Bersett of Winchester and Steve Melvin of S&W. The ammo development at Winchester was a closely guarded secret program operating under the code name "Swordfish." The bottom-line intent was to make a cartridge that would work in S&W's 9mm frames, deliver a 180-grain bullet at 950 to 1,000 fps and do so within the 35,000 psi pressure limit already established for the 9mm. Amazing coincidence don't you think?

Although I was fortunate to be involved from the earliest days of the .40, what followed the public announcement amazed everyone, myself included. When it was unveiled at the 1989 SHOT Show, the .40 S&W generated interest far beyond all expectations. Winchester had ammo ready to ship, but it was roughly six months before S&W had guns. In one of the great ironies, Glock actually was shipping pistols first although they learned what slowed S&W down--you really just couldn't put a .40 barrel in a 9mm and be good to go. Some tweaking was required to manage the greater recoil.

The amazing part is, by the end of the year, all the major ammunition makers had offerings in .40 S&W and gun companies were hot on their heels. It was interesting to read the firearms press, for there were two distinct camps: Those who thought it made great sense and those who didn't. They were led by comments like, "not proven on the street" of "40 short and weak.'" I have relished--and do so again--telling the latter camp to enjoy their sizeable portion of crow.

Of course all was not entirely sweetness and light, for early accuracy results were not very good. The initial recoil impulse was very brisk, which likely contributed to both accuracy and function issues, but the simple fact is that the .40 S&W could not have come along at a more opportune time. The .40 was the beneficiary of all the interest generated by the FBI's ammunition testing program, so new bullet developments were applied to the .40 and some loading changes--primarily to slower powders--corrected the accuracy and function issues. While the first bullet weight was 180 grains, it was only a little while before we had 135-, 155-, 165- and, briefly, 200-grain loads.

By then the FBI's 10mm pistol program was also in trouble. The 1076 was effectively doomed by errors on both sides and the bureau began to look at the .40. I was busily working on handloading the cartridge and, as chance sometimes works out, Sierra announced a 165-grain JHP. The size of the bullet was appealing because it freed up a little powder capacity and my early results were quite promising. I passed this along to a friend at Quantico with the thought that a velocity of 1,050 to 1,100 fps. would be proportional. A couple of months later I was told Federal was making the FBI a 165-grain Hydra-Shok to be loaded at 950 fps. When I got some, it was just like shooting wadcutters and the gelatin performance was excellent. What they had done was simply prove you don't need the speed of heat to make nice holes in dirtbags, but the load was cursed as weak by the cult of velocity.

Yet when all is said and done, the fact remains the .40 S&W was a cartridge coming at the right time and filled a gap that existed between the 9mm Luger and .45 ACP. It also arrived at just the right time to benefit from extensive research in bullet design generated by the FBI ammo test. It was just a short time before we had the good premium stuff with names like Hydra-Shok, Gold Dot, Golden Saber, XTP and SXT. Guns weren't a problem either, for within a year or two all the major makers had one of more models and today you would have to try hard to find a maker who doesn't have several.

Of course all these guns and the vast assortment of ammo would not be on the market if it wasn't being sold. The acceptance by law enforcement is probably the biggest story here. The .40 came along just as law enforcement agencies were beginning a sweeping change from revolvers to autopistols. And it is from that community we can get accurate information since most purchase contracts are public record. S&W states 70 percent of its law enforcement contracts are for .40 caliber pistols, 10 percent are for 9mm and 25 percent for the .45 ACP. It is reasonable to think other makers would have a similar distribution. Ammo sales are another good indicator of success and Speer, Federal and Remington all report .40 S&W amounts to 50 percent of their law enforcement sales. We are presently working with the newest .40 from S&W, the 990L DAO, and you'll see a complete report soon.