Why have we never issued the S&W .40?

Question

Why has our military/LE never issued this? The ballistics are spectacular and will fit in small guns, usually the same models as 9mm!

Is there any cartridge better than this? I know about .400 CorBon, but I mean like mainstream loads?

Ummm post about the cartridge not about war. Any true soldier (I'm not a soldier myself) knows that war sucks, but also realizes the need to be prepared to put the best and fastest end to any war that another might start against one!

Answer 1

It really depends on what you want out of your weapon.

When NATO was established, one of the items that it created was a weapons standard. While each nation chose its own arms to issue to the military, several standard rounds were created. The 5.56mm for assault rifles (M16, german G3, etc), the 7.62mm for crew served weapons (the M60 and M240G machine guns). As well as the .50 caliber used by the Browning M2 heavy machine gun. Another standard was that a common pistol round, the 9mm automatic was put in place, as it was in common use throughout Europe. So, because of the cost, the US eventually switched to the 9mm as well in the late 70's-early 80's.

The .40 round is a good middle of the road round. The weapon itself can hold more rounds than a .45 of the same style of pistol, but has more knockdown power than the 9mm commonly used by law enforcement and the military, although many special forces prefer it, and they kind of get whatever they want (within reason).

Having said that, cost is definitely a factor, and the 9mm is more common and less expensive than the .40cal.

Answer 2

Because NATO allies all use that crappy 9mm. That is why we dropped the 45 acp,

Little history
During Philippine insurrection they found that the 38 carried by officers would often not stop the moro's until they had inflicted injury or death, the answer was the 45acp with it's great knockdown power. Then to standardize weapons in NATO we switched to the 9mm which has less power than the 38.

Answer 3

Hold on there - pistols chambered for the .40 are issued to a number of Law Enforcement outfits. It's by far the most popular caliber out there as far as LEOs go.

As for military use, it's about cost. Weapons and ammunition must be proven to exceed a certain standard to justify mass purchases and switching everything over. Commonality with allied nations is a huge issue as well, something that has driven debate over the NATO standard of ammunition (5.56x45mm, 7.62x51mm, etc) for decades.

The ballistics simply aren't spectacular enough to merit disposing of all the stocks of 9x19mm we have, especially since Geneva/Hague restricts us to solely ball ammunition. When they finally perfect and make cost-effective something like caseless ammunition, we'll see a significant change then, just not before.

Answer 4

the S&W .40 is one of my favorites. It has excellent knock down with easy to handle kick. the .40 would be my first choice for military but what do i know, i know i am just an spc E-4.

Answer 5

they have been fixated on the weak 9mm, because it is cheap to fire....I own 2 glock 17's fun to shoot and cheap.
I use +p hp's for personal defense.

I would like to see the military go back to the 1911 .45's. & it sound like that will happen eventually.

Answer 6

Being ordered now .
The piss ant 9 is gone .

Answer 7

because goverment contracts were awarded to Colt for the original .45 for a gross of weapons prolly cheaper but doubtful. then they awarded contracts to Beretta for their 9mm cause it was a safer weapon to operated with far less accidental firings.
i was a small arms weapons trainer/expert for the navy these were the reasons they gave us

Answer 8

whatever for? haven't they got enough weapons already?

Why are we so intent on killing people, there must be another way to be more helpful to the people we have so willingly invaded and already killed/