.40 S&W Round problems?

O

osirus101

New member
I'm trying to decide on getting the Springfield XD subcompact in 9mm or 40sw. They both have their benefits (more rounds and less recoil in 9mm, more power in the 40). I had decided on the 40 except recently I asked a guy I know what his opinion was and he strongly advised against the 40 due to a bunch of apparent problems. Like feeding/reliability issues, cases of it exploding etc. This was all news to me and I still haven't found many online posts of people with issues. Can anyone shed some light on this situation?

Thanks!
 
It's internet hype, mostly.

I've been shooting the .40 S&W almost from it's beginning, and have never had a problem.

If all this internet nonsense was true, it wouldn't be as popular as it is with law enforcement. It's quickly becoming the #1 cartridge among law enforcement agencies in this country.

Daryl
 
Daryl is right . Any new product has it's problems but the problems of the .40 are repeated again and again on the internet. There were gun design problems , ammo problems of various types which have been cured .After all it's over 20 years old and was rapidly accepted by LE and civilians. My HK .40 is that old and still works fine without a malfunction !! :p
 
I haven't heard that myth, but I'd call it BS.

When you talk about "unreliable cartridges" I think of rimfire and certain loadings (200gr gold dots have never ran in any of my .45ACP pistols well), but not center fire calibers in general.


Though I dont like .40S&W, I've owned three pistols chambered in it and all ran just fine. I assume his comment was in reference to the flat point shape of the bullet, but keep in mind that the specific bullet profile was DESIGNED to be used in modern auto loaders (unlike many of the rounds used today such as 9mm and .45 which started life only feeding FMJ ammo). It could have just been that he had a lemon which blamed on the cartridge. We all tend to generalize an entire brand/model/caliber based on one poor performer. That being said, I've had junk Brownings and boringly reliable Kel-tecs... just how it goes.

I say nonsense. If you like the performance of the 10mm-lite, go ahead and buy one in a reliable platform!

There are rumors abound in the shooting world and if half were true, our guys overseas would be carrying .40 Glocks to be used as hand grenades and would be in no danger as long as they were more than 100 yards away from an enemies AK. Take it all (especially on the net) with a grain of salt :p
 
...he strongly advised against the 40 due to a bunch of apparent problems. Like... cases of it exploding etc.
Click to expand...
Re: exploding, this issue generally originates from two sources.
  1. The round is sensitive to bullet setback because it operates at high pressure and has a relatively small case. If you're unaware of the terminology, bullet setback occurs when the bullet is pushed back into the case, which decreases the effective case volume and increases the operating pressure. This usually occurs due to rough handling of cartridges and/or repeatedly shucking the same top cartridge in and out of the pistol during loading and unloading. However, .40S&W is NOT the only commonplace cartridge with this issue- 9mm Luger and .32ACP are other common candidates- and the problem can be avoided by handling cartridges gently (which I hope you're doing anyway) and by not repeatedly loading and unloading the same top cartridge in the magazine.
  2. Older Glock .40S&W pistols have a partially unsupported chamber that can, in rare instances, lead to the infamous Glock kB! where the case fails at the unsupported point. However, this problem (a) afflicts a particular make and model of gun rather than .40S&W pistols in general, and (b) is a rare occurrence that purportedly most frequently happens using previously fired, resized, and handloaded- or "worked"- brass. Glocks are not blowing up every day or they wouldn't be so popular. :)
 
The .40 does seem to be a bit more prone to KB with handloaded ammunition that is under minimum OAL or with factory ammo that has suffered bullet setback due to the same cartridge being repeatedly chamberd too many times. There's a fairly detailed discussion about it in the most recent Glock KB thread over in the semi-auto forum. Glocks in particular seem to be a bit more susceptible to KB with bad ammo becuase many of them leave a fairly large portion of the case unsupported in the chamber (newer Glocks seem to have better chamber suport).

However, so long as your using properly spec'd ammo and not rechambering the same cartridge over and over again, the chances of a KB, even from a Glock, are extremely minute. I've also never heard of any reliability or accuracy problems with a .40 that could not be attributed to the individual gun or ammunition. The only real caveat that I can give about a .40 is that, because of its sensitivity to OAL, it's probably not the best cartridge for a novice handloader. So long as you either maintain great caution while handloading (something you really should be doing anyway) or simply stick with factory ammo, you should be just fine with a .40.
 
Misinformed opinion.

Issues like bullet setback from repeated chambering of the same round (e.g., police duty load/unload at shift start and end every day) occurs with other cartridges like the .45ACP, not just the .40S&W. The .40S&W is the most used cartridge y police depts in the US so it gets a lot more use and abuse.

People says how the .40S&W is such a high pressure round. I don't know where that comes from. The SAAMI spec for some examples are (from QuickLoad):

9mm - 35,000 PSI
9mm+P - 38,500 PSI
.357 Mag - 35,000 PSI
.357 SIG - 44,000 PSI
.40S&W - 35,000 PSI

Compared to .45ACP sure it is high pressure, but not compared to several other modern cartridges, or even the ancient 9mm Luger. And it is LESS pressure than the 9mm+P or .357SIG.
 
I have been shooting and reading the .40 S&W for many years now and I have never had a problem. I own a Springfield XD Tacticle 5" barrel and a Taurus PT-140. They have both run flawlessly. What you have heard is internet hype.
 
I had decided on the 40 except recently I asked a guy I know what his opinion was and he strongly advised against the 40 due to a bunch of apparent problems. Like feeding/reliability issues, cases of it exploding etc.
Click to expand...

Eh, like was said above, it's hype. I've been shooting a Glock .40 for years with no problems. The cases exploding number is likely centered around shooting reloads out of an unsupported chamber (or something like that... at least I'll admit I don't fully know what I'm talking about. :))
 
i'm not a fan of .40 but i've not heard of any actual problems with it..

the first semi i ever shot was a Glock .40 (i assume it was a 22) that a cop at the range let me shoot when i was around 11

so our PD has been using the .40 for at least 13 years, there's been no reports, that i know of, of one of the officers having a pistol explode or fail in a situation where it had to be used

i also know more than one person with a .40 and they've had no problems with them
 
People says how the .40S&W is such a high pressure round. I don't know where that comes from. The SAAMI spec for some examples are (from QuickLoad):

9mm - 35,000 PSI
9mm+P - 38,500 PSI
.357 Mag - 35,000 PSI
.357 SIG - 44,000 PSI
.40S&W - 35,000 PSI
Click to expand...

The issue isn't the maximum pressure, but rather the case capacity. According to my Lee Reloading Manual, .40 S&W has the smallest useful case capacity at 0.69cc of any of the cartridges you listed (I was suprised to learn that 9mm has a useful case capacity of 0.74cc). This means that a bullet seated too deeply is going to reduce powder capacity by a larger percentage and thereby cause a greater increase in pressure.
 
Well, let me comment on the actual gun you are considering. I actually owned a XD Subcompact in .40 and ended up getting rid of it. The gun functioned well enough mechanically and I never had any issues with feeding, ejecting, explosions :eek: or anything else.

However, when I fired the thing it felt like the gun was going to fly out of my hand. Now, I am no novice and carry a .45 almost daily, but this thing was another story. I think the small guns really do better with the 9mm, but that is just my subjective opinion.
 
While back there was some buzz on the web about the forty being inherently inaccurate. Never having shot one, I have no opinion, but the cop down the street does not like his for that very reason.
 
The only problem I have had firing the 40 S&W was the result of a defective extractor in a SIG SP2340. It would jam, fail to feed properly, and fail to extract properly. I had had the pistol for several years but SIG took care of it at no charge.
 
My only real complaint with .40 S&W was, the empty cases had a bad habit of turning up as 357SIG cases with a 40S&W headstamp, after they got run through my 357SIG dies. A tad short, but they worked fine, and even after repeated loadings.

Other than that, no real complaints. The guns I had chambered in it shot and worked fine. It just never really floated my boat.
 
In a good barrel, the .40 is just as accurate as the .45 auto or any other straight-wall service pistol cartridge.
 
Sarge...that's not been my experience with the round...through a Colt Gold Cup Elite...lot's of gunsmithing to tighten rails, new bushing yada yada yada...but it still throws rounds ... a cpl out of each magazine. A .45 ACP is not a problem to get shooting well. The difference between the two is a cpl of inches. My Border Patrol friends have had the same experience. Yep..I know that mine is one example...but when added to theirs in Glocks and H&K's, it seems to me that the round is not as inherently accurate, as the venerable .45. Just one man's humble opinion...Rod
 
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