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.40 Smith & Wesson

August 10, 2009

I can well remember Smith &Wesson's Tommy Campbell standing in front of the Gunwriting Corps with a big announcement. It was during SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade) Show in early 1990 and the big news was the .40 S&W cartridge.

This was the time of the semi-automatic pistol in law enforcement, when the 9 mm was most common, but a sprinkling of .45s were around. Everybody wanted to have a 9 mm-sized .45 cartridge and they wanted it in a 9mm-sized gun. Impossible on the face of it, but the clever gun engineers at Smith & Wesson and the equally clever ammo engineers at Winchester came up with a 9 mm-length cartridge that shot a medium-bore (.40-caliber) bullet.

Called the .40 S&W, the new round took off like a moon rocket. Within the year, most pistol makers were building a .40 S&W pistol on their 9 mm platform. Then, several leading police agencies put the .40 in service as soon as the first guns were available.

In actual street shootings, the new load quickly earned its spurs. It was literally a great idea and the .40 is the unquestioned champion of American law enforcement service pistol cartridges. Campbell was right on the money when he said: "It gives you a 180 at 950 and it will make major."

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