.40 S&W - How's it's popularity outside the United States?

[RAM Engineer]

Has .40 S&W caught on to any appreciable degree outside the US? I know it's hugely popular here, but I'm ignorant of how well it's doing outside our borders.

[Buck]

Somewhere between zero and none...

B

[Alpha Sierra]

You would think that it would be a hit in countries that restrict civilian ownership of firearms in military calibers. But then again, they also tend to severely restrict handgun ownership.......

[TiroFijo]

In latin america:

In countries that do not restric by caliber (typically up to 380 ACP/38 spl allowed for civilian ownership) like argentina, paraguay, uruguay, chile, venezuela and colombia, for defense handguns the 9 mm para is by FAR the most popular, 45 ACP far second, and 40 S&W a distant third, but still you can get ammo and guns for it almost everywhere. Other niche of the 40 is IPSC shooting.

Besides Mexico, nobody uses the 38 super (unless in IPSC open).

In south africa, about ten years ago, it was about the same.

Most countries do no restric by "military caliber" anymore, and if they do they also have the handgun caliber restrictions as above.

In many places the laws have been written by people who cannot tell one side from the other in a gun, so there are a lot of errors, grey zones and missinterpretations. In Mexico you can have a 223 Rem rifle but not one marked 5.56...

[m39nut]

I believe that one of the police forces in Australia is using the M&P 40. I know in Europe 40 is pretty much a non starter.

[Entropy]

I believe that one of the police forces in Australia is using the M&P 40. I know in Europe 40 is pretty much a non starter.

I believe that this is Sidney PD.

Outside of the USA, it is pretty rare. Kinda like the 9mm Makarov was in the west.

[Winnie the Poo]

In Ontario, Canada, police general issue handguns are legislated to be, at least .40 cal and double action/safe action only. I don't know of any force in the province that hasn't chosen .40 S&W, most Glocks with a few Sig 229s thrown in.

[Army Chief]

I know in Europe 40 is pretty much a non starter.

That would seem to correlate with my experience, as I never once saw .40 S&W in Germany in nearly 10 years.

AC

[dc202]

Relatively popular among Canadian LE.

[GermanSynergy]

Only saw one 1911 style handgun in .40 at a gun club in Sargobard, Hungary. Lots of 9x19 and .45 ACP variants.

Outside of CONUS and some CIS states, 9x19 is king of the hill, and will remain so for the forseeable future, IMHO.

[BigT]

In South Africa our Law Enforcement agencies use almost exclusivly 9x19mm. The sadly disbanded Scorpions unit ran G22's and G23's but all other LE is pretty much set on nine.

9x19mm is also the most common civilian calibre here by a pretty big margin. .40 seems to have overtaken .45 in the race for second place.

[montrala]

In Europe .40SW is used practically solely by IPSC competitor shooting Standard Major and Modified Major.

It is non-existent in military/LE use and in some countries (like Poland) even banned from CCW and security use.

In Poland cheapest .40SW ammo (Magtech) cost almost twice the price of quality 9x19mm ammo (Geco from RUAG) and same as .45ACP (S&B).

Also in some countries (for eg. Denmark or Australia) private ownership of handguns with caliber more than 9mm is banned. That is why IPSC made exemption for .357SIG cartidge to be scored Major in Standard Division.

[keysersoze]

Here in Asia (well the Philippines) 40 cal guns are used by both IPSC shooters who trick out their 1911 raceguns to accept mags with up to 28 rounds!, to civilians who use their pistols for defense. A lot of police and military also own .40 cal pistols although they're issued either 9mm of 45ACP guns.

[jamaicanj]

9mm is the most popular round in Jamaica

[joffe]

Relegated to niche hobbyist/comp use. 9mm is the name of the game here.

[RogerinTPA]

9mm is the most popular round in Jamaica

And most prolific pistol caliber world wide.

I'm sure that the .40 following here will start to spread, but due to it's higher cost, not by much.

[bondmid003]

Sad because .40 is my favorite handgun caliber. Then again its a fairly new caliber compared to 9mm Parabellum if I remember correctly.

[Skyyr]

Sad because .40 is my favorite handgun caliber. Then again its a fairly new caliber compared to 9mm Parabellum if I remember correctly.

It's pretty new compared to most popular handgun calibers.

[Entropy]

Sad because .40 is my favorite handgun caliber. Then again its a fairly new caliber compared to 9mm Parabellum if I remember correctly.

It was created in 1990 to specifically address the FBI's adoption of the 10mm loaded with a 180gr Sierra JHP at 980fps. Winchester and S&W felt that given the FBI's performance requirements, they could shorten up the overall length of the 10mm auto, give it a small pistol primer(a problem the FBI experienced in testing), and redesign the rim for more reliable extraction. In 1993 the case walls were beefed up as there were some case failures in Glocks.

The .40 dominates US Federal agency contracts, and it appears that it will continue to do so for some time to come. Mostly, you see it being used by agencies that are likely not to depend on NATO supply chains(9mm NATO) which are domestic in nature.......the USCG for example.

[Siller.45]

Hi all, im new here, great forum i've learned a lot. Well, answering your question, i'm from Mexico, and down here, the .40 s&w its quite popular among law enforcement, the federal police transitioned about more than ten years ago, from the .45 1911 colt to the browning hp .40, and it has cought on well since then. Right now, the federal police is ditching the browning hp, for the glock 22 and 23, just like the FBI, also they use the beretta 96, but it has some reliablity issues and a small mag cap just like the browning so its not very popular with them. A lot of state police agencies are swapping their 9mm for .40 cal handguns too, and with the war on drugs going on, it makes sense because here we use FMJ only, and the 9mm really lacks stopping power in that configuration.