.40 Smith & Wesson

    The .40 S&W has certainly come of age and is now one of the most widely used calibers in law enforcement and for self defense. Developed in response that the 10MM with its 200 grain bullet at 1200 fps. was too much to handle for a lot of law enforcement officers; who requested that the cartridge be downloaded for better control. Smith &Wesson came up with a smaller (shorter) cartridge that would fit into the 9mm platform thus making the package more compact and controllable. The original loading was with a 180 grain bullet at about 850-900 fps. As time and development continued a variety of different weight bullets were tried with varying degrees of success. Eventually the 165 grain Golden Saber from Remington fulfilled the cartridges potential by equalling the one shot stopping power of the famed .357 125 grain loading that was the standard that self defense cartridges were being judged. I offer a superb bullet at 165grain that will provide you a perfect practice bullet so you don't have to burn up a lot of expensive self defense ammo. The .40 S&W cartridge can be a tricky cartridge if one is not careful. The mistake most reloaders make is in treating the cartridge as a scaled down .45 ACP rather than a scaled up 9mm. The .40 is a much higher pressure round like the 9mm rather than the lower pressure .45ACP. In addition the cartridge has a high peak impulse to its pressure curve which if one is not careful can cause problems in some guns that do not have supported chambers like the GLOCKS.
    Just click on any bullet to get more detailed information. If you are still uncertain about which bullet will best meet your needs just drop me a line president@pennbullets.com or give me a call (412 767-4670 Monday - Friday 10 AM - 5 PM EST) and I will help.

Bob P.