40 S&W Ammo

What do you get when you chop down a 10mm Auto case to fit in a 9mm handgun design? The .40 Smith & Wesson. Introduced in 1990 by Winchester and S&W, differs from its more powerful counterpart in the use of a small pistol primer as well as the shorter case.

It is a flat-shooting cartridge that typically fires relatively heavy 165 or 180 grain bullets at muzzle velocities around 1,000 feet per second. Lighter bullet weights fired at higher velocities are also available to improve expansion and reduce the risk of overpenetration. Though notorious for its snappy recoil, .40 S&W jacketed hollow point ammo is highly effective for self-defense in skilled hands.

Because .40 S&W ammo was intentionally designed to be compatible with existing 9mm handgun designs (the two rounds are not actually interchangeable), there are a wide variety of pistols chambered for it. These include the Glock 22/23, Springfield XD, Browning Hi-Power, and several models in Smith & Wesson's own M&P series.