Never been a fan

Of the 40 S&W.

In 2004, I purchased two Browning HP's, one in 40, and one in 9mm, the idea being practice and train with the 9mm , and carry the 40, but when a I did shoot the 40 a bit, I noticed the groups getting bigger in a short period of time, so I decided to stick with 9mm, and the 40 found a new home.

I've also shot a number of student guns in 40, and well really find the recoil uncomfortable, now one thing I noticed oh around 20 years ago at the DCM shoots, (Now the CMP), was the older shooters would show up, and even before they shot, were rubbing the stiffness, out of their right shoulder, they nearly all had arthritis in the shooting shoulder, but not in the other. The effects of shooting Garands in 06, and M1A's in .308 had taken a toll over the years. Many gave up shooting High Power, and went to small bore (22's), and some quit all together.

But being younger, I didn't put 2 + 2 together, and shot a 30.06 bolt gun in HP, and an FN-Fal in 308 for tactical competition, and developed one hell of a flinch. I retreated to mouse guns (AR's) in 98. It took a year or two to get rid of the flinch.

But back to 40, a friend stopped over the other night, he is a bit older, than I and has carried and trained with a 40 XD for the past 5 years,, but he now has arthritis in his wrists, and wanted my opinion about scaling back to 9mm, as he is finding it painful in about 2 magazines.

I trained a young lady a couple of years ago, that had taken a CCW class somewhere, and didn't feel prepared to carry a gun, and asked if I could give her more training, she had one of the Smith/Walther guns in 40, and about 60 rounds in she told me she couldn't shoot anymore due to the pain in her wrists, and her last 10 shots showed a marked decline in marksmanship.

These are not the only 2, but the ones I picked

To be honest I'd prefer a 45, they shove but they don't kick. Bullet is moving slower.

The effect on joints over the years could effect your ability to pursue your enjoyment of shooting, in later years, of course you can be all macho, and say the recoil does not bother you, but, what is going on inside? Our bodies were not designed for recoil, period. I've also known some really big guys that it does not seem to bother, but they have more mass to absorb the recoil.

Now anyone that knows me, know I have more than a few firearms, and I tend to purchase used, to new, as well once the newness is worn off they tend to be more affordable, and in checking the used cases I'm finding more and more used 40's, and fewer 9's and 45's.

Perhaps on the plus side having a 40 wouldn't be a bad idea, with the current ammo shortage, the last 3 "Big Box" stores I checked were out of 9, 38, and 45, but they all had plenty of 40S&W ammo. I guess others are catching on to if it hurts, you are not going to find perfection with it.

The 40 is now 20, but I can't see that it has really outpaced the cartridges that were developed at the turn of the 20th century. Yes there are a lot of police departments with 40's but the cops seldom pick their guns, they carry what they are issued, and few if any of the people who made the decisions on what caliber a department will carry are shooters.

Since 95% of the cops are not shooters, and most retire around 55, and most only shoot 2-4 times a year, the long term effects of the wrist joints being pounded may not come to light.

But common sense should tell you if it hurts, it's not good for you.