The .40 died before it was born. That’s a rotten way to start a fulfilling life, but there you have it. Thanks to a shortsighted, bean-counting corporate management team way back in 1978, the .40 B&S, the predecessor to what we now know as the .40, was denied production resources. The wildcat cartridge development effort […]
Gun Review: Beretta PX4 Storm
By necessity, most gun reviews offer a quick look at features and cursory reports on a couple of hundred rounds of shooting over one or two range trips. That’s the nature of the beast when a gun is new on the market, and people want to know about it – quickly. While it’s a necessary […]
What Will Your Self-defense Ammo Really Do?
Earlier this year we explored why self-defense ammunition costs about a dollar per round. Knowing what goes into self-defense loads and what it’s supposed to do is informative, but until you know how it actually performs—after all, this is ammo that you may rely on to save your life—the job is not complete. So we […]
Ammo Test: Barnes TAC-XPD .40 S&W
Over the years, .40 S&W has been disparaged as a mediocre compromise round. You’ve probably heard some of the descriptions. .40 Slow and Weak .40 Short and Weak I’ve never really understood that. Sure, most cartridges have pros and cons relative to others, and as study after study shows, none are perfect. All handgun calibers […]
Ammo Test: Winchester Train and Defend .40 S&W
One of the first questions I ask when testing a new product of any kind is “What’s different or unique about this?” In the case of Winchester Train and Defend Ammunition, there are a few “unique” elements to consider. It’s simple, especially for newer shooters. For practice, use the boxes marked Train. When you load […]
Pic of the Day: Smokin’ Hot…
Here’s a SilencerCo Osprey 45 suppressor. This is mounted on a Glock 31, which is actually a .357 Sig pistol. One of the neat things about many .357 Sig guns is that you can do a barrel swap to .40 S&W using the same magazines. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to suppress .357 Sig […]
7 Things To Know About the .357 Sig, Sort Of…
.357 Sig is my favorite pistol cartridge. I don’t really know why, I just think it’s cool. Well, seriously speaking, it is a screamer with great street performance and the bottleneck design helps not only velocity, but feeding reliability. Developed by a pas de deux featuring Sig Sauer and Federal Ammunition in 1994, it’s loosely […]
Top 10 Self Defense Ammo Picks
With a controversial and opinionated topic like this, I have to include a couple of explanations and disclaimers. You do have to be careful about blanket statements when it comes to ammo performance. There are just too many variables. For example, you can’t necessarily say things like “Mega Blaster Yellow Tips” are the best. You […]
Gun of the Day: What’s Wrong with This Picture?
I went shooting with friend and fellow gun writer William yesterday afternoon and he brought along the un-possible. Here’s a Ruger Vaquero. No big deal, they’re pretty common. If you haven’t seen one, they’re beautiful single action pistols. I was a little surprised as Williams is a complete and total .40 S&W caliber nut. He […]
Ammo Review: Winchester Ammunition Train and Defend
When it comes to designing ammo, many of the objectives conflict with each other – you can’t have them all. For example, perfect ammunition would have all of the following: Low recoil Low blast and muzzle flash Low noise Reliable expansion, even after passing through tough barriers like 10 copies of the New York Times […]