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longdog wrote:I remember years ago when many departments went to 9mm from revolvers because of the higher capacity. After several years, many of those then changed to 40,357 sig or 45 after finding 9mm "inadequate". Are the newer rounds that much better or are we looking at another trend brought about by commercial hype?

9mm hardball pokes pencil sized holes into people, and early 9mm hollowpoints........Winchester Silvertips, for instance...... would fail to expand properly either because of bullet failure or because of obstacles like windshields and heavy clothing, etc. The hollowpoints ended up behaving much like hardball. In fact, I believe that overpenetration was an early problem for that reason. But bullet design has come a long way in the last 35-40 years, and 9mm performs much better than it used to.

Gun-Tests Magazine has an interesting article in this month's issue about 9mm choices for short-barreled carry pistols: http://www.gun-tests.com/issues/25_10/f ... 087-1.html (subscription required to read whole thing.) They gave their highest score to the Speer 124 Grain +P Gold Dot, saying:

Speer Gold Dot 124-grain +P Short Barrel JHP 23611, $22.49/20 (Midway 216634)

The current ammunition shortage almost prevented this load from appearing in these pages. Most of the others were on hand. The Speer load was difficult to obtain, but then everything is at present. The Gold Dot design is tweaked for extra performance in the short-barrel gun. The +P rating increases velocity over the standard Gold Dot, and the bullet features a softer core. Expansion and penetration were excellent. This is a solid choice for all-around use. Expansion is the greatest of any load tested, and accuracy was excellent.

Our Team Said: This load is specifically intended for short-barrel use, and as a result of careful development and quality manufacture, it was the overall pick of our raters.

Gun Tests Grade: A+

Of the "front line" self-defense and/or duty calibers, it seems to me that this is how they shake out.

.45 ACP, designed 1904, and still going strong.

9mm Luger, designed 1901, and still going strong.

10mm Auto, designed 1983, a very respectable enthusiast's cartridge, but mostly done as a commercial duty/SD round.

.40 S&W, designed 1990, fading due to lack of (in my opinion) versatility.

.357 Sig, designed 1994, nearly gone.

.45 GAP, whu' ....what? What's a GAP?

The last 4 of these cartridges all have varying degrees of potential, and their own cadre of adherents. The first two offer something tantalizing to consider......maybe in those two cartridges, the automatic pistol cartridge has already been perfected. All that remains is bullet design and powder charge for different applications. The 10mm is possibly more versatile than those two cartridges, but for whatever reasons the market isn't bearing it out so much.

The 9mm and .45 ACP cartridges will be around as long as we are still allowed to own pistols. But the .40 and the others are destined to eventually be deprecated out. It has little or nothing to do with their effectiveness. I'm not volunteering to stand in front of a .40. But at the end of the day, they all answer questions that either very few people were asking, or which were already answered by the 9mm and .45 ACP.

Some cartridges are forever, because they are just so good. '30.06 is like that. Others come and go.....not because they are bad cartridges, but because they either answer a question that's already been answered and are therefore superfluous in their category, or because they are limited in some aspect or other.