In the wake of last Saturday’s post about cheap carry guns, Reader Terry S. sent me this article, entitled “The Most Dangerous Handgun On The Planet?” (talking about the Ruger SR40c).
I must be getting older and crankier [no shit] but I am getting sick of articles like this, which basically regurgitate the manufacturer’s spec sheet and throw in a little Wikipedia history on some part of the deal. (In this case, the short history of the .40 S&W cartridge, linked back to the Miami Shootout. Yeah, whatever — who cares? because we all know about that infamous stand-off between undergunned FBI agents and a couple of better-armed goblins.)
So what does this article tell us? Nothing. (Don’t even get me started on the breathless hyperbole of the headline, which is pure clickbait.) Here are a couple issues I would have addressed.
Sure, the .40 is more powerful than the 9mm Europellet. How does that translate into a compact pistol like the SR40c? My own experience with the .40 S&W has not been that pleasant: the sharp snap! of the .40’s recoil makes target reacquisition slower, and the recoil affects my accuracy quite substantially — and this in a large-framed Beretta 92FS. And I’m not alone in this: several shooters have reported the same issues, and there are reports of female cops and agents having controllability problems when qualifying / requalifying with their weapons chambered in the .40 S&W. So how does the SR40c handle the recoil?
Is this pistol better than, say, the diminutive Glock 27, with which the Ruger compact surely must compete?
The article does compare a few features (e.g. having an external safety — unusual in such guns), but those are peripheral issues. Is the SR40c more reliable? Can it feed a variety of different ammo brands and types (which the G27 seems to be able to do)? Is it as rugged as the Glock or the mini-Springfield XD Mod 2?
(I have to tell you, I kinda prefer the Ruger’s looks: that smoothed-down slide and grip just shouts “comfort” and “easy-draw” — but the article didn’t even give us that.)
Now I have to grant you that The National Interest is most assuredly not a gun magazine, but that just means that in future I’ll be less likely to look at their gun articles if they’re going to be superficial puff pieces like this one,
And as for the silly headline: does the Ruger even look as dangerous as this SIG SG553P?
(My question: is the SIG really a pistol, or just a chopped-down pistol-caliber carbine? But that’s a topic for another day.)
As an Aging American, my requirements for a carry piece have changed over the years, and I don’t think they’ve been adequately addressed.
I carry for self-defense. I don’t brag about it, I don’t advertise it, but I intend to make it home safe at the end of my day. I want a weapon that will stop an attacker quickly and efficiently; I am no longer physically able to go the distance like I used to be. As much as I would like my first round to make a hole the size of a Buick, the .40 cal. plays hell with my arthritis and adds to the difficulty of putting the next round on target. And these smaller weapons limit my ability to hold the weapon for the same reason. Little guns have little grips, and I have pretty big hands. Holding any weapon with just three fingers makes me nervous.
So my choice of weapon is going to come down to a reliable gun that I’m comfortable with, and expanding ammunition that will knock down a hippo. If I’m at a point where I have to defend myself, I don’t think I’m going to care much if the bad guys innards end up looking like hamburger. I carry a small-ish .38 Special revolver for ease of use and dependability. I don’t think that I will ever find myself in a TV cop style shootout where I’ll have to fire a box or two of exploding bullets to finish off the evil dooers. Worst case, two, maybe three rounds is all I’ll get to shoot, and if I’m accurate, that’s all I need to put the bad guy down.
I’m no expert, but I train on drawing my weapon and putting three tight rounds into a close target. I could do six, but I figure if the first three don’t end the crisis, I’d best be getting the heck out of harm’s way.
“(….Yeah, whatever — who cares? because we all know about that infamous stand-off between undergunned FBI agents and a couple of better-armed goblins.)”
Don’t minimize their piss-poor training, and worse tactical decisions…
Paul Harrell did an excellent analysis of the shootout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8cByaVyNQ
My wife works with books. LOT’S of books, and I get to hear about many of them. She creates index’s for books about to be published and has done so for the past almost 20 years. She does between 300 and 400 books a year.
Seems like about 80% of the new books are old topics re-done with a different view, no new material. The same seems true with web articles now. Except for stuff dealing with current events, everything else is the same old stuff with the deck chairs moved around. The web is turning into the same thing as everything else, littered with bullshit and becoming less than worthless.
I keep my circle tight on the web and most of my daily haunts go back 10 or more years and in the case of Pete over at WRSA, 20+ years. Even so, I am just getting tired of everything tech. Maybe it’s a part of getting older and realizing that now all minutes wasted are coming off the end. I’ve been involved in computers since 1979 and one of these days I’m just going to turn everything off one last time, box all of it up and sit it in a corner of the garage. But first I have to make room in that nightmare sometimes mistakenly referred to as a garage….but that’s another story….
Since the Sig is a 5.56, it’s definitely not a chopped down PCC. Is it a pistol? Hey, the ATF came up with the definition, we’re just working with what we have. I suspect the Shockwave not-a-shotgun stuff is causing heartburn in some circles.
I don’t own a 40S&W and don’t expect I ever will; I have shot a couple, one Glock, one I don’t remember what it was; maybe a Taurus. In both cases it was a blasty and not very fun experience. The 10mm 1911 and (rented) Glock were much more pleasant to shoot, which seems unlikely but it was very real. The .40 in a similar size pistol felt like it had more concussion and snap than the 10mm…
Ghostsniper, sympathies. For me it was the steamrolling of all the better OS’s and technology by microsoft everywhere all the time no questions no options that pretty much eviscerated the joy of tech for me. But when I get to work on our remaining VMS systems (and customers) its like a little bit of that old enjoyment comes back.