Glock 40 S&W (22 & 23) Reviews & Accuracy

[Applause] [Music] in this video we're going to be reviewing the Glock 40 Smith & Wesson in two of the most popular models the model 22 and the model 23 the Glock 40 calibers were first introduced back in 1990 largely to accommodate the new fbi's and pistol caliber that they requested which was the 40 Smith & Wesson cartridge now looking at the history of this cartridge it dates back to the 1986 FBI Miami shootout and afterwards they had some concerns about the ballistic performance of both the nine-millimeter as well as replacing their current revolvers that were utilizing the 38 special + P load within a semi-automatic platform the seventh of the 38 special + P of courses a rim cartridge designed for a revolver as opposed to in an auto feet cartridge which the FBI was looking for they were happy with the ballistic performance of the 38 special + P but needed a new auto performance load so originally the FBI had chosen the 10 millimeter for their pistols but the 10 millimeter comes with some drawbacks especially for police units one of those is the fact that it is a high pressure load in fact it is a higher performance load than the FBI standards even required at the time and the other part of it is it because it's a larger load as well as the fact that is it's a higher performance load it typically requires a large frame and pistol to be able to fire effectively as opposed to many of the mid-range pistols that you would typically see on the market today and this can be a challenge for many people including people with smaller to medium sized hands for their ability to be able to accommodate the larger grip that typically takes place in larger frame on these pistols for many of these people would have a hard time both controlling accurately and scoring well with a large sized pistol in order to fire the 10 millimeter cartridge so the first change that the FBI made was they originally downloaded the 10 millimeter cartridge by removing some of the powder within the casing lowering it down to about between 900 and 1000 feet per second and velocity what this created however was more air space within the actual cartridge of the 10 millimeter itself what this did however was it opened up a new opportunity for the FBI by having more airspace they were then able to cut down the 10 millimeter cartridge into what we now know today as the 40 40 Smith and Wesson and the 40 s myth and Wesson not only were they able to cut it down to manage the the desired velocities but they were also named able to now take this new sized cartridge and be able to put it within a medium frame pistol so no longer were they tethered by 10 millimeters to the larger frame pistols they can now take the same pistol sizes as their 9-millimeter Glock 17 and 19's and creates similar models the same size as the Indy Glock 22 and the Glock 23 that now support the 40 Smith & Wesson cartridge so in the end the 40s myth and Wesson really is a compromise it's a compromise between the 9 millimeter cartridge as well as the larger cartridges which is the 10 millimeter as well as the 45 ACP which typically require larger frame pistols to accurately fire for most people and efficiently fire so it is that in-between pistol it is widely adopted now the 40 caliber for decades now it has literally been tested utilized by many police forces both the United States and worldwide is currently now in its fourth generation of models one of the benefits you have of buying a 40 Cal Glock is the fact that you can now support up to three different calibers fired out of this pistol and you can do this by having what are called drop-in barrels or replacement barrels which can change the loads that you fire out of the 40 caliber pistol so for example on this Glock 23 which is a 40 caliber pistol I can easily disassemble the pistol remove the 40-caliber barrel and drop in a replacement barrel a 357 sig barrel produced by lone wolf and there's other distributes for this as well and then looked into the pistol now I'm able to fire a 357 SIG's out of my Glock 40 pistol another benefit of the 357 sig is it is the same case diameter and almost the exact same cartridge length so you can use your your existing Glock 40 caliber magazines for your 357 sig loads that you would load in your Glock when you're shooting 357 SIG's you also have the ability to drop in a nine-millimeter barrel as well and be able to shoot 9-millimeter caliber rounds out of your Glock however there's a few differences between the 40 caliber and the 357 sig when you do this process if I can get the spring right here okay so the difference between the nine-millimeter is the nine-millimeter is going to require a couple different changes one is if you're using nine millimeter grounds you're gonna need to be able to use a comparable magazine from a nine-millimeter pistol so in this case a Glock 23 would take a Glock 19 magazine a Glock 22 would take a Glock 17 magazine the other thing you need to know is that when you're firing nine millimeters out of a 40 caliber the case seat the extractor as well as the springs are designed to be fired with a 40 caliber in mind so some people will occasionally have extractor problems or extraction problems with the nine-millimeter casings firing it out of a 40 caliber Glock now not everybody does some people and I'm sure they'll respond to this video claiming I've never once had a problem dropping a 9-millimeter switch barrel in or and firing it out of the 40 Glock which it's fine but I have seen situations where it has been a problem occasionally largely because of these issues that I talked about therefore if from a reliable reliability standpoint alone I typically recommend that a 40 Cal 40 Smith & Wesson 3 fits eggs are perfectly reliable within these platforms at 9-millimeter however I would only recommend the exchange barrel if you're using it for practice shooting or target shooting not for personal defense if it's for personal defense and you need a high level of reliability then I would recommend the dedicated 9-millimeter platforms and for example the 17 and the 19 as opposed to this switch out barrels but you do have three options what you can shoot out of the 40 caliber which makes it so diverse diverse in what you can do some of the other aspects of a Glock is it's simply a Glock right it's a simple design 34 parts easy to operate for the average person there is lots of ammunition currently on the Shelf right now for 40 Cal in fact when you go into many of the larger gun or shooting supply stores you're gonna see a lot of 40 caliber ammunition currently and there's a reason for this it's a reason why's many of the police are now moving back to the nine millimeters which we'll talk about in a moment and one of the reasons why they're moving back is some of the problems that people claim with the 40 Cal is the fact that when you fire the 40 caliber it is considered to be a snappy round in other words you can feel the recoil and the recoil impulse more noticeably than you can with the nine millimeters in fact when I fire them side-by-side even I notice the differences between the two it is a snappy round and for some people snappy means uncomfortable and uncomfortable firing typically leads to to flinching which can impact your accuracy and one of the ultimate results of that is the snappiness is not always easy for people to fire and the police performance results when they shoot their pistols have shown this as well so for example when the FBI dropped from the 10 millimeter to the 40s myth and Wesson they did so to improve their their their performance scores of their of their duty officers but what we're also noticing a lot of police a lot of police agencies have notice as well when they do a comparison between the scores produced with the nine-millimeter as opposed to the 40 Smith & Wesson the scores are actually on average superior for the nine-millimeter over this Morty Smith & Wesson as well so a lot of the police are now making that that question as to whether or not they they want to move back to the 9-millimeter as opposed the same with the 40s uh Smith & Wesson so the other thing about the it is just simply a Glock and if you've never fired a Glock before you'll notice that there's a hump on the back of the of the pistol and some people like it and many don't in fact it gives you somewhat of a natural higher sight target and if you for example didn't have the hump on your pistols so there's just some ergonomics as well that we'll talk about in a moment now as far as caliber and capacity being a 40 Smith & Wesson it is a little bit larger diameter than the nine-millimeter therefore the magazines hold two less rounds than the 17 and 19 respectively so the Glock 22 can hold up to 15 rounds the 23 can hold 13 rounds again 2 less than the 17 and 19 respectively the 40 caliber however one of the benefits of the of the pistol cartridge ISM much like the nine-millimeter and much like the 10 millimeter it is a higher pressure cartridge the pressure standards can go up to 35,000 pounds per square inch so when you look at some of the ballistics of the higher performing Oliver Losey you can fire out of the 40s myth and Wesson for example Underwood makes a load that comes out it's a 155 grain load that comes out at 1,300 feet per second producing almost five hundred eighty-two pounds foot-pounds of energy which is huge it's a significant amount of energy certainly more than a traditional 9-millimeter even they're 180 grain loads come in at 1,100 feet per second producing 484 foot pounds on average of energy into the target now compare that for example to the 9-millimeter now of which many people are firing the plus P cartridges typically can fire now up to 1,250 feet per second producing about 413 foot-pounds of energy out of a hundred and twenty four grain I millimeter bullet and then of course you can take the final comparison which is the 10 millimeter when fully charged and loaded 150 grain 10 millimeter low can go up to 1,500 feet per second at 750 foot-pounds of energy so clearly the 10 millimeter provides a lot of energy as well as velocity for it for a very heavy projectile to be fired out of them but as you can see the 48 Smith & Wesson really is an in-between it's a compromise between those cartridges ballistically when you're firing the load now as far as action it is a typical striker fired so you only have one action which is you just hold the trigger it cycles itself and then you let go to make safe as opposed to single double actions which have more Chin's which clearly is why the striker fire pistols have become so popular ergonomics and weight as far as weight of the pistol of the Glock 22 unloaded comes in around 1 pound in 7 ounces compared to for example the Glock 17 which comes in at 1 pound 6 and a half ounces so just slightly heavier in weight but nothing noticeable on the Glock 23 however comes in about one pound five and a half ounces as opposed to the Glock 19 which comes in at one pound five ounces so again weight is pretty simple a similar between the 40 caliber as well as the on the mid-size as well as the 9 millimeters and also goes into another topic having to do with the snappiness of the pistol again which is the size of the 17 and 22 is identical so you can use the same holsters and the same you know type of support configuration the same thing with the 19 however the weight being equal as well you have less physical mass less weight to counteract the physics of the increased velocity you're getting out of the pistol which is part of the reason why you see people now commonly talk about how the 40 caliber is much more uncomfortable to shoot size for size comparison wise with the 9-millimeter pistols that are out there today far as the barrel is a typical Glock polygonal hexagonal rifling barrel you would see in all their other ones again takedown and cleaning is very easy like I showed you with the swap out of the barrel very simple to take down clean just excellent in that regard very simple as far as options on your Glocks some of the things I like to do our first thing I always almost always change out or the sights I usually like to put in Trijicon or some other better sighting system into the pistol despite the plastic sights which I did don't typically like I'm a reliability standpoint on the pistol you're also see that I put a lot of extended slide releases on my Glocks as well which allows me in one hand easily charge the weapon and release the slide very simple quick change out and then there's the grip job so one of the things you're going to notice on the table here is I've got a couple different grip job options compared to the standard Glock so the first one is out of a company called row bar here in in Arizona and what they did is they actually removed the hump so this is more of a 1911 style sloping rip and then they did their light stippling on here as well so the feel of this is excellent if you like the feel of the 1911 and you don't like the feel the hump these are really great great options for you it does take time and it cost money for people to do this for you these are good options as far as customizing the grip on your Glock the other option is if you want to take the the quicker less expensive route is the Glock for dollar grip job as you see here in a lot of ones that I fire here these are I have a video on this so if you want to watch the for a Glock for dollar grip job it's another way to kind of even out the hump and give yourself much more comfortable firing hold on to the pistol as a result of this as well so as far as accuracy it's it's a typical block I mean if you look at my targets for my Glock 22 at 30 and 50 feet and then moving out to 70 feet and then one-handed again not much difference same thing with the Glock 23 at 30 feet compared to the Glock 22 again not much difference at all moving out with the 23 out to 70 feet and then one-handed again not much difference at all and these groups are pretty similar to the groups are achieved out of my Glock 17 as well so they're no less or more accurate with the 40 caliber the only noticeable difference however is because it is a snappy round it takes more time to rapid fire and get back on target with the 40 which I'd noticed when I fire it well the inherited accuracy is the same but the the recovery from the recoil is something that is different and again each individual is going to have to manage that their own FAR's alternatives of course if you don't want the Glock 40 you can codec back down to the nine millimeters a lot of police departments are now doing this reverting back to the 17 and the 19 largely because the ballistics now of the 19 have improved so much basically what's happening at this point is a lot of the bullet technology is getting so much better that you have frangible and hollow-point bullets and what this allows you to do is instead of shooting through the target where some of the energy goes through and then outs now allows the bullet to expand and dump more of the energy into the target when it hits so that's one of the reasons why a lot of people are looking back at the 9-millimeter and with these new loads that they have out here today and trying to figure out okay it okay the ballistics clearly are not as strong as the 40 caliber or the 40 Smith & Wesson however they're not exactly inferior anymore either and if we have police departments that are shooting more accurately consistently with the 9-millimeter over the 40 caliber it goes back to the old argument of what's more important the ballistics or the accuracy because shot placement is so critical that if you can't even hit a good ballistic round on to a target it's not going to matter what the performance of that round will do if it doesn't hit the right place so a lot of people now especially the police departments in the military are looking back at the nine-millimeter and figuring out okay is it worth giving up a little bit ballistically and energy wise to go back to the nine-millimeter with the right types ammunition to get better accuracy and better shot placement as opposed to staying with the 40 caliber and having lower scores and lower shot placement relative to the 9-millimeter so these are one of the reasons why a lot of people now are moving back to the 9-millimeter platform and a lot of the police departments are moving out of the 40 calibers and back into the 9 millimeters and other types of calibers that are out there and today as far as alternatives as I talked about earlier they have the 9 millimeter platforms almost all the major gun makers now that that make striker fires and semi automatics are offering 40 calibers however at the time of filming we're seeing less and less of that 10 years ago you seemed like everybody would come out with their 9-millimeter and then they're 40 caliber and then they're 40 five now we're seeing some manufacturers that are going straight from the nine millimeter to the 45 and skipping the 40 calibers altogether though that's a kind of a sign of the times what are the trends that we're seeing and one of the reasons why you're gonna probably see a lot of 40-cal at least right now sitting on the shelf because fewer and fewer people are buying these pistols as opposed to the nine millimeters and other options that are on the market today so what are these good for clearly it's it's an effective law enforcement pistol as well as good for perfect protection against two-legged predators no question about it if you can handle the recoil can recover from it well and shoot as good as the nine millimeters then it might be a very good option for you the benefit about the Glock is simply that you have the interchangeability of multiple calibers out of one pistol so if it is important to you to be able to shoot 357 SIG's and occasionally shoot nine millimeters for target out of one pistol this might actually be a good option for you especially if you do like the 40 caliber to begin with it is a Glock it's high-quality there's the simplicity and of the of the pistol is you know excellence what it makes it so well made and very affordable they tend to hold their value as well and reliable and they're universally use they've been used for police departments now really since the early 1990s and have proven themselves worthy so you just have to ask yourself at this point whether a 40 caliber is what you want and hopefully the reasons that we talked about in the video today will help you explain and understand the differences between the calibers how they ended up with the 40 caliber and where things are actually moving now relative to where the 40 caliber is some people would argue at the time that this is filmed at the 40 caliber is actually now in decline with a lot of people moving over to the 9 millimeters and the police departments but remember the police forces also have a lot of people with different hand sizes and shooting experiences that they need to accommodate on a standard platform that might not be you this might actually be a better platform for you as opposed to these other other types of options but again that's up to you hopefully this is this video helped answer that question for you and determine whether or not the the Glock 40 caliber is a good or good op or not a good option for you and if you like this video or you like our channel please subscribe to us on YouTube and thanks for watching

Channel: AZ Trigger

Views: 71,920

Rating: 4.7287354 out of 5

Keywords: Glock 40 S&W, glock 23 40 cal, glock 22 40 caliber, glock 22 gen 4, glock 22 gen 4 review, glock 23 gen 4 review, glock 23 gen 4 accuracy, glock 22 conversion barrel, glock 23 gen 4 357 sig conversion barrel, glock 22 review, glock 22 vs 23, glock 22 vs 23 recoil

Id: 47xyvQggbf4

Length: 19min 58sec (1198 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2017