

40 S&W’s momentum with police departments and was the first manufacturer to bring a new family of. 40 S&W offered up similar accuracy and trajectory as the familiar 9mm but with more energy and, most importantly, none of the irritating recoil of the 10mm Auto - making it more powerful than the nines of the time and easier to keep on target than the centimeter cartridge. 40 S&W Auto was born and took off with law enforcement like wildfire. They duplicated the 10mm Auto FBI Lite Load but shrunk the cartridge down so it would fit in a 9mm pistol-sized frame. Smith & Wesson took heed and worked with Winchester to develop a more approachable LE cartridge. In an effort to manage the 10mm Auto’s fallout with agents - it was notoriously challenging to control, and the large S&W Model 1076 was a real issue with agents without bear mitts - the Feds developed a lower power 10mm load called the FBI Lite Load that promised less recoil and more control but was ultimately found to be only marginally better than the original. 40 S&W Auto.Īfter a 1986 Miami shootout in which insufficient penetration from a 9mm round fired by an FBI agent enabled a shooter to kill 2 FBI agents and wound a third, the FBI wanted a pistol that could offer superior stopping power and went with the logical choice at the time the 10mm Auto.ĭespite the additional power, the 10mm cartridge proved less than popular with agents due to its rowdy nature. Then whispers started about this new gee-whiz caliber - the. Gaston Glock’s universe was indeed balanced. Not only did these three options suit most scenarios, but they could also all run the same magazines - no need to worry about different magazines for each pistol.

This simple family of Glocks gave them pistols matched to the needs of their customers: peace officers and military customers could run a full-sized pistol, plainclothes officers and concealed carry fans could run the compact, and the subcompact G26 gave deep conceal carry and backup options. 40 Auto Glock.īy the mid-nineties, with the introduction of the G26, Glock had a trifecta of 9mm pistols in the market: the full-size G17, compact G19, and subcompact G26. When the fine folks at offered up a used LE G22 Glock pistol for me to put through its paces, I was more than happy to share my take on the original. Glock brought the Glock 22 to market along with the G23 in 1990, and the rest, as they say, is history. 40 S&W Auto, leading to the 10mm and Georg Luger’s 9mm cartridge getting dropped like a bad habit - replaced, practically overnight, by the new gee-whiz LE wonder cartridge, the. When agents were less than keen on the pivot to the 10mm Auto, S&W and Winchester cooked up the. Way back in the parachute-panted, drum-and-bass-filled Nineties, the 9mm was getting pushback from LE agencies across the country due to concerns about penetration and stopping power stemming from performance shortcomings in the 1986 Miami shootout. They offer up pistols chambered in the larger LE-focused cartridge while being identical in size to the 9mm G17, Glock 19, and G26 pistol lineup. 40 Auto pistols and have been incredibly popular with law enforcement across the US for decades. The Glock 22 (along with its siblings, the compact G23 and subcompact G27) are Glock’s.
