10mm - The most versatile auto pistol cartridge in existence?

Catch 22 situation.
There aren't a lot of "factory" loads out there because not a lot of people seem interested.
Not a lot of people are interested because they don't know what can be done with it.

Plus they don't make a 10mm carbine!

Only a 40 Short&Weak one.

I think it's the length of the cartridge holding it back. The 10mm short is not nearly so potent, but fits into most popular size envelopes better.

Something Ruger P345 sized might go over well, but Glock has one about that size.

The Bren-Ten pistol that it was built around was beat to pieces by the recoil. That probably left a bad taste in consumers mouths and it just never really took off.

Recoil is a little snappy in most factory loads and it has been greatly over shadowed by its little brother, the 40S&W.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the round. There are lots of great rounds out there that just aren't very popular.

tyeo098 said:

Plus they don't make a 10mm carbine!

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Sure they do.

http://olyarms.net/index.php?option...6&product_id=101&Itemid=37&vmcchk=1&Itemid=37

http://www.mechtechsys.com/glock.php

Two reasons

SIZE

And what EXACTLY does 10mm do that 45acp wont? Because with the right loads the 100+ year old ACP will kill anything on foot or hoof that 10mm will.

Hikester said:

You complain about size and then compare it to .45 ACP? The Glock 20 holds 15+1 in a standard size pistol.

.45 Super is in the ballpark, but .45 ACP is not in terms of speed.

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I'm not complaining about anything. I currently own neither cartridge and have no desire to. But if you want to discuss why as per your OP it would behoove you to tone down the snark.



Both pistols are huge. But ACP guns are on an order of magnitude more common. My point is that the size of the platform alone puts 10mm only in contention for folks who would be in the market for 45 sized platforms. That already narrows its appeal to a very narrow focus. FWIW I had a g20 and I assure you there's nothing "standard sized" about one.

Not speed, not everyone is a ballistics nerd. I'm talking about bullets going into things and how things are affected by this. What does 10mm do different? The answer is absolutely NOTHING with the possible exception of the very edges of capabilities for hunting.

Barring the 40s&w wich IMO is a fluke that wont be repeated. In terms of mainline defensive/fighting handgun calibers its a 45acp, 9mm P, 38/357 world all of which have been around for the better part of or more than a century. Anything else is a very very slim slice of this pie and will stay that way.

I, too, am a 10mm fan. But I am also a fan of the .41 Mag and the .45LC. Both great cartridges, both very versatile, neither very popular.

You can lead a horse to water...

Such is life--I'm okay with all of that. I will keep handloading and keep shooting these cartridges.

The three main complaints I continually hear about the 10mm are:

#1 It's too expensive.

^It can be reloaded for same/cheaper than .45acp

#2 It's too large.

^It fits in the same sized guns as .45acp

#3 It's has too much recoil.

^It recoils the same/less than .45acp+P


On a side note, I have noticed that a lot of handgunners are very closed minded when it comes to handgun cartridges. If it isn't a 9mm, .45acp, .357mag or .44mag, they don't want anything to do with it.

It doesn't matter to them that the .357 sig wipes the floor with 9mm, or that the 10mm can do everything the .45acp can do and more, or that the .41 mag is better at killing stuff than the .357 mag, or that the modern .45 colt surpasses the .44mag in power and performance.

The 10mm is just one of those high performance cartridges that will never become a mainstay with the general handguning public. They don't know what they are missing.

Hikester said:

I find this statement downright hilarious. Someone doesn't agree with you and instantly you take offense. No one else here is having a problem.

Don't go away mad.

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Oh no! Accusing someone answering your question as a complainer isn't snarky in the slightest. Have fun with your little thread while it lasts. I can already see the lockstick looming

I'm testing the 10mm waters. I'm in the process of getting a 10mm 1911 and ordered some ammo today, all with 180 gr. bullets with velocities at 1100 and 1300 fps. It should be a flat shooting round, especially at the higher velocities. The 10mm was the brainchild of Jeff Cooper so there's plenty of room for having both .45 acp and 10mm.

10mm hoarder

Couple of 10mm around here... Most versatile? Perhaps. Not the only good choice though. Best choice is whatever the individual shooter performs best with. Real 10mm loads can be a bit much for some folks.

The G20 and G29 seem to really suck up the recoil. The Delta Elite shoots like a 1911 - duh! Double Eagles are highly under-rated. The S&W 1xx6 series are highly acclaimed, shooting nice due to their weight. S&W 610 or 310 for the wheelgun crowd, toss a Ruger Buckeye Blackhawk in there if you're a cowboy... Don't forget Witness 10s but I'd stick with metal ones. WY Arms Parker? Uh, not on my buy list... Bren? Not on the shoot list.

And the mother-of-all 10mm carbine has gone unmentioned - HK MP5-10, which has so far eluded capture on my part.

10mm out of a carbine show it's teeth in a similar fashion to .357 or .44 Mag do according to the chrony.

Singing the accolades of 10mm is something I do almost daily as I reload away!

And what EXACTLY does 10mm do that 45acp wont?

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In a word, it penetrates. Far more than .45 ACP does, at least in the full-house loads. Check out these ballistic gelatin results, showing that the best 10mm rounds tested (DoubleTap 200gr) penetrated 19.5 inches, compared with 15.25" for .45ACP. And DoubleTap 200gr isn't even close to being the most powerful 10mm cartridge available. A Buffalo Bore 220gr @1200fps would likely penetrate quite a bit farther.

http://www.glocktalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336612

If I was carrying in the woods for protection against large animals (say, anything smaller than a grizzly bear), I'd much rather have a 10mm on my hip than a .45ACP.

For defense against 2-legged threats, where overpenetration might be a concern, there are plenty of hollow points in lesser loadings that would get the job done very nicely, but still provide good penetration through clothing or light barriers.

most versatile cartridge for a pistol? no. 460 rowland, 357mag ,44mag and 50 AE are superior. all of them can be loaded into pistols.

iv never seen 10mm at any of the walmarts in my area, they commonly carry 357 and 44 mag.

Can't really be all that versatile if you can only buy two guns that can chamber it...

I too am a fan of the 10mm and at present own two of them. One is my go to pistol and is an older Colt Delta Elite purchased in the mid 80's that now has over 6K rounds through it w/o a problem outside of changing recoil springs every 1k rounds. My other 10MM is a new SS Colt Delta Elite that I have not fired yet. I'm fond of the "1911" style frame and the only semi-auto I'd consider for wood's carry would be the 10MM in a solid steel framed pistol. JMHO!

I have only shot the glock model 29 and the delta elite. the glock really kicked but I liked it. A friend was shooting his 10mm when I was shooting my glock model 30 . the colt was a nice pistol and really liked the one I owned back in like 1990 so much I bought another one last year. I have not fired it yet but it was made back in the 90's.

but I have only fied one round out of a gun since I stepped off of the line at camp peery last august and that was to shoot a deer last oct.

Been doing alot of yardwork this spring but really thinking about getting some rounds down range.

Have you ever shot one? I saw a Glock being fired at the range one day. The recoil was stout and the sucker was loud enough that I had to put on both foam plugs and a muff. No thanks. Out of a carbine, maybe, but I'm in no hurry to indulge. The Mod. 19 .357 I was shooting made less noise and recoil than that Glock.

Can't really be all that versatile if you can only buy two guns that can chamber it...

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If that's what you've been told, you've been misinformed.

And what EXACTLY does 10mm do that 45acp wont?

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Shoots flatter

Penetrates deeper

Allows for more ammunition in the magazine

In a nutshell, it does everything better. Why it didn't catch on bigger than it did doesn't really make any sense when one considers the number of .45 ACP pistols being sold (out with the frame size argument) and the fact that major commercial ammunition makers load it down to .40 S&W/.45 ACP power levels (out with the recoil argument). But, not every good idea gets traction in the real world, and doubly so in the gun world. Many a cartridge has paled in popularity compared to it's inferior contemporaries for reasons no one can truly quantify.

That said, it's more popular today, 30 years after it's release, than ever before. We have over a dozen handguns chambering it and several small ammo makers loading real 10mm ammo.

"40 short and weak" now thats funny! ! ! !