Is the 10mm making a resurgence

I fell in love with the 10MM ballistics in hand gun use. So what to fire it in? A Dan Wesson Pointman 7 of course. Then after reloading a bunch and losing alot of my brass. I bought a 1911 in 45 Automatic. Brass is free as range pick-ups. Not the case with the 10MM. I still love my 10MM and Dan Wesson 1911. I think I'll get a 40 S&W barrel for it as well. That brass is plentiful and all over the range floor. Not so much a resurgence for me but an appreciation.

If I were to get a 10mm 1911, on the lower end price wise I'd look into a SR1911 10mm from Ruger. If you want to plop down a few grand, look into the Dan Wesson Silverback or Bruin. With the 10mm I do feel like the Glock is the better platform for it, but I understand some can't come to terms with the plastic fantastic.

Personally, I don't care a whole lot for the 10mm. I don't hate it, but I don't see a use for it at all, and I've owned about a dozen 10mm's over the years. My way of thinking is that pretty much all (normal sized) semi autos are in essence social guns, mostly used for, and more importantly designed for, bipedal threats. Yes you can hunt with them, but to me if you want power, you buy a revolver. The 10mm has good power, but I've never really felt like it offers much, if anything realistically, over the .40 S&W. People get caught up in energy numbers and start to get into this mindset that in order to kill a deer or hog it has to be a 10mm, but truth is, a .40 or .45 will work just as well.

I know some love the 10mm and that's great, I really like the .41 Magnum and that's another reason I don't see a need for the 10mm. The .40 covers any and all social needs and the .41 covers anything beyond that. Power wise the .41 Mag is far beyond a 10mm, which as bad as some would hate to admit, is much closer to .40 performance than .41 Mag performance, but I get that it sounds better to compare it to a .41 Mag, it's just not a good power comparison. My take on it, and again I have no hard feelings towards the cartridge, is that the 10mm isn't worthwhile, but that's just my .02.

SDGlock23 said:

Power wise the .41 Mag is far beyond a 10mm,

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That's true, if you're talking about max 41 magnum loads. A pretty-full 10mm can be quite close, however, to the original .41 magnum loaded intended for police/social work.

Vis-a-vis the .40, the 10mm opens up the 200-220 grain bullets, lets you push some of the longer all-copper bullets at normal .40 speeds, and can throw a couple hundred FPS on a pill versus a .40. Some people like those things, some don't.

Full house 10mm loads are in the same neighborhood as full house .357 loads or just beyond - and nobody seems to doubt that those are extraordinarily effective "social" rounds.

SDGlock23 said:

I know some love the 10mm and that's great, I really like the .41 Magnum and that's another reason I don't see a need for the 10mm. The .40 covers any and all social needs and the .41 covers anything beyond that. Power wise the .41 Mag is far beyond a 10mm, which as bad as some would hate to admit, is much closer to .40 performance than .41 Mag performance, but I get that it sounds better to compare it to a .41 Mag, it's just not a good power comparison. My take on it, and again I have no hard feelings towards the cartridge, is that the 10mm isn't worthwhile, but that's just my .02.

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It's not easy to do an apples to apples comparison with 10mm vs. .41 mag

Yes, .41 mag can achieve about 35% more energy than 10mm (790 FPE vs. 1070 FPE), but needs a 6"+ barreled revolver to do it. Beyond, but I wouldn't say far-less disparity than top 10mm vs. top .40 loads, in fact. Now reduce the .41 to a revolver in the size range of a 4.5-5" barreled 10mm (that's a 2.5"-3" revolver), the gap all but disappears. More to the point, there is no .41 mag that holds 15 or more rounds. The Witness, Para Ordnance and Star Megastar take 15+1, the G20 up to 17+1 with mag extension. For just about any practical purpose, given the option of a 15+1 10mm or a 6 shooter that is wider, longer and heavier, that's simple math to me. I'd have to step up to .44 mag to make it a tougher call. Which, BTW, in my 3" 629, my top .44 mag loads barely outclass the 10mm from the 4.6" G20 or my 5" guns in terms of muzzle energy. More blast, flash and recoil, but not much more terminal performance.

In addition to that, the 10mm may not be all that mainstream, but is much more popular than the .41, making brass and loaded ammunition availability favor it considerably, as well as ammunition cost, particularly where practice/plinking/range ammo is concerned. I don't know that you can even find loaded .41 mag for less than $1/rd, usually closer to $2.

This is not meant to "dog" on the .41, but we need to be honest about what it is and isn't, and level the playing field as best we can where platforms are concerned to fairly compare ballistics. 6"-8" barreled revolvers are a whole different class of firearm than service sized or compact autos. I get 1,342 FPS from my 3.5" barreled Witness Compact 10 with 180 gr. bullets; a .41 mag that fits in the same length box would have about 1" of barrel, be burning more powder outside than in, and still have half the capacity.

And you can throw a Henning base pad and grams engineering spring into the Tanfo mag and get 19+1 with ease. It does get a little long for CC, though!

I don't ever think 10mm will become mainstream. But there has always been just enough people who like it to keep it around. Those numbers seem to be growing

LIke others have said in a comparable size package it delivers power that beats 357 mag, matches 41 mag and is closer to 44 mag than most think. By comparable size package I mean a 10mm with a 4"-4.5" barrel compared to a revolver with a 3" barrel. The overall size is about the same. If you start shooting any of the magnum revolvers from barrels 6-8" long then the magnums win. But at the expense of having to carry around a huge gun.

If I'm buying a gun as a dedicated handgun hunting tool it will be a long barreled magnum revolver. But as a versatile gun that can be used for SD from 2 or 4 legged predators as well as short range hunting it is versatile.

JohnKSa said:

What gets left out (either intentionally or otherwise) is that the 10mm STHP load tends toward the upper end of the performance range of the 10mm cartridge while the .41Mag STHP is almost the lightest commercial loading available for the .41Mag.

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Exactly. I've never understood why folks insist on making the comparison between the two. The 41 mag blows max 10mm loads out of the water ballisticaly. It's always seemed like a way for people who prefer semiauto guns to delude themselves into thinking the two are comparable. Yes there's a bit of overlap but max load to max load, the 10mm gets left behind.

However, as has been pointed out, the 10mm can be shoved in a much more compact package with higher capacity, and the 41 mag's capability does not in any way diminish the 10mm's overall utility.

It depends on the area you're in. In Western MT, I am not sure the 10mm Auto ever went anywhere. I got my Gen III G20 about a decade ago and have always been able to find ammo, real ammo, not just that watered-down crap, from all four of my major FFL dealers. It's not common enough to find decent ammo in some smaller towns and gas stations and such, but there is always the internet. And it pays to load your own with this cartridge too. You just have to be aware not all 10mm ammo is created equal. Sadly, most of the major brand ammo is 10mm Lite stuff that should be avoided like plague rats, so you're really stuck with smaller boutique manufactures like Underwood and Double Tap, or the reloading bench.

I am with those that tend to favor the heavy for caliber JHPs driven at "real" 10mm velocities. I find the 200 gr XTP at around 1200 fps is more consistent in performance than any of the 180 gr JHPs I have tested. I suspect this is because the 180 gr is still fairly popular with the .40, and so pushing them at 1300 fps tends to be at the outer edge of what they were designed for. I don't think I have ever shot anything lighter or weaker than the 175 gr Win Silvertips, though when I first got the pistol, those rounds were at my local FFL for $10 a box, so I shot a decent number of them until I discovered Double Tap.

JohnKSa said:

Even with a 4" bbl, the .41Mag can push a 250gr bullet much faster than a fullsize 10mm can drive a 200gr bullet.

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If we use compare powerhouse ammo like Double Tap, the .41 runs a 250 gr. pilll at 1,260 from a 4.62" tube, while the Double Tap 200 gr. 10mm hardcast load sees 1,300 FPS from the 4.6" G20. And a 4 or 4-1/2" revolver is still a couple inches longer than a 4.5"-5" auto.

The .41 mag does indeed have more potential, but not so much when we compare a similarly sized package. And regardless, talking about the relative power of rounds used in service sized autos and then introducing large frame revolver rounds into the conversation is like dragging medium duty chassis cab trucks into the equation when discussing the payload and towing capacity of various 3/4 ton crew cab pickups.

One could get a sense of the relative inherent power levels of 10mm and .41 magnum by comparing a little load data. Take the data for AA#9, which is a powder well-suited to full-house loads for both cartridges (though a little quick in burn rates to maximize velocity in .41 mag). In 10mm, 200 grain JHP's get a max load of 12.5 grains per Western Powder's data. A 210 gr JHP in .41 magnum gets a max load of 16.9.... the listed start load (15.2) is well beyond the max for 10mm. This isn't completely apples-to-apples given the disparity in cartridge size, but I think it gives a sense of things.

In case I haven't made this clear already, 10mm and .41 mag are probably my two favorite pistol cartridges. I own guns in both and load ammo for both. The 10mm is tough to beat for powering up service-sized semi-auto to .357 or "police 41" levels. It's not quite a .41 magnum, but an N-frame isn't a G20 or Tanfo. Both are capable of doing a heck of a lot.

To those talking about a 10 mm carbine, didn't H&K make MP5s in 10 mm for a brief while?

SKILCZ said:

To those talking about a 10 mm carbine, didn't H&K make MP5s in 10 mm for a brief while?

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Yes

As others have said the sr1911's are worth a look. Good bang for the buck,and ruger has good cs if there was a hiccup in the gun. There website has a video of it on the 1911 page.
http://www.ruger-firearms.com/products/sr1911/models.html

Never owned 10mm back in the day, but did pick up a G20sf about 6 months ago----so maybe I'm contributing to the surge?


Bought it for a woods/hiking/camping gun----replacing my way too big and heavy 629.

I've thought about getting a 10mm, if I do it will likely be either a Tanfoglio or possibly a Rock Island Armory 1911. I like the 10mm in theory for "social work," but right now a 1911 in .45 is higher on my list because, well, if I have a 1911 I better have one in the caliber God and John Moses Browning intended it to be before I branch out to others.

Ruger has a 10mm 1911 these days.

One thing about the 10mm auto cartridge: Most manufacturors are making them underpowered, more like a .40 S&W. If you want a proper loaded 10mm cartridge, you can start with Sig and go boutique from there (underwood, buffalo bore).

Check it out, factory 10mm Hi Point offering;


TCB

barnbwt said:

Check it out, factory 10mm Hi Point offering;


TCB

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That's cool. Wish they'd make them a bit less fugly, though. I think people would happily pay a little more for something that doesn't have the visual appeal of a dollar store toy gun. Especially in 10mm.

I got into 10mm a while back and I'm loving loading for it. I'm all about the flash and 135 grain noslers over a lot of Power Pistol or Blue Dot is awesome. Above in the picture is an EAA Tanfoglio Witness Elite Limited in 10mm. The caliber can be very light recoiling, or punishing. The ability for you to decide which way you want to go is why it's so great.

MachIVshooter said:

Wish they'd make them a bit less fugly, though. I think people would happily pay a little more for something that doesn't have the visual appeal of a dollar store toy gun. Especially in 10mm.

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https://kriss-usa.com/

I know this isn't some folk's cup of tea, and the price is high, but this is what I plan to buy. I don't care about the price. I want to see what kind of speeds I can reach with Underwood 130-165 gr. loads. I had no interest in this gun, until they released it in 10mm.

Yeah 10mm Vector is rad. That and a 17S would be my first gun purchases if I ever won the lottery. Until then I only get to dream about them.