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

[gym]

It's just not practical for the average person. I see 460's and 50cal at the gun store as a friend shoots and sells large caliber guns, but there isn't much of a market for those either. At two bucks a bullett with a thousand dollar scope, it is more of a specialty item, or hunting pistol, lets face it, it's a dam rifle witha 8 inch barrell, very limited group of consumers for those. But at least they are "different" the 10 is too close to other rounds out there, like the 41 mag was. If you can't find ammo for your gun easily, then you aren't going to keep it. The Glocks that use the underloaded 10mm stuff that can easily be found, offer no real advantage over more popular rounds.

 

[MachIVshooter]

IN THE REAL WORLD with similar case capacities, identical bullets and the same pressure rating 10mm and 40s&w performance will be similar (within 150 fps)

Show me a .40 S&W load that hits 1,200+ with a 180 grainer.

The real-world spread between top .40 loads and top 10mm loads is more like 250 to 300 FPS.

As barrel length increases so does 357's advantage over 10mm. Saying performance will be identical because pressure and case capacity are the same is a gross oversimplification and ignores the very important factor of bore case ratio. 10mm uses faster propellants at lesser volumes than 357 mag can because due to the tens higher expansion ratio pressure drops much faster as the bullet travels (same capacity bigger bore) this is why the 10mm in a carbine like its other autoloder cousins sees very little velocity gain in longer barrels.

Don't believe me see BBTI
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/10mm.html

OK, lets look at the mid bullet weights in both 10mm (180 gr.) and .357 (158 gr.) from that chart, and examine the velocity/energy in an 18" tube vs. a 6" tube.

10mm 180 grain
18": 1,573 FPS & 989 ft/lbs
6": 1,428 FPS & 815 ft/lbs

.357 mag 158 grain
18": 1721 FPS & 1,039 ft/lbs
6": 1,402FPS & 690 ft/lbs

Yes, the .357 can be loaded hotter than that-as can the 10mm. Likewise, if one were loading 10mm for a carbine, they'd use slower powders like Blue Dot and AA#7. On the same note, .357 optimized for short barrels uses faster powders. Of course, nobody is loading 10mm comercially with slow powders because, well, very few people own a 10mm carbine, so there is no real demand.

If I ever actually buy the Olyarms carbine, I'll revisit this with some data from appropriately loaded 10mm carbine rounds-I promise I can best those figures by quite a bit. But since I view pistol caliber carbines as being mostly useless, don't hold your breath.

Now, in the reverse situation, the 10mm suffers far less from shortening the tube; Cut to 2", the 10mm/180 is still getting 1,111 FPS & 493 ft/lbs, while the .357/158 load in a 2" barrel has dropped to 914 FPS and a pitiful 293 ft/lbs. And if we look at the load that gave the .357 the most oomph in a rifle, when you cut the tube to 2", you now have a .380 ACP (with tremendous muzzle blast).

Regardless, all of this debating with carbines ignores the OP, which has nothing to do with carbines, nothing to do with revolvers, and nothing to do with the .357 magnum. He asked about the 10mm, and it is, by far, the most versatile autopistol cartridge around.

 

[R.W.Dale]

I'm getting tired of pointing out that bbti's encore test barrel when measuring 2" translates to a 1/2" barrel on a revolver because of the different way they're measured.

Not surprisingly you opt to compare Buffalo bores overload for 10mm to federal 357? What are the numbers for federal 180g 10mm from that 2" barrel?

Asserting that a 2" 357 magnum is a 380 is of course quite absurd and just shows how tenuous your grasp on matters of internal ballistics are.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I'm getting tired of pointing out that bbti's encore test barrel when measuring 2" translates to a 1/2" barrel on a revolver because of the different way they're measured.

It's the same length for the 10mm. I know it doesn't suit your argument, but it's the truth. And the .357 would suffer even more in a revolver that measured 2" from cylinder face to muzzle than it does in their TC test. Shoot, look at the figures for the test barrel (integrated chamber) vs. the revolvers; The revolver velocities are lower, despite having the cylinder length add 1.7" to the breech-to-muzzle measurement.

Asserting that a 2" 357 magnum is a 380 is of course quite absurd and just shows how tenuous your grasp on matters of internal ballistics are

Look, that hot Cor-Bon 125 gr. load scored 914 FPS & 232 ft/lbs from the 2" tube in the chart that YOU cited as a reference. The .380 ACP can muster more than that fired from the stubby Kel-Tec P3AT. Like it or not, those are the numbers.

http://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=129

My own 102 gr. Golden Sabre handloads clocked an average 1,067 FPS from my P3AT for 259 ft/lbs.

You were the one who drug that chart into this, so don't get cranky when the rest of us use the info provided in it to make our points.

 

[R.W.Dale]

My 2" barreled 9x19 snubby will launch 124 grain bullets over 1150fps now it may not blow it out of the water but if you don't think a 357 can beat a 9x19 I want some of that 10mm paote you're on. Compared to either cartridge your 380 mousegun struggling to hit 1000 fps with 100grains is a joke.

Your beloved Buffalo bore has a plethora of 357 loads tested in snubby revolvers pushing bullets of 158 grains firmly above 1000fps

Again you can't use 2" contender numbers because NOBODY makes a 357 or any other revolver with a barrel that short .5". Cylinder gap plays a very minor part in the velocity equasion.

 

[Robert]

6 pages of bickering is enough. Why is it anytime someone says 10mm heads explode all over the internet?