Any 10mm reloading advice?

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Muddydogs

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Picked up a 10mm XDm 5.25" pistol a few days ago, Starline brass and 200 grain XTP bullets are showing up today. Hope to have a load work up ready to go for some Saturday blasting.

Anything I should know about that makes the 10mm any different then loading for the .40 or any other caliber?

I'm also in the process of putting together the items needed to cast and load around a 200 grain bullet. Slugged the bore which came out at .401 so it looks like I'll need a little bigger bullet and tools over my .40 cal stuff.
 
10mm was the very first cartridge I reloaded (really why I got into reloading in the first place). It's one of the easiest cartridges to load, IMO. Big enough case so that tiny variations in seating depth don't generate crazy pressure spikes, but small enough that almost any suitable powder charge is easily seen. I honestly can't think of any special trick or challenge that it poses as long as you use quality brass. Stick to published loads, obviously.
 
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401 caliber JHP and a teaspoon of powder and you've got a winner.. Awesome cartridge. 10mm starts where 40 S&W starts poopin' out.
 
I have 200 pieces of Starline brass showing up from Midway today. Planning on starting out with my .40 dies but will eventually at least purchase a dedicated sizer die so I don't have to mess with the .40 dies which are set up for the Hornady progressive. Figured I could size and bell with the Hornady AP press but I will probably hand weight charges and then seat bullets on the single stage at least for the ammo I plan on carrying as a defense load. Planning on a couple elk hunts in Wyoming grizzly country with this pistol.
 
I have several 10mm pistols, plus a 10mm revolver and a 10mm AR. I kind of like the round, and have another 15,000 rounds of virgin brass being delivered next Tuesday....

I get my best results with 180 gr. to 200 gr. bullets, with the 200 gr. having a very slight edge in the accuracy dept. Accurate #9 works well with bullets 180 gr. and above, and Accurate #7 works well for the lighter bullets. My most accurate loads are with a discontinued powder, Winchester 571 (it was also Hodgdon HS-7), and I'm down to my last 8 pounds of it. A lot of powders work well with this caliber, and you're going to like that XDm in 10mm. Mine is a great shooter.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
Muddydogs said:
I have 200 pieces of Starline brass showing up from Midway today. Planning on starting out with my .40 dies but will eventually at least purchase a dedicated sizer die so I don't have to mess with the .40 dies which are set up for the Hornady progressive. Figured I could size and bell with the Hornady AP press but I will probably hand weight charges and then seat bullets on the single stage at least for the ammo I plan on carrying as a defense load. Planning on a couple elk hunts in Wyoming grizzly country with this pistol.
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Depending on what powder you choose to use for 10mm I wouldn't bother hand weighing charges once you verify that the powder measure throws are consistent within +/- .1 gr of each other. I load a 180gr jhp over 9.4gr hodgdon longshot and get a respectable 1300 fps avg out of a 5" barrel.

As far as the dies, I would keep the sizing die the same, if you want to dedicate dies to 10mm I would do a seater and crimper die but really I dont find the adjustments between the two all that time consuming. The flaring die is a breeze to set.
 
The bullets I used for 10mm were the bullets from the Lee 401-175 mold. I guess I didn't seat the bullets down all the way, as they will not chamber,
I think I used 10 grains blue dot for the charge. Just didn't have opportunity to test this caliber.
 
With 180s and 200s I've been using AA-9.Had it so I didn't buy anything else.A little slower powder than what you have been using in in your .40 will probably work best.Thats what gun I have XDM 5.25 really like it.Only issue I have no idea where or how far some of my fired cases went.
 
Blue dot seems to be shooting better in my XDM with 180 gr FMJ’s so far. Tried AA9 and wasn’t as accurate for me. Also, AA9 is messy out of my Lee Autodisc.....lol

Gonna toy with 800X and 200 gr XTP next and have BE-86, Longshot on the bench for later trials.
 
Don’t shoot in tall grass or lay down a tarp so you don’t loose them.
 
I'm starting with Blue Dot as I have a couple pounds that are unspoken for. While the 10mm doesn't use that much powder I have trouble keeping Longshot and Unique in stock so I don't need to put anymore drain on my supply of these powders. I do have a little Herco as well which I might try if I'm looking for a lighter load.
I have been collecting .40 155 grain XTP's from Hornadys bullet rebate deal, these might be fun to launch out of the 10 as they appear to be hauling rear from the load data I have seen.
Got my 200 pieces of new Starline brass sized, Lee universal expander, seater die, and Lee taper crimp die all set up so tomorrow its load them up time. Well load up some different powder weight charges anyway.
 
Haven't reloaded 10mm, will when I get a 10mm pistol this year, but I was going to say use 200 grain bullets as they are seemingly built for 10mm and perform well at 10mm velocities, but you seem to know this already.

Only thing I would suggest is it may not be a bad idea to use magnum primers. Good luck.
 
TTv2 said:
Haven't reloaded 10mm, will when I get a 10mm pistol this year, but I was going to say use 200 grain bullets as they are seemingly built for 10mm and perform well at 10mm velocities, but you seem to know this already.

Only thing I would suggest is it may not be a bad idea to use magnum primers. Good luck.
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I was debating the mag primers. All I load is CCI primers and a few years ago all my primers were CCI mag's. When primers became hard to find I ended up purchasing some standard CCI primers. My usual MOA is to work up my loads with mag primers so if I have to drop down and use standard its not an issue. I will probably continue doing this with the 10mm. Only time I ever had an issue with mag primers is in the 204, just couldn't get the groups to tighten up until I loaded some with standard primers.
 
Muddydogs said:
I have 200 pieces of Starline brass showing up from Midway today. Planning on starting out with my .40 dies but will eventually at least purchase a dedicated sizer die so I don't have to mess with the .40 dies which are set up for the Hornady progressive.
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The dies are the same for 40S&W and 10mmAuto. Get a set of 0.135" Die Spacers and you can jack up the dies you already have, and not need to change their settings. ...Assuming you are using the pinch the die type lock nuts, like the Hornady set shown at the bottom of the same page.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012401468?pid=189290
 
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I recently did an extensive test on 10mm with 165gr and 180gr bullets and 7 or 8 powders. My findings were...
• Use 180gr bullets if you're going to do much shooting. 165gr was accurate but uncomfortable in volume.
• Fine grain powders like No.7, BE-86, or N340 performed much better. Blue Dot was a supreme let down compared to newer formulations.
 
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There is no need for magnum primers when loading 10mm. In fact, since the 10mm is already a high pressure cartridge, a magnum primer may be detrimental. If you are going to use the magnum primers, then work up your load with them from the very beginning, with the "start load".

With this cartridge, you WILL get signs of high pressure, but that's the way it's designed, so don't try to hot rod it beyond what's it's designed for. Of course, there is some data that's loaded down some, but there's also data that when it says "Maximum Load", it means just that.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
Muddydogs said:
I'm starting with Blue Dot as I have a couple pounds that are unspoken for. While the 10mm doesn't use that much powder I have trouble keeping Longshot and Unique in stock so I don't need to put anymore drain on my supply of these powders. I do have a little Herco as well which I might try if I'm looking for a lighter load.
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I use a lot of Herco in 9mm and .357 Mag. The data I use is from 2002 Alliant Manual. I find this data to be a little on the warm side. In 9mm for example I stay about 10% below the listed max charge and I still get about 1160 fps from a 124 grain JHP(4" barrel). I love Herco and it produces good accuracy and velocity. IMHO it would be a great choice for 10mm, but you never know until you try.
I hope you post your results for the Herco loads because I'm going to get a 10mm some day (I'm going to get about every caliber someday;)) and load for it with Herco.
 
Lee Q. Loader said:
I use a lot of Herco in 9mm and .357 Mag. The data I use is from 2002 Alliant Manual. I find this data to be a little on the warm side. In 9mm for example I stay about 10% below the listed max charge and I still get about 1160 fps from a 124 grain JHP(4" barrel). I love Herco and it produces good accuracy and velocity. IMHO it would be a great choice for 10mm, but you never know until you try.
I hope you post your results for the Herco loads because I'm going to get a 10mm some day (I'm going to get about every caliber someday;)) and load for it with Herco.
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I'm using 1996 Alliant Data (also have the 2002 manual). I get great results with Herco. And a few unburnt flakes.

Muddydogs said:
I do have a little Herco as well which I might try if I'm looking for a lighter load.
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I'm using 7.2gr Herco behind a 180gr heavy plated RN (RMR or X-Treme). Chronos just over 1000fps (~1020). 7.2gr is max for lead in my manual, 7.5gr is Max for JHP. I get great accuracy with that load.
I'm using Herco because I got it for a good price from a guy who used to reload shotshells. Since I had it, it gets used.
 
I just bought a 10mm and Blue Dot is a great powder for it according to all my shooting buddies that own and reload 10mm.
 
ms6852 said:
I just bought a 10mm and Blue Dot is a great powder for it according to all my shooting buddies that own and reload 10mm.
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From what I'm seeing in the load data if you want to load at the higher fps range then Blue Dot will get it done for all bullet weights. I'll find out in a couple hours when I try out my work up loads. I did forget how bad Blue Dot meters or maybe it's the Redding measure on the bench, seems last time I used Blue Dot I threw charges with the old RCBS Uniflow.
 
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