10mm fun

wayupnorth

wayupnorth

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Northern Alberta
Was shooting a lot of 10mm over the weekend and thought I’d share a little 10mm gun fun with you guys (and gals)

Glock 20C and 40
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Ruger 45, Ruger 10mm, Rowland460 on a Norc
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I, too, enjoy the Big Ten in a Ruger platform. My 10mm is a Ruger Super Redhawk--definitely an oddball, but loads of fun with very little recoil and extremely accurate.
 
10mm

Over the years I've had Colt Deltas in both standard & stainless Gold Cup trim. And a S&W 1066.

Still have a standard Colt Delta 10mm that I also had a .40 S&W barrel fitted to, to take advantage of all the once fired .40 S&W brass that litters our local ranges after the municipal police qualify twice a year.

The .40 might be short & weak but I still wouldn't volunteer to stand in front of it. ;)

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NAA.
 
Now if you really want to enjoy the 10MM....

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You can run 40 in the Ruger reliably using Ranch Product .040" thick moon clips. I had to many light strikes using .032" clips meant for the 10MM cases.

Take Care

Bob
 
pirate604 said:
Incorrect, The .40 is a Short & Weak version of the mighty 10mm;)

Looks like a lot of fun. I need to stock up on some more 10mm.
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.40S&W is essentially a 10mm short. If you look at the ballistics of a standard 10mm factory load, it is identical to .40S&W (if they look slightly different, you probably forgot to account for barrel length of the test gun). The whole point of .40S&W was that the 10mm case was oversized for a standard factory 10mm load. Now if you want, 10mm ammo can be found in much hotter loads.

A cool feature is that you can safely shoot .40S&W out of most 10mm handguns (e.g. Glock, but anything with a strong extractor since the .40S&W will have to headspace on the extractor instead of the case rim) to save you some $$$. Just make sure to give the chamber a good cleaning before switching back to 10mm ammo.
 
Andronicus said:
.40S&W is essentially a 10mm short. If you look at the ballistics of a standard 10mm factory load, it is identical to .40S&W (if they look slightly different, you probably forgot to account for barrel length of the test gun). The whole point of .40S&W was that the 10mm case was oversized for a standard factory 10mm load. Now if you want, 10mm ammo can be found in much hotter loads.

A cool feature is that you can safely shoot .40S&W out of most 10mm handguns (e.g. Glock, but anything with a strong extractor since the .40S&W will have to headspace on the extractor instead of the case rim) to save you some $$$. Just make sure to give the chamber a good cleaning before switching back to 10mm ammo.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that the .40 S&W was developed after the 10mm in response to the FBI testing the 10mm and then wanting a reduced power version of the cartridge. They the commissioned Smith and Wesson to develop a pistol based on the 4506 for use with the reduced power cartridge. This all came on the heals of the 1986 Miami Shootout and the FBI waning a more powerful cartridge for their agents. 10mm reduced power cartridge was commonly referred to as the Short and Weak.

The only 10mm I have currently is a 1006, I do want to try shooting .40 out of it but I am a little skeptical. Maybe I'll pick up a box this weekend and give it a shot.
 
I thought the FBI had already reduced the loading of 10mm owing to it being difficult to manage, and Smith and Wesson was simply making a cartridge to match that loading.
 
with 9mm ammo evolving so much over the last 10 years - so much so that most police dept are switching back to the 9mm round makes me wonder if in say another 10 years we might see the 40 gone or at the very least left for only those that can reload it for themselves.
 
pirate604 said:
My understanding is that the .40 S&W was developed after the 10mm in response to the FBI testing the 10mm and then wanting a reduced power version of the cartridge. They the commissioned Smith and Wesson to develop a pistol based on the 4506 for use with the reduced power cartridge. This all came on the heals of the 1986 Miami Shootout and the FBI waning a more powerful cartridge for their agents. 10mm reduced power cartridge was commonly referred to as the Short and Weak.

The only 10mm I have currently is a 1006, I do want to try shooting .40 out of it but I am a little skeptical. Maybe I'll pick up a box this weekend and give it a shot.
Click to expand...

I've got a couple of boxes of Buffalo Bore 10mm Bear Defence ammo, that stuff is spicy!
I like how it says it is guaranteed to punch through 6 feet of meat and sinew on the write-up that came with it!
 
pirate604 said:
My understanding is that the .40 S&W was developed after the 10mm in response to the FBI testing the 10mm and then wanting a reduced power version of the cartridge. They the commissioned Smith and Wesson to develop a pistol based on the 4506 for use with the reduced power cartridge. This all came on the heals of the 1986 Miami Shootout and the FBI waning a more powerful cartridge for their agents. 10mm reduced power cartridge was commonly referred to as the Short and Weak.

The only 10mm I have currently is a 1006, I do want to try shooting .40 out of it but I am a little skeptical. Maybe I'll pick up a box this weekend and give it a shot.
Click to expand...

From my internet reading, you are partially correct. At some point (after the Miami shootout?) the FBI chose 10mm as their preferred caliber, but in order to insure all agents could shoot accurately they wanted a lower power load (probably defeating the point of selecting 10mm). This lower power load has become the standard 10mm load that mainstream manufacturers sell. S&W decided to make the .40S&W as a shorter carriage with the same load as this lower power (but now standard) 10mm.

Compare these factory muzzle velocities:
Federal American Eagle 10mm Auto, 180gr FMJ
Muzzle velocity 1030fps from a 5" barrel
Click to expand...
Federal American Eagle .40S&W, 180gr FMJ
Muzzle velocity 1000fps from a 4" barrel
Click to expand...
Its the same load. Quick google search seems to indicate a 5" barrel seems to add about 50fps-90fps vs a 4" barrel, so the .40S&W may even be a slightly hotter load.
 
Full power 10mm ammunition was bought and used by the FBI after the Dade incident. Average agents had a difficult time and the load was reduced. From there logic followed and a new, shorter case was introduced to allow design of smaller platforms. This has been out there with no uncertain history since the beginning.

My favorite part of the story is Glock beating S&W to market with a pistol chambered in .40! The low power 10mm ammunition out there is hardly a standard. Only American Eagle is that terribly slow. Remington and Armscor are 100fps+ faster and Winchester, Hornady and Federal TBBC are another 100+fps on top of that.
 
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I have a S&W 610 it shoots 10mm, and I have a Thompson Centre with a 10mm barrel. These 610s are a real nice gun. I started out collecting the "K" frames but now my passion is "N" frames.

As far as the 10mm I don't think it is all that big of a deal. .44Mag causes me a lot more grief.
 
Andronicus said:
From my internet reading, you are partially correct. At some point (after the Miami shootout?) the FBI chose 10mm as their preferred caliber, but in order to insure all agents could shoot accurately they wanted a lower power load (probably defeating the point of selecting 10mm). This lower power load has become the standard 10mm load that mainstream manufacturers sell. S&W decided to make the .40S&W as a shorter carriage with the same load as this lower power (but now standard) 10mm.

Compare these factory muzzle velocities:


Its the same load. Quick google search seems to indicate a 5" barrel seems to add about 50fps-90fps vs a 4" barrel, so the .40S&W may even be a slightly hotter load.
Click to expand...

This is also my understanding. I've read that full load 10mm is ballistically comparable to stout .44 Rem Mag loads.
 
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