The Catch 22 of the 10mm

So many shooters say they love the 10mm.  But they’ve never owned one.  They say that they would, if ammo was cheaper and more plentiful. 
If they would actually step up and buy 10mm guns and buy 10mm ammo, then the Gun Industry would respond in kind.   More guys buying 10mm, the more ammo would be produced, driving costs down.  More variety would be produced.  More gun makers would offer versions on 10mm. 
But we won’t get that… Because 10mm is the Ron Paul of cartridges.

But could you imagine… An XDM, Beretta Storm, M&P, or a SIG… Anything from SIG… in 10mm?
I would buy a Beretta Px4 Storm Tactical in 10mm.  I’d buy it ASAP.  Hell, right now!
But then again, I have an active imagination. 
Because the problem with the 10mm is also the gun options are so thin, no one is really interested in jumping into the 10mm bandwagon.  Unless you like Glock or EAA, you ain’t getting a 10mm.

Here is a prediction.
Just like the first AWB brought back the popularity of the .45 Auto… I predict the next AWB will bring a surge of people to Ten Territory.  8 rounds of .45, you could have the full limit of 10 10’s. Think about that.

34 thoughts on “The Catch 22 of the 10mm”

  1. 10-4 Ogre-san. It has always been the lack of platforms in my case, although you can sometimes find those old Smith pistols in 10mm, and they are really nice. 10mm the Ron Paul of cartridges – perfect analogy! Anything from Sig……….

  2. I too haven’t bought a 10 and not for any reason in particular. But I do like the way you think. I might need to rethink the no 10 mm in the stable problem I seem to have.

    All the best.
    Riley

  3. As the owner of four 10mm pistols (Glock 20, S&W 1006, Delta Elite, S&W 610) I heartily agree. I need to finally pick up a Glock 29. As you say, if they want me to have a neutered magazine capacity I may as well have more bang.

    Dang nab it, I went to 9mm for most applications 6 months ago. Stupid hippies.

  4. At one time there were quite a few choices in 10mm but the people just didn’t buy them in enough quantity to allow the cartridge to grow. It’s like there was never any choice and the 10mm did have the “must have gun” like the S&W 29 in the Bren Ten…which was plagued in part by the manufacturer shipping pistols with no magazines, but still the initial popularity was there. Manufacturers big and small had offerings (Colt Delta Elite, Springfield Omega, AMT Javelina, LAR Grizzly, etc.) But the public just didn’t take to them.

    It looks like the 10mm will continue to be a niche caliber and there isn’t anything wrong with that. The 41 Magnum is a great caliber but it’s in the same position. A basic reloader and a set of dies will get you exactly what you want and then some…plus it will do double duty with your .40 S&W pistols equally as well. Factory 10mm ammo is a bit lacking anyway so you’re not exploiting the cartridge unless you roll your own or pay through the nose for boutique ammo.

  5. The situation with the 10mm kinda sounds like the early daze of the .357 mag. Most folks thought it was too expenive, more power than needed, etc. My son’s had a jones for a Bren Ten ever since Miami Vice backin the day. Somebody was supposed to be putting it back in production, using EAA magazines. The design almost seems jinxed. But.I would be interested what it would do in a carbine.

    1. VLTOR was going to bring the Bren back out. Two years ago at SHOT they had huge posters in their booth. But no gun. I don’t think they have the gun still.

      But when mag capacity is limited to 10 +1 Max, people are going to start leaning back to the more potent options to make the most of the 10 round limit. .45 was well on it’s way out. It was almost as if the AWB was designed to bring the .45 back. Because it did that in a big way. Well, if this goes down again, just like before, the second age of the wonder nine is going to go out, and a new age for POWER is going to come in. .45 is great, but 10mm has better penetration, energy, and you can fit ten rounds into where you can fit 8 .45’s.

    2. Me too! I have always wanted a 10mm carbine. BTW the feds use 10mm in their SMGs. I have to make do with my S & W 610.

  6. If I were in the market for a 10mm, I would buy a revolver that can shoot both the 10mm and the 10mm short. Maybe in a scandium frame, 3.5″-4.5″ bbl, between 6 and 8 shot cylinder please.

    1. S & W 610 is the one. Shoot 10mm or 40 S & W either one. Just like .357 mag and 38 SP. However I think the barrel is 6 1/2 inches. Check the S & W website.

    2. One of the owners of The Gun Counter forum (Combat Controller), had the chambers of an S&W 646 reamed longer to accept 10mm. He said the cylinder won’t take full power, but it will handle some of the warmer loads that fall between the “lite” loadings and absolute top end. I think he said he was running Silvertips in it (which don’t even come close to making rated FPS anyway, 1096 average of 10 shots from my G20).

  7. When I worked for S&W, everyone at the factory was hording 1076’s
    Even when we could buy Pro Center guns at a huge discount, the 1076 was the gun to have, all the “Top Guns” said it was the most accurate 10 mm made.
    I bought one and put it away, guess it’s time to take it out a shoot it now.

  8. I love the 10mm, dearly.
    As much as I love it and think your prediction could be right… I will keep fighting the potential ban.
    Since getting the G20, I have not carried my M&P45… even tho I love how it feels in my hand.
    16 rounds of 10mm trumps 11 rounds of 45.
    Hell, in non sweaty weather I carry my Delta over the M&P.
    Now, if I could get that M&P in a 10… oh Billy.

    Jim

  9. Also, if (a big if here) the statists pass another feckless AWB/High Cap ban I predict that we will all get in the “way-back time machine” and travel to the turn of the last century by buying lever guns to marry with our 1911s. Sure, there will be 10rd .45s in S&W M&P, and 13rd G21s, but the 1911s and wheel guns will come out of the safe while our “tupperware-wonder-9mm” with infinite bullet holders (magazines) will go into our safes until we can bring them out……….again.

    In fact, I’ll go so far as to predict the following:
    1. SASS (Cowboy Action) will become the new IDPA
    2. Every firearms instructor/school will design “fighting” classes around the lever action “platform”
    3. Marlin, Uberti, Winchester et al will start offering “tactical” models of their lever guns
    4. Politicians will propose bans on these “bullet hoses” that can carry 7+ rds of ammo, or, ban their evil tubular (fixed) magazines
    5. “The Wild Bunch”, “Pale Rider”, & “Outlaw Jose Wales” will replace movies like “Blackhawk Down”, “Act of Valor”, & “Zero Dark 30” for our shooting entertainment
    6. IT WILL ALL FAIL TO STOP EVIL A$$HOLES FROM DOING EVIL $HIT!!!!!

    Frankly, I think that the Collectivists/Left/Dems/Socialists/Anti-2Aholes (I know, I repeat myself) can’t sustain their intensity with the public at-large. No disrespect to the Newtown victims, and any other victim of crime, but there are SOOOO many large issues facing this country and Congress that I don’t see this going anywhere. Yes, it will take months, maybe a year, for stocks to be replenished and prices to fall, but I don’t think that the public sees this as a gun problem…….outside of Chicago, DC, NY, & CA.

    Maybe I’m whistling past the graveyard, but I think there’s a reason President Obama appointed the Veep to run with this………..because it will go nowhere and he doesn’t want his fingerprints on failure.

    May God save the Repbulic and our wonderful Constitution!

    Semper Fidelis,
    W

  10. If you want more choices in 10mm buy one, and send an email or snail mail to your first choice manufacturer, saying see my money went elsewhere because you won’t make what I want. Now that the Glock SF are a little more available I might have to buy a couple more and send copies of the receipts to other manufactures. After the Witness Hunter or if I find a 610.

    1. That’s a great idea. Tomorrow I buy some Witness 10mm magazines. I’m either getting their Limited Pro or their Hunter. Something about hot 10mm going down a 6″ tube…

      Anyway, I am feeling unusually confident that neither ban will pass. DiFi’s or that other one just focusing on capacity. O wants to make Republicans look bad over the fiscal cliff thing I hope they all unite and flip off him and the anti-s by not letting it even pass the house. No concessions. Just “No”.

      But when I do get around to getting the Witness (to keep my Delta Elite company) I will email SIG, S&W, Springfield Armory etc with photos letting them know I bought these handguns because they refuse to make them.

  11. Why stop at lever guns? Even Feinstein’s abortion of a bill allows detachable mags of 10 rounds. Pump action, detachable magazine rifles or pistol caliber carbines. Its still faster to feed 10 rounders than load a tube and pumps can be VERY fast, especially when you are only moving the action back the length of a pistol cartridge instead of the 2 3/4 inches of a shotgun shell.

    Renaissance of the straight pull action bolt rifle? How about the modern SMLE?

    1. Maybe someone will finally make an extended magazine for the BLR. I read about a guy in England who modified one of the .223 caliber ones to use AR magazines.

  12. Oh…and how about .50 GI? Think you could cram 10 of those in an STI 2011 platform?

    George has nailed it, power per cartridge will be king again.

  13. I think the SAR K2 is supposed to be available in 10mm, but I’ve only seen .45’s on the market. I’ve heard good things, though.

    As for the more common platforms on the market, I don’t really understand why, if the glock 21 can be converted to 10mm with a drop in barrel, the same cannot be done for other platforms. Perhaps we need to get after EFK or Bar-Sto to do a special run. Crusader custom 10mm M&P or Sig P227, anyone?

    1. I don’t trust EFK. They make XD barrels in .400 Cor Bon and the mag design flat out doesn’t work in that chambering. They stopped making them and I figured people must have voiced their displeasure. But now I see them available again. Uncool.

    2. You can put a drop in barrel in a G21, but that doesn’t make it into a G20. Aside from the different ejector block in the frame, the G20 slide is heavier, so you are better off swapping the complete upper, if you want to shoot the high end stuff.

      I’m kind of non-plussed by aftermarket barrels for Glocks in general at this point, actually. I have a Lone Wolf for my G29, and a Storm Lake for my G20, and neither is what I would consider reliable enough for carry. You would think that the SL would be better at over twice the price, but it wasn’t.

  14. I know this is hearsay because my memory can not bring back the particulars but an article maybe two years ago on handgun cartirdge energy ratings showed 10mm in over one third of included cartridges tested lower than the average 40 S&W. Possibly the 40’s were more personnel defence ammo while 10’s weren’t available in PD but I could only imagine the rounds were made for gun store commandos. Certainly took the magic away for me. No hate now, if you shoot hot loads you’re not a girlie man.

  15. I suspect that a lot of people talk the high pressure pistol rounds but after they shoot them they put them away or trade them. The bark and the high slide velocities are too much for a lot of people. I remember when after the “Dirty Harry” movie came out a lot of people went out and bought the Smith .44 magnum. Then when they found out they could not manage it they drifted away. I heard that the FBI said the 10mm was too much for their female agents…uh, I suspect it was too much for the lawyers and accountants that didn’t have the forearm strength and overly sensitive ears. I’ve seen some drift away from the 357 Sig and back to the .40 S&W also. Only anecdotal observations, nothing to really back it up.

  16. I have a Springfield 1911 in 45, and a witness compact in 10mm (partly based on The Ogre’s review) that both get duty as my EDC. Lately I have been favoring the 10. I like it a lot. The lower bore axis and wider grip handle the added piss and vinegar of the 10 nicely.

  17. Never had any trouble finding 10mm ammo here, but I’ve heard that stores in AK make more of a point of stocking it than most places down south.

  18. I picked up my components…
    Screw trying to find it locally, and still only getting .40 Short & Weak power.
    Time to take matters into my own hands.

    Jim

  19. I just bought a Rock Island 1911 10mm and love it! It not only looks great but it shoots very well for a $564.00 gun. I was a bit skeptical but after reading all the reviews I thought I would give it a try, and am very happy with it. Beats paying 800 plus for a “named brand” 10mm

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