Is 10mm on the rise?

So...I've heard talk over the years about the 10mm a dying cartridge, better go with .40 S&W...(which i hate)...blah blah blah.

There have been alot more offerings as far as ammunition big ticket companies getting on the 10mm Train,
One being Sig Sauer and their P220 10mm, and The Glock 40 long slide.

What do you guys things? I see 10mm popularity growing.

I think is growing based on the #10mm pictures on Instagram(a lot of people seem to enjoy the challenge/fun of the 10mm). Yes, it has extra "oomph" and you need to concentrate more when shooting to stay on target, but it can be done.
I see it as a sports car: more power, more cost, but ooooooh so much more fun than shooting 9mm. 

I was out shooting last Friday for the first time in far too long.  Actually, I was kinda RO'ing and coaching some out of town executives from Brazil.

I was surprised at how much easier my 10mm Glock 20 and Witness Elite were to shoot than a XD 45.  I expected the Glock 30 to be a handful compared to a full size gun, but not the XD45 as much.

10mm is on the rise, that is for sure.  The collapse of the 40 S&W bubble is causing people to actually think about what caliber they will buy rather than just following the latest craze.  And when you start looking at numbers and shooting guns, the 10mm comes out pretty good.

After it was all said and done FBI test showed the 10mm more accurate and 10mm was 97.5 % effective in penetration testing, whereas 45 was 92.5% and the 9mm was 67.5% back in the day. Remember the 40S&W wasn't made yet.  Yes, projectile/bullet construction and design performance have improved over the years across all calibers, but there has been more design performance driven towards 40S&W performance criteria than the actual true 10mm performance levels.

If as much R&D would have gone into designs for the 10mm guns and ammo over the same period of years, it would be in a class by itself.  Much like is today by to those seeking a gun and ammunition that has the flexibility and broad spectrum of ammunition performance to span everyday plinking, rigors of competition, precision target, hunting and self defense.  Ammo companies like Double Tap also played into keeping the true 10mm cartridge alive for those who didn't handload their own ammo.  Then that opened the door for others like SwampFox, Underwood and Buffalo Bore to fill in as the resurgence began.

The 10mm cartridge and guns remain popular because of us, those who have come to understand the cartridge, the platforms that we spend our hard earned cash on and the shared stories here on the forums.  I have seen rise on facebook's closed groups, where there are actual enthusiast to include some of us, that share their real world experiences good and bad.  We are the ones with the actual guns doing actual testing, pushing them to the limits.

Just like here on the forum, people do get guns that experience issues (New & Used) or just have questions, seeking advice, fixes, upgrades or suggestions.  Just like we ourselves had to deal with, as we too embarked on our own adventures in the very early days of the 10mm of the mid 1980's and early 1990's.  Only difference, back then, we had to figure things out on our own.  Or read about it in the skewed gun magazines and no internet like it is now, to get to the knowledge base that is here.

Yes after D&D went down, Colt sort of kept the things going with the 1911 DE's, but for me it was the introduction of the then NEW Smith & Wesson's model 1006, that became a true innovation, to bring out a pistol so robust to complement the power and accuracy the 10mm was capable of.

The gun industry has always been the bottom line and profit margins, and that my friends is where the 10mm seems to be pushed off the production tables.  If it were not for some dedicated tried and true enthusiast like us, 10mm would have died off completely!

Long live the 10mm and may the gun companies see that the market for a quality firearms, chambered for this potent cartridge, is still strong.  This despite the lack of government and law enforcement contracts...

I still wonder if the Glock 20/29sf had been available when the FBI was testing the 10mm, would they have adopted it. The "SF" made a noticeable difference for me and was the reason I bought a G30sf, and the G29sf.

The 10mm is a nice package. There are a ton of pistols to choose from and ammo selection is now excellent.

The only thing lacking is a new revolver. Maybe Dan Wesson can make a Pistol Pac like the 357.

I  first learned about the 10 mm in one of those skewed gun magazines. I forget which one. But it intrigued me very much. So when I found in 1992 a pair of colt double eagle  pistols in 10 mm and 45 auto I bought both of them. They both are part of a series of 1000. Just as a sidenote I have never fired the 45.

That 10 mm was my first firearm in 10 mm. I now own four pistols, an AR and a revolver in that caliber.  I keep my Dillon  reloading press busy loading 10 mm.

I think the 10mm is now well established and growing a bit. At the very least in general forums when someone posts about 10mm, the first response isn't: "You'll blow your hand off ".  Tons of ammo and reloading choices. More carbines. They keep coming!

Well my son took my Colt Delta Elite to his CCW class the Sat before Easter. He said that a lot of people there were impressed by the 10mm and the power it has, and the students in the class also thought that the Colt Delta Elite pistol was also very impressive.
So with all that being said he thought that more then a few people might have walked away thinking about the 10mm and the Delta Elite, so what better way is there to promote the 10mm then getting people to have a chance to see one in action and being able to shoot one

There isn't a better way of which I am aware.

One of the challenges though is ammo availability.  The 10mm is handicapped in that regard two fold.  Local ammo is usually quite expensive.  Non-handloaders who are volume shooters tend to buy online, and then there are the guys like me who don't buy anything but powder.  Perhaps we all need to make a point to our local retailer each time we spend $$$ online that we would have spent locally if they had stock.  Not a jerk message, just a friendly one:  "Hey, local ammo seller, I would prefer to keep my money local, but I was unable to find the 10mm load I wanted at your store.  I just spend $XXX.XX online to get YYYY ammo.  I wanted you to know that I would have spent that with you if you had the product"

Since we don't buy our ammo locally, the local stores tend not to stock it, which tends to deter potential new buyers, unless they are already familiar with buying online.

I will say this.  Went shooting with the family yesterday.  Even my 8 year old daughter took a turn on the Glock 20.

You know my son Nick kind of knew about the 10mm but wasn't very much interested in it till he shot my Delta Elite when he came home this past Xmas, at that time he could care less about the 10mm he had his Colt XSE .45 and the 9mm Shield that I bought him for Xmas. Well 3 days after Xmas I then showed him my Colt 10mm and he like it then he shot a box of ammo with it and he really liked it. Well then a month later he came back down and I then showed him my new 10mm Kimber Eclipse and then he was really hooked good  Now he wants a 10mm, he has seen the light!! everything else is small potatoes.

I don't know about the future of the 10mm. But, back when Dornaus & Dixon were developing the Bren Ten, I was sold. The ballistics blew the 9mm, .357 mag, and .45 ACP out of the water. I was sorely disappointed when Dornaus & Dixon went out of business. I got a chance to handle a Bren Ten at a gunshow back in the early 1990's. It had a great feel and natural point. I really wanted one. I had a S&W 1006 10mm FBI model that a local FBI Special Agent arranged for our office to make a group buy on back when the FBI dropped the 10mm. I really didn't like the ergonomics of the S&W pistol and sold it off. I should have kept it for collector value.

I have 2 1911 pistols in 10mm and they're my EDC pistols. I still want a Bren Ten. VLTOR teased us with an offering that they inexplicably dropped. Back to the future of the 10mm. I'm amazed that the round hasn't taken off. As already mentioned, it has far better ballistics than 9, .357, and .45 ACP. And recoil is about that of a .45 ACP. I'm guessing that people are sedentary and stick with what they know, rather than try something new/different and possibly better. Or, they're too lazy to do research and learn for themselves that there are better things out there. That's their loss. 

Quote from: inv136 on April 07 2016 08:11:44 PM MDT
[...]
The ballistics [of the 10mm] blew the 9mm, .357 mag, and .45 ACP out of the water.
[...]

For some reason, the current Underwood offerings in .357mag and 10mm have about the same energy (high 700's of ft-lbs for some bullet weights).  Given that the cross-sectional area of the 10mm (.40 caliber) is about 25% greater than the .357, and given that the max pressure spec of the 10mm is about 7% greater than the .357mag (37500 vs 35000 psi), the 10mm should theoretically be capable of about 34% greater energy than the .357mag.  But for some reason, that's not the case with current Underwood loads (and Underwood strives to produce full-spec loads for each of the chamberings that it loads for).

Quote from: Mike_Fontenot on April 08 2016 08:42:10 AM MDT

Quote from: inv136 on April 07 2016 08:11:44 PM MDT
[...]
The ballistics [of the 10mm] blew the 9mm, .357 mag, and .45 ACP out of the water.
[...]

For some reason, the current Underwood offerings in .357mag and 10mm have about the same energy (high 700's of ft-lbs for some bullet weights).  Given that the cross-sectional area of the 10mm (.40 caliber) is about 25% greater than the .357, and given that the max pressure spec of the 10mm is about 7% greater than the .357mag (37500 vs 35000 psi), the 10mm should theoretically be capable of about 34% greater energy than the .357mag.  But for some reason, that's not the case with current Underwood loads (and Underwood strives to produce full-spec loads for each of the chamberings that it loads for).

The culprit is relative initial case capacity.

The 10mm Auto has a case capacity of 24.1 grains of water, versus the 357 magnum which has a case capacity of 27.0 grains of water.  A 10mm bullet takes up about half that capacity, where a 357 mag bullet only takes up about 1/3.  The result is that the initial volume for the 357 is 30% greater than that of 10mm.  Since pressure and volume are related, for a given initial pressure and volume (P1V1) and a known end volume (V2) we can calculate the end pressure (P2).

P1V1 = P2V2
P2 = P1V1/V2

After a trip down a 4" barrel, the 357 mag has 5150 psi of residual pressure, where the 10mm only has 3250 PSI of residual pressure.  In fact, the 10mm's pressure advantage is done by before the bullet even leaves the case.  Travel of only .065" puts them equal, and by the time the bullet has cleared the case mouth the 10mm is 4000 PSI behind.

As in car engines, there is no replacement for displacement.

The 10mm is like the 41 Magnum. Not very popular, but it is popular enough that manufacturers will continue to make guns for that caliber.


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