Pushing the Upper Limits

[GoldBead]

Hi All,

There has been a desire to build the ultimate combat version of a Ten, most notably the very weapon that gave birth to the cartridge in the first place was the first, The Bren Ten. Though the Bren Ten did not succeed in this task, it came very close, mostly because of the fanaticism of Dornus and Dixon.

As the cartridge has aged, it has generally agreed upon that in full power mode, it is the maximum amount of bullet/energy that will stay inside a large human while having a reasonable number of rounds at hand. Less # than the 9mm, though with much greater power, more than the 45 ACP though with a smaller caliber. Flat shooting to 100 yards in a pistol and in a carbine, capable of taking most North American Game (less Moose, Grizzly, Largest Elk, Polar Bear.)

As powder technology has increased the 10mm continues to climb in power. Underwood now loads 135 grain Noslers, pushing 1600 out of a 5 inch combat barrel, nearly 1700 out of a 6 inch hunting barrel and over 2000 fps out of a 16 inch carbine barrel, representing 1200 foot pounds of energy.  Even this tough bullet is reaching its limits.

Building guns that take in the desires and changing fashions of combat shooting has been a tough challenge and a few have risen to it. SVI makes the "Perfect 10", though they feel the swing link of the older browning link is too weak for a Government size or Commander size weapon. Glock makes their awful piece of plastic, yet it too can be modified to be a decent weapon.

One manufacturer  does a really good basic weapon that can be modified to be as close as currently possible to the perfect combat weapon. Tanfoglio, in their "Witness" line.

It is the careful selection of parts that will bring the Tanfoglio to its perfection, as the complete parts setup is not made by the factory. However, it starts out close and can be modified cheaper than having a gun made by Infinity or SVI. As the Glock is made of used tires and chewing gum, I will not consider a "custom" Glock.

Below I will trace that path the pilgrim must follow.

Start with the best Frame:

Tanfoglio has several ranges of "frames" of which to choose from. Steel, plated steel and a finish which is a heat treatment like French Grey. The best is their "elite" which have a hammer pin-pin and a stainless like finish. That is the one to go for. You want one with a upper that has the LDA (Bo-Mar like sight) mounted on the slide. This allows you now to customize with the difficult mods done for you already. My personal weapon (see pic 1) uses a "match" upper which is blackened, not offered as a factory weapon.

A good start is the Elite Limited Pro, which has the 4 3/4 long slide, the good frame and all the basic elements in place. Its flaws are its Elephant ear right hand only safety and its very large mag release. Both can be swapped out with very little effort. For the safety the factory sells an ambidextrous safety with small paddles, which is perfect and a standard mag release which will get rid of any possibility of the mag release getting bumped while in your holster.

Beyond this, there are Dawson Precision Sights and the option of converting the weapon to single action, full length guide rods, heavier springs, mag chutes, grips, etc. to custom tailor your weapon to you.

Now comes some hard choices. I personally like a single action but most like the double. However, I like to carry either Cocked and locked or Condition 3. That is done by removing the interrupter and rendering the pistol single action only. I prefer the single type of let off and I changed the trigger out to Tanfoglio's "Extreme" trigger, which is much like the Bren Ten's trigger. Using another Henning kit, I swapped out the firing pin for his longer one and reduced the hammer spring per his recommendation. Wow. Smooth, crisp, fast, accurate and full of 15 rounds of 10mm Goodness.



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