first time 10mm shooter range report

[matt85]

so today I took my new G20SF to the range for its maiden voyage. aside from 3 rounds I fired from a friends G20 years ago, I went into this as a 10mm noob. however I do have extensive experience shooting moderately powerful handgun cartridges such as the 44 mag and 460 S&W so I figured the recoil wouldn't bother me.

what i took to the range:
- G20SF
- S&W 638
- Chinese Type 54 (always fun)
- 50rnds 1950's Polish surplus 7.62x25
- 50rnds Underwood 10mm (180gr FMJ)
- 20rnds Underwood 38 special +P (Lehigh defender)
- 60rnds Underwood 10mm SD (180gr GD, 200gr Nosler, 200gr XTP)
- 50rnds of CCI Blazer 40 S&W

I HAD A BLAST  ! I can see exactly why the 10mm cartridge has such a following and personally I'm a little confused why its not more popular then it is. I have fairly small hands but I still found the G20SF to be easy to control (just feels a little weird) and was able to keep shots in the black at 50ft with semi-rapid firing. with slow firing I could keep the group around 3 inches despite being long out of practice. I modified the G20SF a little before its first trip by adding a steel guide rod with a captive 22lb recoil spring and a extended slide stop release lever. the extended slide release is a must and I'm a bit disappointed Glock doesn't just ship the guns with this. I fired the 50 rounds of cheap 40 S&W threw the gun to see what it was like to shoot and found the gun to shoot very accurately and function perfectly with the 40 short and weak even with the heavy recoil spring. I should note the G20SF did sort of "jam" once when my friend was shooting but I strongly suspect this was due to limp wristing as he is inexperienced with firearms and even more-so with handguns (however he still seemed to enjoy it). the "jam" was the slide failed to feed another cartridge into battery and simply pulling the slide back and letting it go solved this.

thoughts from a first time 10mm experience:

1. the recoil of full power 10mm loads isn't a big deal (at least from a full sized pistol) and people considering this cartridge should not let rumors scare you into thinking it is. you might not be able to shoot as fast as a 9mm could while still being accurate but i doubt it loses much time to a 45 auto. if your considering a self defense pistol and 45 auto is on the menu then you should also consider the 10mm.

2. shooting 10mm is very addictive... the only sad part of the range trip was running out of 10mm ammunition. you will actually feel your heart sink a little when you realize you just fired your last cartridge  . while 40 S&W worked great in my pistol, it did not give the same pleasure as honest 10mm loads.

3. i cant figure out why people would shoot light loaded 10mm ammunition (aside from handloaders conserving brass). the way i see it, if you want to shoot a lighter load in your 10mm then why not just use 40 S&W? i found 40 S&W to feed and shoot very well in my pistol. the cost difference between the 40 S&W and 10mm is quite large with 40 S&W being $0.10-0.15 less per cartridge then light loaded 10mm such as Armscor. the CCI Blaser 40 S&W was $0.25 a shot and the reduced recoil allowed a female friend to comfortably shoot with us.

in conclusion, the 10mm is awesome! now its time to go clean some handguns.

-Matt

[PCFlorida]

3. i cant figure out why people would shoot light loaded 10mm ammunition (aside from handloaders conserving brass). the way i see it, if you want to shoot a lighter load in your 10mm then why not just use 40 S&W? i found 40 S&W to feed and shoot very well in my pistol. the cost difference between the 40 S&W and 10mm is quite large with 40 S&W being $0.10-0.15 less per cartridge then light loaded 10mm such as Armscor. the CCI Blaser 40 S&W was $0.25 a shot and the reduced recoil allowed a female friend to comfortably shoot with us.


-Matt

Exactly how I feel. Go big or go home

[gandog56]

3. i cant figure out why people would shoot light loaded 10mm ammunition (aside from handloaders conserving brass). the way i see it, if you want to shoot a lighter load in your 10mm then why not just use 40 S&W? i found 40 S&W to feed and shoot very well in my pistol. the cost difference between the 40 S&W and 10mm is quite large with 40 S&W being $0.10-0.15 less per cartridge then light loaded 10mm such as Armscor. the CCI Blaser 40 S&W was $0.25 a shot and the reduced recoil allowed a female friend to comfortably shoot with us.


-Matt

Exactly how I feel. Go big or go home

Me too. But I do own both. But the .40 cal pistol also converts to 357 SIG, which makes that kind of handy. As to the ammo cost, there really is not a great deal of difference when you reload them, just a smidge more powder, as I use the exact same projectiles for both., a Precision Bullets coated 185 grain FRN. The only real advantage for the .40 is I can stuff 12 rounds in the mag. All my 10mm's are 1911's. I modifed the mags to take one more round so they hold nine. My short fingered small hand does not do well with double stack 10's. Barely fits the double stack .40's.

[sliclee]

grandog-why do you think the company that makes the 8 round magazine not do it in 9 rounds. MAYBE? they know something
you haven't learned yet. WISH YOU LUCK.

[tommac919]

As a mention, prob not a good thing to shoot 40 in the stock glock 20 barrel on a reg basis...
A 40 barrel is cheap enough.

[gandog56]

grandog-why do you think the company that makes the 8 round magazine not do it in 9 rounds. MAYBE? they know something
you haven't learned yet. WISH YOU LUCK.

I don't know. Why does Chip McCormick sell the kits that convert them to a 9 shot if it was unsafe. Seems like he would get sued pretty fast if peoples guns started blowing up that use them.

[Univibe]

The thing I don't like about 10mm is that with .45 or 9mm, the brass obligingly deposits itself into neat piles about ten feet from me, making it easy to retrieve and reload.  The 10mm throws its brass about four miles into the weeds and mud at the range, and if I recover half of them, I'm lucky.   And new 10mm brass ain't cheap.