10mm: Reservations

 

Back when I was just getting into the centrefire pistol game my first gun was a bust - a bobbed S&W 59 in 9mm. I HATED it and decided early to swap it off on the first chance I got. This was about the time that Colt was rolling out their heart throb 10mm Delta Elite pistols on the 1911 platform and I fell head over heels in lust for them. Fortunately I couldn’t afford it - they were top tier pistols with price tags to match, and as the first of their breed, they were prone to problems. In short - the power of the cartridge was too much for the gun and it literally beat itself to death trying to digest the high powered rounds. If I recall my lore correctly Colt and other manufacturers solved the problem by doubling up on the recoil springs.

But still…that’s a helluva lot of power to pack into a service sized semiautomatic pistol. I could get away with it because I hand load and I’d run patty cake target loads through it for the most part. Aside from that… it seems that the initial teething problems have more or less gone away…

Or has it?

The thing of it all is… if ya want more power… why not just do it right and get a big bejeezus revolver that is built from the ground up to handle high powered ammunition? We see this nonsense going on with the AR15… they’ve come out with all kinds of blistering hot proprietary and boutique calibres that push the design to its very limits and arguably beyond (I’m lookin’ at YOU, Nosler)…but they are not the only ones. Why not just wipe, call it a chit…and get an AR10? Or a more robust bolt gun?

I’m a huge fan of the 10mm… but also of the 41 magnum. By my reckoning should have the following that the .357 does… Elmer Kieth was one smart cookie.

In my next life… I will some serious thinking to do about my armament…🤔