[Peter M. Eick]

WESHOOT2 summaried the problem of the 10mm well.

"Most shooters simply cannot control powerful 10mm rds."


As a 10mm fan from a long time back, this has been my observation why the 40 rose and the 10mm has faded to a niche round, much like the 38 Super, 41 Mag, even the 357 Sig now.

I have let MANY folks shoot my 10mm's with full power loads. All of them have trouble controlling them. They shotgun the rounds and say the gun is not accurate or something like that. The true shooters don't need to try my 10mm's because they either have a 10mm or shoot real power like the 44 Mag and up.

The problem is those folks are rare in general but common on the forums like this one. You can see them in this thread, but this is not what Critical Duty, Silvertips or any of the other big ammo 10mm's are made for. They are more for the end user who does not reload, understands enough that the 10mm is bigger and better than the 40 and so expects more power from the 10mm but not so much that they can't control it. Thus the 50 fps more than the 40, but right in line with say a 45+p ACP round.

The reason (IMHO) the 10mm (357 Sig, 41 Mag, 360 DW, etc) did not take over the sport is it is just too much cartridge for the bulk of the shooters and the shooters that could easily handle it are drawn to more power like the 44 Mag, 480 Ruger, 454, Casull, 38 Casull, etc.

The most power that the bulk of the shooters can handle well is something right around a 230 grn and 850, or 180 at 950. This is why (IMHO) the 45 and 40 are so popular.

I believe the ammo companies know this from sales, so they made the 10mm to be just a bit more than the 40, hence a 180 at 1050 and we get Critical Duty ammo.