10mm Auto

About 10mm Auto

10mm Auto is the most powerful common semi-automatic handgun cartridge, and it has found its real market in the woods rather than on a duty belt. As bear and hog defence in a pistol you can carry all day, it does something no 9mm does — full-power loads push heavy hard-cast bullets fast enough to penetrate deeply on large animals.

Its history explains the ammunition situation. The FBI adopted it, found it too much for many agents, and downloaded it into what became .40 S&W. As a result 10mm ammunition is sold across a wide power range, and mild target loads perform little better than .40. If you want the cartridge for what it is actually good at, buy the full-power hunting loads deliberately.