I’ve recently found a number of 10mm Autos in my possession, and as an extremely popular bear defense round in my neck of the woods I figured I’d share a bit of info on each.
2nd – Glock
3rd – SIG
4th – Smith & Wesson
This Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 is one of my favorites as I’ve always been partial to the M&P line. This particular model has a 4″ barrel and no thumb safety. Of the 10’s I’m familiar with, the M&Ps have the most aggressive grip texture by far. It has a standard 15 round magazine.
I picked up this Glock 29 in a trade mainly out of curiosity to see how it shot. As predicted, this pistol is nearly uncontrollable with full-monty 10mm loads. Slightly larger than the 26/27’s, the stubby grip provides very little surface area to grip the pistol, which makes it very hard to keep from twisting up/flipping under recoil. While it is somewhat shootable, it is certainly not a novice gun, and even a proficient shooter won’t enjoy a day on the range. I’ve since added an SLR Rifleworks +3 mag extension which makes the grip comparable to a 19 or 17 size pistol and brings the 10 round magazines up to 13 rounds. I’m honestly unsure why this is a model that Glock continues to produce. Introduced in the early 90’s when the FBI settled on 10’s for duty use, I assume this was intended to be a deep concealment/off-duty/back-up gun, but it is such a terrible beast to try to shoot well. I don’t see many people concealing 10mm Autos and it doesn’t really fit the bill for a backcountry bear gun, so I don’t know if this pistol has a purpose in today’s market.
The Sig X-Ten Comp…I’ll be putting this pistol through its paces more as I find more time on the range, but the first 300 rounds have proven to be good. The compensator does make a noticeable difference when compared side-by-side to the un-comped M&P, and the 0.4″ shorter barrel only lends a ~10 FPS drop in velocity. It also has a standard 15 round magazine. The biggest unanswered question in my mind is if there will be reports of typical 320 problems in the 10mm versions. I have yet to see much drama around the X-Tens, but they’re certainly less popular than their 9mm counterparts and almost certainly see lower round counts from the average shooter. Time will tell how the 320s and X-Tens fare I suppose.
Lastly, this Smith Model 610. Those who know me already know I’m a sucker for unique cartridges or guns, so of course I wanted a wheel gun in 10mm. This is the 4″ barrel version, Smith also makes a 6.5″ barrel. Back in the day they offered a 5″ model which would really be a perfect balance in my book. I didn’t buy this revolver as a backcountry gun, the N-Frame seems giant for what it is – the limited capacity of a revolver with the comparatively small cartridge of an auto. Mainly I’ve used this revolver to shoot local IDPA competitions purely for fun. I load it with 40 S&W in moon clips, which provides a very soft shooting setup.
Chris W.
www.John1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
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