Ideal bullet weight for 10mm ?

[BigSlick]

Some of you may have been around long enough to remember back in the day when 10mm bullets were 170 grain.

Now, since the advent of the 40, almost all are 180gr.

I see a 155 and 165 in some lineups as an option, along with the 135's.

I've run these, got some OK results, but none have equalled the accuracy of the 170's and getting to 1250 or so with a 170 can be done without beating you or your gun up.

I know, 40 outsells 10mm a zillion to one.

I gotta wonder if the fact that 40's run (the FBI loads anyway) a 180 just under 1000 fps has caused the mfrs (and data publishers) to just forget about the 10mm/170 and generate something that'll work instead of try and develop the best option for 10mm shooters.

If the 165 or 180 is so great, why the hell didn't the original 10mm loads come in those weights ? Have they discovered th 165/180 is better ?

If so, I don't see it.

I know, 5-10 grains doesn't make a hell of a difference, and at the time 41 AE was 170gr too, but I got some 170gr bullets that run flawlessly with excellent accuracy from the 10 and the 180 grain bullet from the same mfr (and others) just don't seem to deliver the same results. It ain't bad, but you can see a difference consistently.

I'm about out of the 170's and am either gonna hafta get the 170 outta my mind and start over from scratch to replace that load or wrap my head around why the 165 or 180 is better.

[Brass Nazi]

175gr LSWC is my favorite.

[gokyo]

I really like 165 grain bullets that fly at mach snot.

[dougader]

I think they all started with 170 grain bullets because that's what was generally used for a lighter end 41 mag load back then.

I like the 165's for SD/light game use... 180 - 200 grain slugs for deer or pigs.

[grendelbane]

The first 10mm I ever fired was Norma 170 grain. It was a screamer.

I normally load the 180s. If I was looking at a 10 for any kind of serious target, I might consider the 200 grain bullets. The 180s designed for the .40 hold together fairly well, but are still not going to penetrate very deep.

This situation only gets worse with the lighter bullets. Great for vermin, though.

[creophus]

I don't show the big 10, but I figure 180gr and up would really take advantage of the increase in case capacity.

[VN350X10]

The 170's that Norma loaded way back when were a very heavy jacket mat'l. & didn't really expand all that well in test medium. I've clocked some lots of the Norma out of my G20 at 1350 fps.....they claimed 1320 out of a 5" bbl. so they DEFINATELY were loaded hot !
I've gone to the 165 gr 'Slick & they seem to be the best compromise out there.
I did load some Rem 155 gr. jhp for a match, over the chrono my power factor was 217-218, so they were running right about 1400+fps ! Not as hot as factory Norma, but WAY over what I needed.
I'd say work with the 165's & try 180's & see what your gun likes best.
My G20 isn't real pickey about ammo, I've had good results with every bullet I've tried, as long as I'm within about +/- 5% of the Norma energy levels.
And no farting around with changing recoil springs either !

uncle albert

[nitesite]

Call me stupid....

Okay. Really Stupid.

All I've ever loaded for my G29 has been 180-gr bullets.

Yep, I need to get out and explore the real world.

[VN350X10]

nitesite, half the fun of a 10MM is playing with various bullet weights, just like it is with a .44 Mag.
In my .44's I've run fron custom made 165gr jsp up to 350 gr hardcast, & just about everything in between
In the 10MM's, it's gone from 135's up to 220's

Sort of like dating blonds (real & bottle) brunette's , redheads & ravens....
Variety my man, variety !

uncle albert

[cvann]

I like shooting the Winchester Silvertip 175's when 'duplicating' the 170 loads. Bought a few hundred on the cheap 5 years ago. Other than that, I mostly shoot Noslers in various weights since they seem to be the most accurate out of my DE and Target II. Didn't shoot Noslers until I saw .mil marksmanship teams using 185's for CF and .45 at the big Bullseye matches. So I bought some of the 250 packs for my .45's and 10mm guns and haven't bought anything else since.

[CZ93X62]

I prefer the 200 grain bullets in the 10mm. I wouldn't run them past 1100 FPS in a 1911A1 or Glock, but the S&W can take all the Norma-level loads (1200 FPS) you care to feed them. I do that most of the time with the RCBS 200 grain TC, cast as a soft-point (70 grain donor slug) and run with AA-7 to 1200 from the 5" barrel. I suspect the lead bullet gives about 5% less pressure than does a similarly-shaped jacketed bullet. I can't tell a bit of difference in accuracy between the Hornady 200 XTP and the castings at 204 grains. About a push, really.

[alank2]

Hi,

I'm a heavy bullet kind of guy so I liked the 200gr's!

Good luck,

Alan