10mm ammo for whitetail

[Brian Pfleuger]

I've killed and seen killed a great many whitetail deer, of every imaginable size and with weapons ranging from long-bows with hand-made arrows, to 20 and 12ga shotguns with Foster and sabot slugs, handguns from 357 and up and rifles ranging from .223Rem to .45-70.

They just don't die that hard. If you poke a hole through both lungs, they're done breathing. Rarely do they go more than 100 yards. Yet, I've seen a doe that had both lungs shredded and her aorta literally torn off the top of the heart still travel more than 250 yards.

Lots of folks see weird stuff like that and blame the caliber/cartridge rather than realizing it's small sample size deviation that's to blame.

I would not hesitate to hunt deer with a 10mm loaded with a bullet designed to be a stopper, such as the XTP or anything similar, or any lead bullet of an alloy and design that would promote reasonable expansion and penetration. In fact, I routinely carried my .357sig Glock 33 (with extended barrel for legality) when I was whitetail hunting so a 10mm would have been an "upgrade".

 

[GarrettJ]

The other issue with 10mm is that factory ammo is not always up to true 10mm performance. Federal is know for its soft 10mm ammo, so is Remington and its FMJ offering. The Winchester Silvertip 175 JHP has the reputation of a full power load, and I would confidently hunt whitetails with it. After that, the boutique high performance ammo companies offer true 10mm ammo, Buffalo Bore, Double Tap, and so on.

I found the 175 gr. Silvertip averaged 1227 fps. in my Colt Delta Elite. Hornady's 180 gr. JHP averaged 1216 fps. Both would be adequate. I've gotten a 180 gr. bullet over 1300 fps. with book loads using Longshot powder.

In comparison, the Federal HydraShock 180 gr. ammo only averaged 1043 fps. from the Colt. Even worse, it was going 962 fps. from a Glock 29, which is essentially the same velocity as the .40 caliber version of that same bullet from the similarly sized Glock 23.

 

[stagpanther]

I've had a 20SF for years and have not yet hunted with it--I just don't have the confidence of a good shot at 25+ yds. I've never been able to get a really good grip on it. I have, however shot gobs of hand-loads for it--even rigged it for a 9 x 25 dillon. Sig makes some factory stuff which I've clocked through labradar and it performs as advertised on the box through a 6" barrel. I believe they use deep curls. I can't add anything to the better comments here--except that know the energy profile which falls off fast at distance.

 

[458winshooter]

10 mm hunter

My personal take on handgun hunting is how does the performance of the round compare to the old 44-40 load?A 200gr load at 1245 fps or a 217gr at 1190 fps.Those two loads did it all back in the day for our ancestors and deer haven't changed into some mutant bulletproof beast or wear body armor.The 44-40 was the go to caliber back in the day and I'm sure your 10mm will match or better it's performance.Shot placement is still the key.

 

[mete]

Energy falls off fast at a distance. No kidding ! It's always been difficult to explain to shooters like Metallic Silhouette types that packing the case with obvious overloads is the way to success. That of course is because they never heard of Ballistic Coefficient ! Handgun bullets have very low BCs .