Posted by CowTowner: I can't miss the opportunity to point out that while not widely accepted, the .41 Rem Mag was originally designed to be a LEO as well as a hunting cartridge.
That is correct.
In that era, state troopers desired sufficient penetration to punch through car bodies. That kind of penetration is not desirable for civilian self defense or for urban police departments.
As a police round, the .41 Magnum was not a success. As I understand it, that was primarily because of the weight of the N-frame revolver. On the civilian market, the .41 Magnum was not really a commercial success. One reason that I have heard for that is that the .44 Magnum could be used with .44 Special loads, while there were no low powered loads available for the .41.
The 10MM was also designed as a law enforcement round. The FBI and several police departments adopted it initially, but almost all of them have abandoned it.
The reason most commonly cited for that is the recoil. No, it's not just a matter of pain, or of recoil sensitivity; it's just that a handgun that has a great deal of recoil cannot be fired anywhere near as rapidly in combat, where rapidly moving targets, multiple assailants, and the need to run while shooting make rapid fire (and a large magazine capacity) very important. This applies as much to the civilian who is almost as likely to face multiple assailants as a single attacker as t does to the sworn officer. In addition, the 10MM developed a reputation for tearing up handguns based on the 1911 design.
A demand for lighter recoiling 10MM loads led to the development of the .40 S&W, which has proven to be far superior as a police round.
There is a widespread feeling that a gun that barks loudly and kicks hard just
must be more effective in stopping a "bad guy" than a less powerful handgun. That feeling is often reinforced when we try shooting different guns at water jugs. The first step to take to unlearn that misconception is to take some training, and the second is to read and study
this, which puts the lie to myths about "one shot stops", myths about handgun "stopping power", and the idea that energy transfer and that old misnomer "hydrostatic shock" contribute to the effectiveness of handguns used for self defense.
Anyone who has tried a little IDPA or UPSC shooting or who has taken any defensive pistol training has realized very soon that a heavy recoiling handgun, whether a big bore magnum or a very light weight .357, puts one at a considerable disadvantage compared to those who use standard service rounds in service-size pistols. Put simply, they are just not very effective for self defense.