10MM for Woods Gun?

For those of us who shoot 44 Magnums and above, this is an amusing thread.
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Whilst I have zero experience with the 10mm I'm inclined to agree. That is not to say I have anything against the 10mm. On the contrary, I find it very intriguing.

However, having watched the linked video about "shooting through steel plate" and some other connected vids on YT, I'm left with one impression: 10mm is nowhere near .44Mag.

It is near some .44Mag loadings but that is like saying a Datsun Cherry is like a Ferrari because they can both do 50mph.
That is pretty much what the steel plate vid stated for me.

Which is the more powerful car? Find a straight bit of road and nail the throttle through the gears and see what you get on the speedo when it tops out.
That is how.

For a cartridge, take the heaviest bullet that commonly used for each (probably 300gn for .44Mag but looks to be about 200gn for 10mm) and load them to max SAAMI pressures with a potent powder and see what velocities and energy they generate.
Then you can see if they are comparable once pushed to their respective limits.
 
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Pond said:
Which is the more powerful car? Find a straight bit of road and nail the throttle through the gears and see what you get on the speedo when it tops out.
That is how.
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Using your logic pretty much any cheap economy car is more "powerful" than a four wheel drive truck or a semi-trailer truck.

Have you ever wondered why you never see Volkswagen Golfs towing big boats or pulling 40 ton (36,000 kg) flatbeds?

It's not because they're too "powerful"! ;)
 
Using your logic pretty much any cheap economy car is more "powerful" than a four wheel drive truck or a semi-trailer truck.
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Fine. You make a fair point, but that was simply an analogy.
I think the post's logic for comparing cartridges is hopefully still pretty clear without it.
 
Too often these discussions reduce to absurdity.

You can, if so inclined, build yourself a revolver for 20mm. It would be useless.

My three handguns that I select from to take in the woods with me are:

Scandium-Aluminum S&W .357 mag
Glock 10mm
Ruger SR 7.5" .454 Casull

Each has its purposes. All told, the Glock is the most versatile of the three, and if I were to do it all over again and had to pick only one "woods gun," that would be it.

Yes, all else being equal, the .454 would be hands down the best in places like Alaska or northern Idaho. The Glock is not a bad choice for those places however, and it's what I carried with me in AK. Yes, I agree it's on the low end for acceptable power, but this has to be balanced against other advantages.

All else has not ever nor ever will be equal. All life is about compromise.

If you disagree, please post photos of your Bugatti parked in front of your 40,000 square foot winter home in the Virgin Islands, with a yacht &/or floatplane in the background.

P.S./edit: next acquisition will be S&W 329PD Sc/Al/Ti .44 mag. But it IS more expensive than the Glock...
 
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If I were going to be where big bears are, I would probably opt for a double stacked .460 Rowland. Anything else in the U.S. I would think a 10mm 220 grain Underwood hardcast will work fine. .45 super would also be a great choice. How much is enough? If I knew I would certainly face a brown bear I would want a .50 BMG!:D
 
I can't imagine toting a Ma Duece thru the woods at my age ;)

Now when I was in my 20's-30's, oh yeah, Baby, I'd hump dat! :D

Dagnabbit, y'all are making me miss my M-60...sniff...
 
I've got a ruger only 45 colt, a glock 20, and a 357. I'm moving towards the 10mm as a woods carry gun where I often see black bears. However, the 45 colt ruger only is a lot more powerful. I chose the glock - and I don't like glocks- because it is much lighter and easier to carry all day with extreme activity I usually do while on the hunting property.
 
The new Ruger Bisley 5 shot 480 looks tempting. A 440 grain pill going 1200 fps should put anything down.
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No doubt. But that's the problem with these boat-anchor magnum wheel guns.

They marry a slow rate of fire with low capacity, and offer a donkey-kick level of recoil that makes for a super-slow follow-up shot after the first one. Yes, missing on your first shot is possible when something suddenly causes your adrenaline to kick in.

Plus, while the wheel-gun honchos like to talk a good game about how they can carry one all day while hiking and humping in the boonies, back in the real world that boat-anchor has long since come off their hips and into the backpack, where it's no longer easily accessible when a bear or a bad guy appears on the trail. :rolleyes:
 
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I've always felt a good 1st shot is much better than a much more hurried and stressed 2nd or 3rd shot.
 
Why would anyone in their right mind choose a 10mm semi auto for a woods handgun? One of flattest shooting handgun rounds with excellent ballistics and energy retention out to 75+ yards and with more potential delivered energy in a fully loaded Glock 20 than any other handgun. You would have to be nuts to want to carry a gun like that. : )
 
A "woods gun" is an ambiguous term. Depending upon what a person envisions when they hear that term, different guns would be appropriate.

A "Woods Gun" for:
1. For targets of opportunity, as in edible game: Ruffed Grouse, Rabbits, squirrels, etc.
2. For possible dangerous encounters with wild animals.
3. For possible dangerous encounters with dangerous people.
4. For targets of opportunity, inedible varmints, fox, coyote, opossum, feral dogs, cats, etc.

In those four scenarios, the cartridge will usually be a different recommendation with some possible over-lap.

In my woods, there are no dangerous animals, no people except one of my Amish neighbors who I have given permission to hunt deer. My concern is #4...A .22 Rimfire, .32 S&W Long, .38 SPL. or at the top end, a .357 pretty much covers it for me. It all depends on what comes to mind when someone says, "Woods Gun".
 
What kind of groups will a Glock 20 shoot at 75yds. The cartridge may have the power but is the gun capable of similar accuracy as a 6"-4" magnum revolver?
 
What kind of groups will a Glock 20 shoot at 75yds. The cartridge may have the power but is the gun capable of similar accuracy as a 6"-4" magnum revolver?
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Good question. Since I'm not all that good with semi-autos or revolvers with irons either way I'm not taking any shots beyond 25 yds anyway. I'm talking strictly the performance parameters inherent to the cartridge--the industry is just now getting around to building new semi-autos designed to take full advantage of the 10's potential. The Glock 20 I view as the gun that kept the 10mm niche alive on life support before the recent resurgence in popularity.
 
I've always felt a good 1st shot is much better than a much more hurried and stressed 2nd or 3rd shot.

You've never been charged by a bear. I have and the hurry comes into play pretty darn quickly.
 
10mm is just slightly more powerful than .357mag (and I've seen an Underwood .357 load that has a slightly higher energy than any commercial 10mm round that I've ever seen).
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Which load would that be? One I missed? Because I'm seeing Underwood's .357 top energy load at 802, while their 10mm top energy load is at 806.
 
This thread is truly amusing and sounds full of car campers whose main need for a handgun stem from the trail head, not the deep woods.

Though the term "woods gun" as regards a sidearm is ambiguous, there are solid reasons that until very recently that handgun was never considered to be an auto, and the G20 doesn't change anything about that.

1) a revolver will work at contact distance, an auto will likely suffer an out of battery click.

2) a revolver doesn't depend on a magazine staying put. I've had CCW autos bump their mag release buttons before, turning the pistol into a single shot until discovered later. Accidentally bumping the mag release in the woods could be a heck of a lot more inconvenient if the mag flies away during a climb, scramble, fall, etc.

3) a revolver isn't using bullets that are required by design to give a nod to feed ramp requirements. Any 10mm shooter who doesn't reload is going to have to carry FMJ or JHP. No hard cast. No wad cutters. No "overweight" bullets. No mouse loads. Even in commercial loads check out the difference in JHP designs. A .357 Mag 158 gr. JHP is "pre-expanded" when compared to its 10mm counterpart.

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