RandyV:
I just bought a Glock 20 for deer and feral pig hunting.
I hate the cost of factory 10mm ammo at the retail level. Before I got mey reloading dies, I was paying $17 for a box of 10mm ammo. I even found some boxes of Remington 10mm ammo at the range where this crazy guy paid $25 for a box of 50 rounds.
If you shoot 10mm and want the most accurate and versatile application out of your Glock, you have to reload it yourself. At a cost of $4.75 a box, I can shoot it just like 40 or 45 ammo.
While the ballistics do not exceed 41/44 mag energy, a hotly loaded 10mm round can get close to mid-range 41 mag performance and lower range 44 mag performance. Silvertips and XTPs will get the job done for woods duty.
And how much is 41/44 mag by the box? Expensive. And not very fun to shoot after 40-50 rounds. And how many people regularly shoot their magnum pistols? Not much or enough to get accuracy rivaling their 9/40/45 pistols. And those mag pistols live in the safe.
You can load your 10mm cases to FBI Lite loads near 9mm/40SW recoil levels and shoot 10mm all day.
People are thus migrating the Norma 10mm history into present day. They started out too hot and the FBI's wimpy agents couldn't qualify (despite the fact that they had never touched a gun before acadmey and the Bureau didn't seek out military or police-trained candidates back then).
Let's get real here. If you need to discharge a firearm, the poop has already hit the fan and you're weren't alert in the first place. Even large animals are afraid of loud noises. Clap your hands.
If your objective is to be able to kill a bear, handguns are insufficent. BUT if your objective is to able to ward off bears and two legged creatures, a Glock 20 would be a fine multipuprose pistol.
10mm is a great round that can be loaded to 9mm recoil level all of the way up to punch a hole in that car door level delivering 650 + fpe into a target with a 45 ACP sized 220 grain bullet. 9, 40, and 45 can't do that - not enough room for the powder charge.
The 10mm is a 10 in my book.