I do think the Buffalo Bore round is likely over pressure as well, and by that I mean it likely exceeds 37,500 PSI. Why do I think this? Basically it's just a hunch and I'll try to explain why, but I've owned and "tore down" some Underwood 10mm ammo and what I found was their choice of powder (at the time 800x) was WELL over book max, which means it was (and likely still is) over pressure. I hear UW switches up powder from time to time based on availability, but they use the same powders us reloaders have available to us.
Now having handloaded for quite a while, using BOOK data (from the manufacturer), I've topped out at around 1260-1270 fps using a 180gr bullet in a 4.6" Glock 20. To get 1300 fps, I have to go OVER book max, which means I'm likely going over pressure too. Does Buffalo Bore use a custom powder? I don't know
I don't know how Buffalo Bore measures the pressure in their ammo, but accusing them of willingly and knowingly producing and marketing 10mm ammo that exceeds SAAMI spec when they specifically state that it doesn't... Well, that smells like slander and when we are simply a bunch of enthusiasts who love to play with our hobby & chat about it in forums, I think slander steps outside the boundaries of things we ought to be doing. Just my opinion.
Furthermore, while they may have indeed been using IMR-800X, it might be worth mentioning that Hodgdon's published max for a 180gr slug is 8.7 grains, and Hodgdon states that this "max" loads generates 1,210 FPS at
30,000 PSI which is a full
twenty percent below SAAMI specification for maximum pressure in the 10mm cartridge.
I also consider myself a well-established handloader. But I'll take a flyer and suggest that:
--I don't know the game as well as Buffalo Bore does
--I don't have their collective experience
--I don't have their first-hand test results and data
--I really don't have the equipment & test guns they've got
--they haven't actually shared with us specifically the powder they use
The photos in this thread make me wanna never own a Delta Elite, that's for sure.
I also know that Hornady has a lot more technology, resources and testing equipment at their disposal than BB and furthermore that Hornady has made a name for themselves creating high-performance rounds that shoot at normal pressure. Yet when I called Hornady and asked them why they didn't load their 10mm hotter, the reply was that they couldn't load it any hotter and still stay below SAAMI limits.
10mm ammo is
not like .38, 9mm and .45.
10mm ammo is like .38 Super. That means that "factory" ammo is generally watered down for reasons that are beyond simple, one-sentence explanation. That's the truth. And
Hornady makes a Grand Canyon wide range of "soft" to "better" 10mm ammo. Check Hornady's published spec's for their XTP and for their new Critical Duty in 10mm and see how
they make 10mm. Nothing they build meets the original Norma specifications for the round.
If we had the ability to get Hornady to answer stuff without trotting out a company line, the answer to that query may have been something along the lines of:
"10mm guns vary wildly across the board because the major players in factory ammo have been making "teenage girl" level 10mm ammo for it since the 1980s, namely FEDERAL and their Hydra-Shok. So many guns can't handle true 10mm and we know that we won't make a lot of money on more 10mm ammo, so there's no point in putting the effort in to it. 10mm is a pain the keister for these reasons and it's probably why Remington, Winchester and Federal (all of which are far bigger and more established in factory ammo than we at Hornady are...) also refuse to try any harder to make full-spec, hardcore, real-deal 10mm factory ammo."
But I don't work for Hornady.
Maybe we should contact Cor-Bon and ask them how they get a 180gr JSP to run 1,300 FPS from a 4.6" barrel?