Before I was old enough and had the money to begin my life’s handgun journey, I was an avid reader of Guns & Ammo magazine and Jeff Cooper had the last 1-2 pages of each issue. Cooper was an advocate of the 10mm cartridge and I was a very impressionable young man, so I fell for the 10mm round long before I owned one.
Fast forward to 1992 and now I’m a 19-yr old college kid with more handgun experience than a typical guy of this age. I own four handguns and my older roommate, (23 and out of the Army) starts picking my brain for his first handgun.
A .22 pistol or a .38 revolver, I suggest. But nope, he wants something more powerful. A 4-inch .357 Magnum, I tell him but nope, he wants a semi-automatic. Maybe a 9mm or .45 I think? No, he really wants some power.
Well, how bout a 10mm?! I warn him, it’ll be expensive and the ammo will be expensive too. BUT... that I’d be happy to handload the ammo for him.
Done deal, off he goes and buys the S&W 1006 that I suggest. We both have a blast with it. And two or three years later, after he gets married and his wife “isn’t comfortable with that gun in the house” (bwahahaha) he sells it to me. Four boxes of factory ammo had been through it and then 8 or 10 boxes of my handloads.
That 1006 was my first 10mm and my only 10mm until 2008 when I got my license to carry and I bought a Glock 29. Carried that for 6 or 7 years before I moved to a 9mm for carry.