ONE DOUBLE-OUGHT SIX

The mighty Smith & Wesson 1006 in 10mm.

- JIM HOUSE

It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention. Many useful products have resulted from the efforts of someone to improve something that didn’t work well.

For example, a highly publicized shootout in 1986, in which two FBI agents were killed, had some people convinced the 9mm Luger pistols used by agents weren’t able to keep two suspects from fighting on for far too long.

Whatever the case may be, it was determined that handguns chambered for a more potent cartridge were in order. Attention was turned to the 10mm Auto, a .40-caliber cartridge made in 1983 by adapting a shortened .30 Remington case. The shortened case was used with bullets designed for the .38-40 Winchester. Instrumental in the development of the cartridge was Jeff Cooper, who was always a proponent of largecaliber pistols such as the .45 Auto.

Some factory loads for the 10mm Auto develop over 600 ft-lb of muzzle energy, making such a pistol a very powerful handgun indeed. In fact, in tests it proved to produce more recoil and blast than many agents could deal with.

Accordingly, a lighter load was developed; the light load was amenable to a shorter case and thus the .40 S&W was developed. Such cartridges could be adapted to shorter and lighter pistols of a size that fired 9mm Luger cartridges. There’s no free lunch, and it has subsequently been observed that even the .40 S&W is a bit much for many officers, and the cartridge is hard on the machinery in small pistols.

As a result, after the dust settled, the FBI returned to service pistols chambered for the 9mm Luger. However, handguns (both autoloaders and revolvers) in 10mm Auto caliber are often chosen by hunters or for defense in wild areas.

A PISTOL WITH PUNCH