Quote:
Originally posted by BUFF:
Mr. Hall said that they could have gotten the same ballistic performance from the .45 ACP and it's 185 grain JHP but that they went with the 10mm instead because they wanted to adopt a cartridge that would make both the big bore and small bore/high cap crowds happy, a cartridge that didn't bring pre-concieved opinions with it, which baggage the .45 ACP and 9mm Parabellum had in spades!
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Buff, you are correct and this has been widely reported, but it has also been reported that Mr. Hall felt that the 10mm had more potential at the high end than did the 45 ACP.
It seems that the FBI had for many years, according to reports, had sort of the "standard" carry ammo (38 +P 158 LHP), but if the need arose, magnums could be handed out and used in the Model 13s or other revolvers chambered for magnums.
The idea of two power levels in the same gun seems to have carried over, as the standard issue load was about a 180 or 190 (depending on what year), at just under 1,000 fps yet the 10mm could be loaded safely to much higher power and still work fine in the all steel S&W 1076.
While the ACP and the standard issue 10 were similar in power, the ACP was at the top of its power curve and the 10 had potential to be loaded much higher, thus giving it more long distance effect.
Whether the FBI ever carried through with the idea to have a hotter load, I do not know, but that was reported in articles by Charlie Petty and others at the time, if I recall. A hotter 10 would have certainly been the ticket in their 10mm HK sub guns!