Echo40
Member
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2017
- Messages
- 4,040
- Reaction score
- 7,868
Something which a lot of folks including 10mm Auto aficionados don't know is that the 10mm Auto cartridge was originally designed by Jeff Cooper to launch a 200gr projectile at 1000fps, which he deemed ideal for police, but Norma decided to advertise it as a hotter load which would do 1200fps.
In hindsight, it would appear that their advertisement was false, and they were in fact loading their ammo to Jeff Coopers specifications all along, seeing as old boxes of their ammo consistently chronograph at (give or take) 1000fps.
This is also why the moniker ".40 Short & Wimpy" has always been ignorant, since .40 S&W only runs a teensy bit lighter than their idol Jeff Cooper's original 10mm Auto load. (180gr @ 1000fps vs 200gr @ 1000fps)
In addition, .40 S&W actually conceptually predates 10mm Auto, since it actually dates back to the 1960s when some guys at Smith & Wesson were collaborating with some of the writers for Guns & Ammo Magazine to make a new cartridge for metallic silhouette shooting under the working title ".40 G&A" but eventually the guys behind the concept were no longer employed by Guns & Ammo, so the name was changed to .40 S&W, but when the concept was presented to the executives, the proposition was rejected because the company was focused on defensive handguns at the time and didn't want to put money/resources into the development of a new competition cartridge. However, the project was revisited in the late eighties and was fully realized as a duty cartridge. So the belief that .40 S&W is a shortened 10mm Auto is false. In fact, the 10mm Auto was actually based on the then shelved concept of the .40 G&A, so if anything, 10mm is more of a .40 Long than .40 S&W is a 10mm Short.
In hindsight, it would appear that their advertisement was false, and they were in fact loading their ammo to Jeff Coopers specifications all along, seeing as old boxes of their ammo consistently chronograph at (give or take) 1000fps.
This is also why the moniker ".40 Short & Wimpy" has always been ignorant, since .40 S&W only runs a teensy bit lighter than their idol Jeff Cooper's original 10mm Auto load. (180gr @ 1000fps vs 200gr @ 1000fps)
In addition, .40 S&W actually conceptually predates 10mm Auto, since it actually dates back to the 1960s when some guys at Smith & Wesson were collaborating with some of the writers for Guns & Ammo Magazine to make a new cartridge for metallic silhouette shooting under the working title ".40 G&A" but eventually the guys behind the concept were no longer employed by Guns & Ammo, so the name was changed to .40 S&W, but when the concept was presented to the executives, the proposition was rejected because the company was focused on defensive handguns at the time and didn't want to put money/resources into the development of a new competition cartridge. However, the project was revisited in the late eighties and was fully realized as a duty cartridge. So the belief that .40 S&W is a shortened 10mm Auto is false. In fact, the 10mm Auto was actually based on the then shelved concept of the .40 G&A, so if anything, 10mm is more of a .40 Long than .40 S&W is a 10mm Short.
Last edited: