For the past month or so I’ve been tinkering with a 10mm pistol, the Springfield Armory 1911 Range Officer Elite. It’s a beautiful handgun that’s made special by its caliber choice of 10mm. Roughly equivalent in ballistics to the lower end of .41 Magnum, and more powerful than the tried and true.357, it’s an interesting option for a carry gun.

The 10mm shares case diameter with the .40 Smith & Wesson, so in theory, pistol capacity can be the same in a double-stack design. The 10mm is a bit longer, so grip size circumference has to be bigger than that for other calibers like 9mm and .40.

10 mm Ammo Boom Factor

One of the things that drives me crazy is the binary nature of people. I’m talking about our opinions on what the “right” answer is for any given situation.

Maybe it’s because we’re immersed in the topic, but the problem of binary thinking seems especially pervasive in the shooting and self-defense community. What do I mean by binary? The assumption that there is only one correct answer for a given circumstance and everything else is wrong. You’ve heard plenty of examples of binary discussion...

• I only train for headshots.
• Lasers are useless because they will give away your position.
• I carry on an empty chamber and will load a round quickly when I need it.
• You only need one shot if you carry a 45.

The list of controversial epiphanies like these is endless. What makes them controversial is that there’s usually a fractional nugget of truth in them.