All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] 10mm vs .40 S&W The Biggest Lie in the Gun Industry [DownSub.com]

Pick up a box of factory 10 millimeter

off the shelf. The most powerful

production auto pistol round most men

will ever own and there's a real chance

the rounds inside it are doing exactly

what a 40 Smith and Wesson does. Same

speed, same energy, same hole. You paid

more for the box. You'll feel more

recoil at the range and downrange the

target can't tell the difference. The

word on the side of that box is doing a

lot of work. The powder inside it isn't.

That's the Ali. And it's not a small one

because of where the 40 came from in the

first place. Most men think the 10 mm

and the 40 are rivals. Two different

cartridges that compete on the shelf.

They're not rivals. One is the other one

with the power turned down. And the

company that turned it down did it on

purpose with the government's blessing

almost 40 years ago.

Once you know that story, you can't

unsee it and you'll never read a 10 mm

box the same way again. So, let's settle

it. 10 mm versus 40 Smith and Wesson.

What you were sold, what you actually

got, and which one of these two was the

honest deal the whole time. Stick around

because the thing that decides this

isn't on the gun. It's in the load. And

it's something the company that sold you

the ammo is counting on you never lining

up side byside. To see the lie clearly,

you have to go back to where the 40 came

from. Because the history is the whole

case.

In the 1980s, Colonel Jeff Cooper wanted

a cartridge with more reach than a 45

and more authority than a 9 mm.

The result was the 10 mm auto and it was

ferocious. A genuine full power load

pushed a 180 grain bullet somewhere

around 1,250 ft per second for over 600

ft-lb of energy. That is revolver magnum

territory out of a semi-auto.

The FBI fell in love with it after the

Miami shootout in 1986 exposed how

little their service rounds were doing.

And then the 10 mm ran into the wall

every owner eventually meets. The full

power round kicks hard. Hard enough that

a lot of agents struggled to shoot it

well or fast. The bureau did not drop

the cartridge though. They specified a

reduced load instead. A 180 grain bullet

at around 980 ft pers, roughly 400

ft-lb. Soft enough for everyone to

qualify with. The shooting world has a

name for that load to this day. They

call it the FBI light. This is the part

that turns a footnote into the biggest

lie in the gun industry.

Smith and Wesson and Winchester looked

at that downloaded FBI spec and realized

something. If the 10 mm was only going

to be loaded that soft anyway, you

didn't need the big long case to do it.

You could chop the case down, fit it

into a smaller 9 mm sized pistol, and

hit the exact same numbers. In 1990,

they did precisely that, and they called

it the 40 Smith and Wesson. The 40 was

never designed to compete with the 10

mm. It was designed to be the 10 mm

downloaded FBI spec in a shorter case, a

10 mm with the power turned down by

birth. The community even nicknamed it

the 40 short and weak. And they weren't

entirely joking. If you've ever wondered

why these two rounds look like brothers,

that's why. They fire the exact same

diameter bullet, 4/10 of an inch. The 40

is just the short one. And the clearest

proof of how close they are sits right

in your own pistol. Most 10 mm guns will

run 40 Smith and Wesson without

complaint. A lot of folks shoot the

cheaper 40 through their 10 mm at the

range the same way a man runs 38 special

through his 357.

The case is shorter, so it isn't the

ideal long-term diet and the careful

guys fit a dedicated 40 barrel for it,

but the fact that the bigger gun happily

eats the smaller round tells you what

you're dealing with. These aren't rivals

from different families. One is the

other with the case chopped down. Just

know it only works one direction. A 10

mm is too long to chamber in a 40. So

don't ever try that. If you've owned one

of these for years and you're only

hearing the real story now, this is the

channel that gives it to you straight.

Subscribe and you won't miss the next

one. Now the part that decides

everything. So where's the lie exactly?

It isn't the marketing department

velocity printed on the box. Yes, that

number comes from a longer test barrel

than the one on your pistol. So,

everybody's ammo clocks a little slower

than the label in the real world. That's

true of every cartridge, and it's not

the scandal. The scandal is what the 10

mm is loaded to in the first place. The

big ammo makers spent decades loading

their everyday 10 mm down to that same

FBI light level. And you don't have to

take my word for it. You can read it off

their own cataloges. Look up a major

maker's 180 grain 40 and their 180 grain

10 mm side by side and you'll find the

10 listed at maybe 20 or 30 ft per

second faster than the 40. Same bullet,

same speed, two different prices. Part

of the reason is that most hollow points

made in this caliber were actually

designed to open at slow 40 speeds and

they tear themselves apart if you push

them to real 10 mm velocity. So the

factory simply doesn't push them. The

result is that a whole lot of the 10 mm

on the shelf is doing 40 Smith and

Wesson work. You are paying 10 mm money

and burning 10 mm recoil for 40

performance. And the only place the

difference shows up is your wallet and

your wrist.

The actual numbers tell the story and

this audience checks them. Honest full

power 10 mm. The buffalo boores and

underwoods of the world. A 180 grain

bullet runs around 1,250 to,300 ft per

second. 600 ft-lb and up. A 40 Smith and

Wesson with the same weight bullet runs

around 1,000 ft per second. right at 400

foot-p pound. That's a real gap. Close

to 50% more energy. And it's exactly why

a true 10 mm is a legitimate woods and

hog and black bear cartridge, while the

40 is not.

But now look at the soft factory 10 mm.

The FBI light stuff filling most of the

shelf. It comes out of the barrel at 980

1,000 ft pers right at 400 ft-lb same as

the 40. You did not buy more power. You

bought a longer case and a bigger gun to

launch the identical performance and

you're paying for it every time you

reload at the register. So, the whole

thing comes down to which 10 mm you

actually bought. Full power 10 mm

genuinely beats the 40 by a wide margin.

downloaded 10 millimeter, which is most

of what's sold, ties the 40 exactly

while costing more and kicking harder

for the privilege.

So, what does the 40 actually give up?

Honestly, less than its nickname

suggests. A 40 pushing a 180 grain

bullet at 1,000 ft pers is doing real

work. In gelatin, against a two-legged

threat, an honest 40 and an honest full

power 10 mm using similar hollow points

land closer together than the spec sheet

implies because past a certain point,

both are punching deep and expanding,

and the extra 10 mm energy is going into

the back stop. The 10 mm real undeniable

edge is on the things with thick hide

and heavy bone, bear, hogs, deer, where

that extra velocity and a heavy hardcast

bullet matter, and where the 40 simply

isn't enough gun. Fair warning, even

there, the 10 mm isn't the last word.

Plenty of serious bare country guys

still reach for a 44 Magnum or a hot

Hardcast 45, and that's a debate for

another day. For a paper target or a

man-sized threat, the Honest 40 gives up

very little. For a charging boar, the

Honest 10 mm is in a different class.

Both of those sentences only hold up as

long as that 10 mm is the real thing and

not the downloaded version. If this is

the kind of straight answer you came

looking for, hit subscribe before we go

on. Two more things everyone gets wrong

and they decide which gun you should

actually buy.

Start with capacity because half the

internet believes the 40 wins here and

it doesn't. Not the way they think. The

bullet is the same width. So the

magazines run almost identical. A Glock

20 and 10 mm holds 15. A Glock 22 and 40

holds 15. Same count. What the 40

actually buys you is a smaller, lighter

gun for that same 15 rounds because the

case is shorter. So the 40 fits frames

the 10 mm never will. That's a real

advantage for carry. It is not a

capacity advantage and the man who tells

you otherwise at the gun counter has it

backwards. The other thing people get

backwards is recoil and cost where the

40 quietly wins the dayto-day. The 10

mm, when it's loaded to its real

potential, kicks hard. Noticeably harder

than the 40. Hard enough to slow your

follow-up shots and wear on you over a

long range session. And it costs more

per round, often quite a bit more. The

40 is cheaper, softer, fits a smaller

gun, and holds the same number. For a

man whose job is defending himself

against other men, not bears, the 40

does the work for less money and less

punishment.

The round the internet spent 30 years

calling short and weak has been the

smart everyday buy the whole time.

There's a bitter footnote to all this

that makes the betrayal worse. The FBI,

the agency that started the whole 10 mm

craze, couldn't live with the recoil

even after they downloaded it, which is

the entire reason the 40 got built. And

then years later, the bureau walked away

from the 42 and went right back to the

9mm because modern 9mm hollow points

finally did the job with less recoil and

more rounds in the gun. So the cartridge

the whole industry chased, downloaded,

chopped down, and sold you as the

powerful choice was abandoned at the top

by the very people who created the

demand for it. The power race the 10 mm

was supposed to win quietly ended with

everyone going back to the smallest

round in the argument.

The verdict is what you came for. So

take one second and subscribe first.

This channel puts out a new one of these

every single day, and the next matchup

is already in the works. So, here's the

verdict, and it's going to land

differently depending on which gun is in

your safe right now. The 10 mm is the

more powerful cartridge. That part is

true, and it always was, but it is only

the more powerful cartridge when you

feed it honest, full power ammunition,

and most of what's sold isn't. Buy a 10

mm, fill it with ordinary factory loads,

and you've very likely bought a 40 Smith

and Wesson that costs more, kicks

harder, and rides in a bigger gun. For

performance, you could have had cheaper

and softer. The only way the 10 mm

delivers the power you paid for is if

you take control of the ammunition, buy

the named hot loads, the Underwoods, and

the Buffalo Bores, or learn to load your

own. If you're not willing to do that,

the honest answer is brutal. You bought

the badge, not the performance. And the

40 Smith and Wesson, the round the

internet spent 30 years mocking, turns

out to be the honest one in this fight.

It never pretended to be more than it

is. It does exactly what the box says,

in a smaller gun for less money at the

same capacity.

The Lie was never that the 40 is weak.

The liie is that the 10 mm on the shelf

is strong.

One of these cartridges tells you the

truth about itself every time you pull

the trigger. The other one depends

entirely on whether the man who loaded

it was honest. And most of the time he

wasn't.

So tell me in the comments if you own a

10 mm. Have you ever actually put your

factory carry load over a chronograph?

And what did it really do? And the one I

want most for the men who carry the 40

and have taken the short and weak jokes

for years. Did this change how you feel

about the round in your holster or did

you know the truth the whole time?