I am a revolver guy but, the new Ruger SR11 in 10mm strikes me as a great deal. I live in Pa. and down the road it looks like we will be able to hunt deer with a semi-auto pistol. [I hope] So, being new to semi's and the 10mm what do I need to know as far as handloading for whitetail and making the gun more "useable" for hunting. Oh, yes I did buy it. I compared it side by side at the gun store with a Kimber Eqlipse aesthetics and feel and the Kimber was a little tighter feeling at about twice the cost. Looking at the Ruger the finish was great with no mill marks even under the slide and no felt play. Also the trigger was actually better on the Ruger. I am convinced this is a great buy for the price.

Killed some groundhogs with a friends 10mm, but don't own one.
I have killed around 15-20 deer with a .40 S&W. Experimented with a lot of bullets. XTPs, Gold Dots, and 170 gr. cast SWCs usually took 2-4 shots (shoulders and lungs) to put down. Wound channels were not impressive.
The one bullet that stood above the rest was the 165 gr. Sierra JHC. Mostly one shot stops, larger wound channels, very good accuracy. Is it THE bullet for 10mm? Give it an honest try. I bet it will work.

I would be looking at the 200 grain Hornady XTP.

That Ruger 10 has me salivating! I have no experience with the 10 mm auto cartridge but I have taken three whitetails with a cast swc in a .45 super which duplicates the velocity and KE of the 10mm with the same bullet weights. None were instant kills but none traveled more than 20 steps after the shot. My experience with light JHP's in the .44 mag has not been good as in lack of penetration on deer at high velocities but again, I have no experience with the 10 but it should be a very fine whitetail gun!

So maybe the results would be the same with a 10MM if shots were out there a good bit further, which in my case would not be.

This is my first try at the 10mm and I would like to try it on game. So far, I have only shot 180 FMJ [American Eagle] and they grouped about 2 1/2" at 25 yds. Bought them for the brass because I don't have dies yet. I ordered 180 HP Hornady's but, they have not been delivered yet. I am just trying to get knowledge from the people with 10mm experience to get good starting points.

Thanks, I will give the 165 gr sierra's a try. They should also shoot fairly flat.

In a glock with a 6.5" barrel, the buffalo bore/barnes 155 gn xpb load clocked out at 1550 fps. And shot the best of all ammo tried. Has not yet been used on game (deer) yet.

When it comes to bullet performance, always listen to wvhitman.

dhom, I bought the Remington R-11 Long Slide hunter, my hunting load for that gun is 9 grains of Blue Dot, Hornady 200 grain XTP, I"ll be using it at the Wilderness Lodge in P.A. next month on Boar.

His opinions carry a lot of weight with me.

I tried to find some of the 165 Sierra bullets last year with no luck so I used the 180XTP. Launched at 1330fps it did good on a doe at 71 yards. I still plan to try the 165.





The bullet stopped under the off side hide. Approximately a 1.5" hole through lungs. Took the aorta off the heart. Of course this is a sample of one.

That is the kind of performance I would like to have. Would you mind telling me the load used even if you have to PM me?

I'll have to look it up and PM. It is for fully supported barrels only. I was pleasantly surprised but still want to try the 165gr.