Best handgun round?

[Jcordell]

Originally Posted by Mazryonh

I've heard that fully-loaded 10mm out of purpose-built 10mm handguns has less felt recoil than fully-loaded .40 S&W, despite the fact that .40 S&W was a downloaded version of the 10mm. Is it because 10mm handguns are built larger and heavier than .40 S&W ones, since the latter were intended to be very similar in size to 9x19mm handguns?

Yes. that's it. The 40 caliber pistols mostly start out as 9mm models which is part of the problem. It is my understanding that the S&W 3rd Generation 40 (4000 models) caliber pistols were built around the 40 S&W which is why they had a better track record. However I have never owned one of the 40 caliber S&W autos so I'm going off what I've read on the S&W forums.