Question for 10mm shooters

[critter]

I have a question for all of you who shoot the 10mm. I would be particularly interested to hear from those of you with a Colt Delta Elite.

I found a GOOD used Colt Delta Elite not long ago and snagged it for a good price. I've been shooting it a good bit with a variety of different kinds of ammo, both factory and reloads.

Function has been flawless no matter what it is fed. Accuracy, however, varies with the load used. This one seems to prefer heavy loads and heavy bullets. Best load so far has been factory Blazer 200 gr at a velocity (from the box) of 1050 fps.

Is this a common trend with 10mm's and/or DE's or is it just a particular preference for my individual gun?

THANKS!

 

[skywarp_]

That's still a pretty light load.


From my experience you're going to want to beef up the recoil spring once you get into the original Norma spec style loads. The gun will work well but take a beating from real 10mm loads.


Enjoy an excellent pistol!

 

[jfh]

Try to figure out where your pistol fits into the Delta Elite manufacturing: If it is one of the early ones, google to find out gunsmithing tips to help preserve the frame.

I'm not sure what frame changes Colt made to help prevent the cracking that shows up at the stop area, and that's a factor in deciding to shoot full-power loads with it. It may be just needing to tweak spring selection (recoil, magazine, and possible a FLGR), but I thought they also changed the frame a bit.

Personally, I'd go the other way--I'd check into reloading and generally look for the most accurate lower-velocity load--say in the 1000-10050 range. That would allow you to shoot TMJs, plated, or lead bullets economically as well.

Jim H.

 

[critter]

Interesting that you mentioned that. I did notice that my frame has a square-bottomed slot (not a hole) for the 'catch-end' of the slide stop. Does that tell you if it is an early/late frame? Thanks.

 

[Myself]

The slotted frame is the modification to prevent cracking on the top side of the hole. There were very few 10mm colts made without this feature.

This mod and many other 10mm things are explained well here:

http://www.geocities.com/mr_motorhead/10tech.html

 

[critter]

Wonderful source of info. Thanks!

 

[Bergeron]

Yeah, the cracks were showing up above the slide stop hole, so Colt just cut that part of the frame off. No more problems.

That's a great site mentioned above. I picked up a LNIB Delta a couple of years back. I chucked out the factory guide rod step and replaced it with a GI guide rod and 20lb variable recoil spring, 24lb mainspring, combined with an EGW flat bottomed firing pin stop. The gun ran full-power 10mm with no problems. Had I had the funds, I would have also included a bull barrel.

Hope you are continuing enjoying yours!