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One of the most influential gunfight Jedi masters of modern history was Colonel Jeff Cooper. Cooper was known to believe that the Model 1911 handgun as invented by John Moses Browning was the combat handgun of its time. Further, the Colonel helped invent a super-fast round, the 10mm Auto, in which he placed a lot of trust. Well, an affordable10mm Model 1911 has finally come to us from the Philippines and it is the RIA TAC 2011 VZ.

Back in the 1980s, after a lifetime of shooting and instructing, Jeff Cooper designed what he felt to be a great round. A fan of the .45ACP (who isn’t?), he felt that the short and fat bullet could benefit from better ballistics. The maximum pressure for a .45ACP round is only about 21,000 psi to stay safe. With that in mind, he cut down the old 1900’s era .30 Remington rifle cartridge case to 25mm, added a 130-200 grain bullet to the top of it, and called it a day. Capable of operating at up to 37,000-psi worth of pressure, this cut down rifle round was smoking.

The result was the super-hot and fast 10mm Auto. It was so fast, in fact, that many shooters shied away from it due to recoil and perceived muzzle flip issues. In the end the round was ‘dumbed down’ and made not quite as spicy, which resulted in what we know today as the .40S&W.

Few guns in its time were chambered for the 10mm, notably the ill-fated Bren 10, the S&W 1006, and the Colt Delta Elite. The Elite was a standard Colt 1911 80 Series gun that was built from the ground-up to fire 10mm. It’s a beautiful thing, but being that it’s a Colt and its been made in very low numbers over the past twenty years, they usually run about $900 for a used one. If you can find a new one for less than a grand, you stumbled on a deal.

Thats where the RIA VZ 10mm comes in at…

Read the rest in my column at University of Guns.com