No, as the case seats on the mouth; your 40, will drop in too far.

Buy an extra Barrel.

 

What kind of barrel?

 

You can do what I did and have Colt custom fit a 40SW barrel to it. They charged me about $250 which included a Kart barrel with a fitted link and barrel bushing ( and one Colt 40SW mag). It would be a good time to do any other custom work you wanted. In my case they polished the matte stainless to an Ultimate bright stainless finish and it looks great, tuned action,etc.

 

Now wait a minute here !!!!

I have shot up thousands of 40S&W cartridges in my G20 10MM pistol. I have shot many many thousands more in two S&W 10MM pistols I owned in the past century. [That makes it sound like a hell of long time ago....]
Stuff 'em in the magazine and bang away in perfect satisfaction. You must understand that autoloading pistol cartridges may be designed to headspace on the case mouth BUT NONE OF 'EM DO !!! They are ALL held in place by the extractor against the breech face from which a firing pin whangs hell outta the primer and another bullet disappears into oblivion. One of the best things about shooting 40 ammo through the 10MM is the brass all lands about 6' away in a tidy little group.

 

I have shot up thousands of 40S&W cartridges in my G20 10MM pistol. I have shot many many thousands more in two S&W 10MM pistols I owned in the past century. [That makes it sound like a hell of long time ago....]
Stuff 'em in the magazine and bang away in perfect satisfaction. You must understand that autoloading pistol cartridges may be designed to headspace on the case mouth BUT NONE OF 'EM DO !!! They are ALL held in place by the extractor against the breech face from which a firing pin whangs hell outta the primer and another bullet disappears into oblivion. One of the best things about shooting 40 ammo through the 10MM is the brass all lands about 6' away in a tidy little group.

So according to you I should be able to load my 10mm mags with 40's and my Colt should fire them safely, is that correct?

 

Mr. Terry, I hope when someone gets injured or their gun is damaged you will be just as eager to provide personal information for the service of court papers.

Read this: http://www.thegunzone.com/10v40.html

I think it's ill advised and a bad practice to provide information contrary to industry and manufacturers standards that could result in injury or damage.

 

Thank you for the information. This is something I don't want to just fool around with and hope it will work. Maybe think about getting a .40 caliber barrel.

 

Well, I have been wondering about this myself and from what I've seen here, I'd go with the extra barrel in .40. Aside from the saftey factor, I'm sure it would be more accurate. Also it would be like getting another gun. You'd have the best of both worlds. Why take chances?

 

Kid Sopris is 1000% correct. NEVER shoot a different caliber round from a gun that it is not chambered for it or designated to handle it. One may shoot thousands of rounds with no consquences unbtil the one that becomes deadly. .40 & 10mm are NOT the same as firing a .38 special round from a .357 mag. Let's stay safe when shooting.

 

I agree with most of the above, but the correct answer to the OP question

I have a Colt Delta Elite in 10mm, can I shoot .40 caliber with it since a 10mm is a longer .40 caliber?

is YES. although not a good idea, in most cases, it is still a fact that you can.
me? i would contact bob serva at fusion arms and ger a .40 match grade barre for $165 and shoot the heck out of it!
jmho
tom

 

Kid - the link you supplied says it all! It certainly made a clear case for not using a 40SW in a 10mm barrel. It is hard to figure how anyone could dispute that informative article but that is what Oppositional-Defiant personalities do.

 

Agree to disagree but threats and or insults will not be tolerated . Period !

 

Take it easy, to each their own I suppose.

I didn't see a .40 caliber barrel at Fusion Arms but I'll e-mail them and ask. Besides Fusion Arms, who else makes a good barrel and won't I need a new barrel bushing also?

 

WAAAAY back in the 20th century...

...when I was younger and more foolish, I owned a Colt Double Eagle Mk. II in 10mm Auto, a Glock 20 (10mm), and a S&W 1006 (10mm), and I fired factory loaded .40 S&W cartridges through all three of them. In terms of barrels and magazines, etc. the Double Eagle is the same as the Delta Elite. Note that I said I did this when I was "more foolish".

My experience was as follows: All three pistols fed, fired, and ejected without any jams. They all cycled and functioned, and you would not have known anything was amiss from behind the gun. With the 1006, and the Glock, it appeared that the extractor did in fact hold the case head sufficiently close to the breachface that everything, including the fired brass appeared normal. The Colt was another story, however. While the gun actually did feed, fire and cycle flawlessly, I became quite alarmed when I examined the fired cases. They looked like the photos in the article linked to above, but even worse. Flattened primers, cuts right through the rim made by the extractor, punctured primers, bulged out case web areas. NASTY!! I actually sent the gun back to Colt to be examined for any damage before firing it again. The gun was undamaged.

What was going on was exactly as described in the article linked to above regarding the S&W 1076. Sometimes the extractor would NOT hold the case as it chambered and the .40 round would go deep into the 10mm chamber, but not so deep that the firing pin couldn't still reach the primer. The result was that the round would fire, but due to the GROSSLY excessive headspace, the case would shoot backward, and slam into the breachface. The extractor would cut a channel through the rim as the case was driven back passed it, and the hammer-like blow to the slide probably sped up the unlocking of the breach, leading to bulging of the web of the case.

Bottom line: Actually, there are two bottom lines here...

1. Do not try to shoot .40 S&W ammo in a 10mm Auto chamber, certainly not for recreational purposes. The risk of harm is great enough that it is not worth taking just for fun, thrills, or to "save money". Your eyesight would be at the greatest risk of harm from the sorts of bad things that could happen.

2. Despite the risk and the danger, if you just take a 10mm pistol, load it up with .40 S&W ammo and try to shoot it, it PROBABLY will in fact "work", i.e. it will fire the cartridges, launch the bullets, cycle the action. So, if for some bizarre reason you found yourself in a life or death emergency situation where you had a 10mm pistol but no 10mm ammo AND some .40 S&W ammo but no .40 S&W pistol, and the zombies were closing in , I'd take the risk!

 

The result was that the round would fire, but due to the GROSSLY excessive headspace, the case would shoot backward, and slam into the breachface. The extractor would cut a channel through the rim as the case was driven back passed it, and the hammer-like blow to the slide probably sped up the unlocking of the breach, leading to bulging of the web of the case.

Yep....just like WIL TERRY said:

"IT IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS SHOOTING 38SPL'S OUT OF A 357MAG PISTOL !!!!!!! "

 

Now if you come up with a 10 mm Semi Rim and 40 S&W Semi Rim, ala 38 Super...headspacing on the barrel hood.......

 

On this subject, I've noticed that .32 ACPs will chamber in .32 S&W chambers. Theres a guy at work that was asking me where to get ammo for his Colt .32. He knows pretty much nothing about guns so from his description of the markings I figured it was either an old Colt New Police or a pocket positive. Anyway, I told him it's probably .32 S&W or .32 S&W long and showed him a couple of sources on line where he can get ammo. So he goes to Cabelas and brings the gun in to buy ammo. The guy at the counter trys some .32ACPs and low and behold they chamber! So the idiot tells him this is what it's chambered for and sells him a box of .32ACPs. He took it out and it fires them fine apparently. When he told me this I told him the guy was full of s#$t but he won't listen to me because it seems to work fine with .32ACP. Anyway, being that it's fairly low pressure and the gun is a Colt it seems to be holding up to it. Still a bad idea I think.
It made me wonder if anyone has done this in one of the really cheap old black powder topbreak .32s
I have also noticed that 9mm will chamber in some .38S&Ws. What a disaster that would be!

By the way, congratulations on your 100th posting Charlene. I'm trying to get to 2000. I may have to do a little giveaway like someone did on the S&W forum. I think when he reached 2000 whoever replied to his 2000th he gave them a prize

 

I took some fellow associates that were visiting fron Britain one year target shooting at a local range. None were familiar with firearms (I don't believe any of them had even seen a real gun before). So after giving them a quick lesson on gun safety and having them watch me fire a few rounds through the assortment I brought, I let them have at it. I just stood back and watched all four of them have the time of their lives. All was going well until I heard a faint report come from my 1991A1 in 45ACP. I asked the fellow to stop shooting and hand me the gun. The slide was locked closed and would not open. I had to retrieve the rubber mallot from my shooters box (the first and only time I ever got to use it). After giving the front of the slide a few wacks (while pointing the gun in a safe direction) I was able to eject the shell locking the gun. Here he had slipped a 9mm cartridge into the magazine when I wasn't looking and it had actually fired! The 9mm case split wide open trying to fill the chamber locking the gun up. He was very apologetic. I told him not to worry, just be more careful. I field stripped and inspected the gun and to my amazment nothing was damaged. I guess it just goes to show you, all kinds of things can happen.