SinterFire's Next Generation (NXG) 10mm Auto load is a 125-grain lead-free frangible ball bullet at 1,250 fps and 434 ft-lbs. Power factor is 156, which clears the 125 minor floor by 31 but falls 9 short of the 165 major floor. The bullet is made to break up when it hits steel, which is the reason it exists: close steel work and indoor ranges that require lead-free ammunition. It is down to 1,093 fps by 50 yards. From a 25-yard zero it prints 1.1 inches low at 50 yards and 9.0 inches low at 100. The brass case is reloadable.

Its one close comparison is the SinterFire Special Duty 125-grain hollow point, the same bullet weight and the same frangible construction loaded 100 fps faster, to 1,350 fps. In the same pistol the Special Duty produces about 14 percent more recoil energy, so the NXG is the softer of the two. Both are light bullets at high speed, which gives a quick, sharp impulse. On its own trajectory the NXG needs no hold change inside 50 yards, where it is about an inch low. Past that the drop builds quickly: 7.9 of its 9.0 inches come between 50 and 100 yards.

Buy the NXG for an indoor range or a steel bay where the rules call for lead-free or frangible ammunition and the power factor does not matter. If you need to make major, the Special Duty 125-grain does it at a power factor of 169 and the NXG does not. If you want an expanding bullet for handgun hunting rather than a frangible range load, Hornady's 10mm Auto MonoFlex 135-grain is a copper-alloy hunting load and produces about 27 percent more recoil energy than the NXG.