O.T. Question

What caliber is a 9 mm handgun?

(quoted from post at 04:43:00 09/22/12) What caliber is a 9 mm handgun?

Click to expand...

.3543307086618

.356

Depends....on the round...most are .355, some are made at .354, but others (like Japanese) are made at .356.

Not big enough.

Most "9mm" cartridges, including the popular 9mm Parabellum ("Luger") fire a .355 inch diameter bullet. The exception is the 9mm Makarov, which uses a .363 diameter bullet. Note that the .380 and .38 Super both use .355 inch "9mm" bullets, while the .38 S&W and .38 Special shoot a .357 inch bullet, which is more properly called a "35 caliber" than a "38". The .357 Remington Magnum also shoots a .357 slug, but the .357 SIG bullet is .355 inches in diameter!

Did you that the 35 caliber is larger than the 38 caliber.
35---.358
38---.357
Wonder who came up with this one.
Walt

Just a sales pitch. Like calling a 42 hp tractor a '50'.
In the early 1870's Smith and Wesson came out with the 38 S&W centerfire, later called 380 British aswell, as the officers purchased Smiths in this cal, or British made revolvers in this calber.
Called a 38 even tho it was the roughly the same bore diameter as the old 36 navy models by Colt and others filling Civil war contracts, 38 sounded cooler I guess. I was told they expand into a 38 cal spent slug at minimum. I believe that sure... but ...
While I think of it, in the 1930's Britain mass produced Enfields in this 60 year old Smith cartrdge because tests found it to be just as powerful- not in paper statistics, but on human flesh, as the trendy 9mm parabellum, also the same slug diameter. Lighter and easier to hit stuff that the wrist kicking 455 Webley, so easier to train people too. Revolvers were -still are? much more dependable in real life, so they kept the many of the 38 S&W's Enfields and Webleys until the 1970's when like the US, issued NATO standard 9mm semiautos, which were no gain or loss of power form them, unlike the US army 45 acp uproar.
If you handload, a cast or hardball bullet can go in 38 S&W, 38 special, 357 or 9mm parabellum. Russian Makarov and others like 380, 38 long Colt or other European calibers is when you need to read up on it, and don't assume they are correct, you dial caliper everything in all directions. I forgot... what was your question???

About 36 caliber.

go with a .40, or .45. one shot one kill.

Right.

Feedback I got from fellow Marines in Iraq was that if you shot someone with a 9mm all you did was pi$$ them off. If you nailed them with a good old .45, they were down.

Probably why the Corps recently ordered $22 million worth of 1911 .45's.

It also depends if you are shooting jacketed or cast/swaged. Some 9mm Parabellum/Lugers need bullets as big as .358, ,359 to shoot well. Barrel specs run all over the place.