9MM Luger, 9mm NATO, 9mm Parabellum, 9x19MM

The 9x19mm pistol round is the worlds most widely used military handgun cartridge - and standard 'Ball Ammo' is available most everywhere at low cost, - being said to be the single calibre round that is responsible for the success of semi-auto pistols over revolvers. 

 9MM 

The name 'Parabellum' is derived from the Latin phrase " Si vis pacem, para bellum" - that translates as - "If you want peace, prepare for war."

- Designed by Georg Luger and introduced way-back in 1902 by DWM in Germany for their Luger pistol - it was developed from the 7.62x25mm Borchardt cartridge by removing the bottle-neck.

9x19mm round with 7.62x25mm 'parent'

The round is designed to head-space on the mouth of the case, but often is really held in place by the extractor clipping into the groove.

Luger Pistol with breech open.

The 9x19mm calibre is well designed to be lethal out to 50 metres and beyond having a moderate recoil and fairly flat trajectory to 50metres and enough muzzle velocity to reliably expand hollow-point bullets.



Ballistics By The Inch (BBTI) website indicates the highest velocity from an 18 inch barrel of 1768 feet per second for the Cor Bon 90gr JHP+P rounds - and the lowest standard speeds are tested from two inch test barrels.

Ballistics 101.com list Fiochi FMJ 158gn loading at 940feet per second as the heaviest commercial load - and the RBCD TFSP * 60 gn as lightest with a velocity of 2010 ft.per.sec.

* TFSP is short for TOTAL FRAGMENTING SOFT POINT

- So from 158gn sub-sonic loadings to very high speed (for a pistol round) 2010 feet per second - there is a wide variety of commercial ammunition available to try. The home re-loader can match powders, projectile types and weights - choosing from  swaged, hard-cast lead, plated, and jacketed pills - and several brands of small-pistol primers. My favourite 9mm handgun the Glock 17 - definitely doesn't like swaged lead bullets in its bore.

There isn't much metal at the case mouth for a positive register at the barrel-end of the chamber - especially so if a re-loader uses a heavy crimp to hold the bullet in place.

- If you want to stretch the round-out much beyond 50 metres you'll need to be good at estimating distances and 'hold-over'.

Marty K

After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?

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