Industry standard recently established at .355 for 9mm?

Well for some odd reason lyman said to use a .356" bullet in 1951.
http://castpics.net/dpl/index.php/reloaders-reference/reloading-manuals/190-ideal-handbook-38

In 1929 lyman also recommended a .356" (page 81) for the 9mm.
http://castpics.net/dpl/index.php/the-library/moulds/30-mold-catalogs-of-old/104-1929-ideal-catalog

Myself, I'd go with what the saami specs are. Just because lyman did a misprint it shouldn't be taken as gospel.

Been shooting 9mm's for a little while now, we used to fit 6" 9mm bbl's in our 1911 raceguns back in the 80's/early 90's. Friends and myself also had a bunch of different firearms chambered in 9mm that we shot/play with. The only 9mm bbl I ever saw come close to .354" was a custom shop contender bbl. It has a .3548" bbl and .0045" lands, it is made for cast/lead bullets. Standard 9mm bbl lands are 2/1000th's to 3/1000th's.

As far as bbl wear goes, you'll find it has more to do with what the bullet material is rather than the bore diameter.
Tighter bore or larger bullet ='s accuracy
Longer lands ='s longer bbl life (in pistols/revolvers)

I like to order/shoot my 308's with a 301bore/308groove bbl. The throats wear out long before the riflings/lands do & the slightly shorter lads deform a wider range of bullets less than their .004" counterparts.

Lyman has long said a .38-55 is .375", too; which is not so, or not until modern reproductions started using the smaller diameter.

You could call Barsto or Fred Kart, they would be the most able to build an undersize barrel if you waved enough money at them.

Otherwise you will be slugging a lot of barrels to find a tight one. Ken Waters had a .3545" Ruger P85.

Frank, I came across this thread and it is fairly clear after reading it this morning you should have a barrel custom made for your favorite pistol, or the one you are most comfortably conifident with. I think this will solve the issue and be your most economical route.

franktheitaliantank said:

... or people can tell me which 9mm's are NOT .354. That is helpful as well.

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Here are a few that are not, and one that is. This stemmed from me getting horrible leading in a silencer with a poly coated bullet shot through an Uzi. Since I was at it, I slugged a few other barrels. I don't know that Group Industries built any Uzi pistols, so that probably won't help you much either.

"Recently" ain't all that recent.

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Yeah like the 500 cast 9mm's I bought "awhile back".

I guess I just do not see the "issue" here??

Out of the gazillion 9mm firearms out there, and the bazillion bullets and loaded ammo how many issues are there due to something printed in a Lyman manual from who knows when?

I have been shooting many different 9mm handguns with all kinds of ammo and bullets and they all seem to make nice tight groups.

franktheitaliantank said:

Because that would be a tighter fit that will take longer to wear out.

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You are highly unlikely to wear out any handgun barrel in your lifetime. I have a 70 Series Combat Commander that has at least 40,000 rds thru it that still shoots well. I needed a new sear at about 30,000 rds and put a new recoil spring in at that time.

A tighter bore doesn't mean longer barrel life. The lands will wear as well as the grooves.

franktheitaliantank said:

Let's just say it will give me "peace of mind".

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That's all well and good but that "Piece of mind" would be based on exactly what??

Have you looked at the SAAMI specs??

http://www.saami.org/pubresources/cc_drawings/Pistol/9mm Luger - 9mm Luger +P.pdf

Notice the taper of the chamber (the brass case does also)

Notice the BORE diam and the LANDS dia.

Notice the dimensions of the lands,

Re Read the first 3 lines of what Lyman says.

All barrels 0.034 to 0.356 are correctly matched to a bullet of 0.355

As I was trying to say, what does everyone else who shoots do about buying a 9mm handgun?
The millions of shooters and guns, really good ones at that???

You seem to be searching for something that is not a issue. JMHO

Good luck

If you do not yet have a 9mm and plan on buying one, just get a good one. They will be able to shoot better than most any average shooter.

Sig, CZ, Beretta (many others) whatever, Even the HK and Glock and they have different rifling (polygonal) So there is a whole different aspect of bullet to bore fit!!

Just my logic... It could be flawed, IDK.

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Frank, after reading all the back and forth here, I think you are working on a couple of flawed assumptions.
One is that the fact that a lead or FMJ bullet will wear a steel barrel down. While this may happen, it would be at an incredibly high round count, and the wear would not be from the bullet going down the barrel, but it would be more of throat erosion from the hot gases. The rifling or bore would probably last much longer. Look into the folks shooting many tens of thousands of rounds competitively and how long their barrel life is. Particularly look at pistol competitors as rifle will typically suffer throat erosion sooner.
In your statement, you also present a contradiction, you say

It also makes pressure and probably expands the inside of the barrel... again, probably an immeasurable amount but I believe it would ream the barrel just a little bit...

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a bullet is meant to expand inside the barrel, it's called obturation, and that is what seals the barrel and allows pressure to drive the bullet forward. This is exactly how it should work. As to it expanding the barrel itself -- if a bullet did that there would be a host of problems. Think of this, 9MM is generating around 35,000 PSI, rifles are 50,000 and up. If they were expanding the barrels, they would soon fail.
The second item, or first actually, is the excerpt from the Lyman book. The question in context would be - when was that written? Lyman and many others rehash the same information from edition to edition and some info just keeps going around. In fact, I just checked my 49th edition and the same paragraph is there. So, the next question is: What does recently mean when the same point has been in print for at least 20+ years?
A couple of folks have mentioned the SAAMI specs directly, .355 +.004. A few have provided bore info for their pistols. All this to say that the .354" bores appear to be uncommon. So, we really don't know just when this "recent" switch happened. We do know that most guns do vary. Beretta 92s are known for having bores in the larger end of the spectrum.
So, the next question is to what end is the desire for the .354 bore? Is it for greater accuracy? OK, that would be a good starting point, and only you can determine just how accurate of a gun you want, and for what purpose - bullseye shooting, silhouette, IDPA, etc.
But, at this point if you are looking to compete, then you will also have to look at the ammo quality and consistency. And, you will need to find ammo that works well in YOUR gun.
I think that many of the posters assumed you reload, as you posted this in the reloading section. I think you mentioned in the 30-06 AP reloads post that you don't in fact reload. One "rule" of reloading is that "bullet fit is king" and this is true. As mentioned by another poster, some bullet companies are producing bullets a bit larger than .355 to allow for the common larger bores.
So, all of this brings us back to this -- if you truly want to get a gun with a barrel bore of .354 you may need to decide on a gun that you want, and see if the custom barrel makers will craft one for you.

I hope this information helps you find what you need.