Loosedhorse
member
I was asked recently about the 9mm (its various loads and effectiveness), and I thought a review of its history was in order. When I got done, I thought it looked like an OP, so here it is.
As you can seem this is more a "kitchen table", oral tradition-type history. Anyone should feel free to correct, supply dates or reference, or add a different take. My history is more about the legends, and less about the data, but it's a start. Here goes:
It has been said that Georg Luger designed the 9mm Parabellum with an eye to wounding, not killing soldiers. It came out in that era when many Army officers were still on horseback, and if wounded you sat down, called for the medic, and waited for the ambulance. All very gentlemanly, good sportmsmanship-type stuff. Continuing to fight if wounded--bad form.
Of course, if you decided not to stop after being hit with FMJ, things could turn out differently. There are legends of felons taking 33 hits of 9mm FMJ and keeping going until a shotgun finally decided things. And then there is the pass-through (over-penetration) reputation that 9mm hardball developed, continuing right through to its (few) years of use with the NYPD, forcing them finally (last major city in the nation) to switch their police to HPs (after decades of decrying "dum-dum bullets").
The tide turned in the favor of 9mm with the introduction of light, fast HPs, like Lee Jurras's Super-Vels. Eventually, major ammo manufacturers started producing similar loads, like the famous Federal 9BPLE 115 grain +P+ that served the Indiana State Police for decades. Corbon made its name by making such loads available to private citizens.
Things changed again after the 1986 Miami Shoot-Out. Despite the glaringly awful tactics (and not stellar marksmanship) used that day, that disaster got blamed on a single 9mm Silver Tip that after traversing an arm entered the chest to produce the fatal wound that stopped the felon...but we are told it "under-penetrated" and "stopped short" of the heart, and so "caused" the deaths of two agents, and the severe wounding of more.
Ammo companies responded with 147-gr "controlled expansion" HPs that often didn't cycle guns tuned for the lighter loads and often acted like hardball with minimal expansion. Not good.
Finally, we private citizens entered a modern era with the 9mm (although LE in general gave up on it and moved to the .40). Mid-weight HPs (with the exception of the 115gr all-copper Barnes HP) with reliable expansion now rule the roost. The 147-grain HPs also improved, and it is now very unusual that guns won't cycle them.
The current availability of great 9mm SD ammo plus the smaller and smaller guns that now shoot 9mm explain why the 9 continues to be so popular with private citizens, even if many never tire of telling us that "real cartridges start with a .4".
As you can seem this is more a "kitchen table", oral tradition-type history. Anyone should feel free to correct, supply dates or reference, or add a different take. My history is more about the legends, and less about the data, but it's a start. Here goes:
It has been said that Georg Luger designed the 9mm Parabellum with an eye to wounding, not killing soldiers. It came out in that era when many Army officers were still on horseback, and if wounded you sat down, called for the medic, and waited for the ambulance. All very gentlemanly, good sportmsmanship-type stuff. Continuing to fight if wounded--bad form.
Of course, if you decided not to stop after being hit with FMJ, things could turn out differently. There are legends of felons taking 33 hits of 9mm FMJ and keeping going until a shotgun finally decided things. And then there is the pass-through (over-penetration) reputation that 9mm hardball developed, continuing right through to its (few) years of use with the NYPD, forcing them finally (last major city in the nation) to switch their police to HPs (after decades of decrying "dum-dum bullets").
The tide turned in the favor of 9mm with the introduction of light, fast HPs, like Lee Jurras's Super-Vels. Eventually, major ammo manufacturers started producing similar loads, like the famous Federal 9BPLE 115 grain +P+ that served the Indiana State Police for decades. Corbon made its name by making such loads available to private citizens.
Things changed again after the 1986 Miami Shoot-Out. Despite the glaringly awful tactics (and not stellar marksmanship) used that day, that disaster got blamed on a single 9mm Silver Tip that after traversing an arm entered the chest to produce the fatal wound that stopped the felon...but we are told it "under-penetrated" and "stopped short" of the heart, and so "caused" the deaths of two agents, and the severe wounding of more.
Ammo companies responded with 147-gr "controlled expansion" HPs that often didn't cycle guns tuned for the lighter loads and often acted like hardball with minimal expansion. Not good.
Finally, we private citizens entered a modern era with the 9mm (although LE in general gave up on it and moved to the .40). Mid-weight HPs (with the exception of the 115gr all-copper Barnes HP) with reliable expansion now rule the roost. The 147-grain HPs also improved, and it is now very unusual that guns won't cycle them.
The current availability of great 9mm SD ammo plus the smaller and smaller guns that now shoot 9mm explain why the 9 continues to be so popular with private citizens, even if many never tire of telling us that "real cartridges start with a .4".
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. "For its power" is not a purpose; though it would make the round more effective or efficient for any given purpose.
