Converting a 9x18 to 9x19?

[Hammerhead6814]

So I just picked up a FEG PA-63 dirt cheap ($140!). Sure it's got less magazine capacity than a CZ 82 or Mak, but hey, $140! Came with two magazines to boot!

It works fine, but I'm sitting here thinking to myself "If you'd saved your money, you could have bought a decent 9x19 Para". It's 1mm difference between a 9x18 and a 9x19. You never, EVER, want to use ammunition in a pistol other than what it's chambered for. Hence why I'm thinking of how to re-chamber this thing.

Given the masses of people who are buying these great (cheap) little pistols, someone out there has probably beaten me to the punch and converted a 9x18 to 9x19. Does anyone here know how, or if, it could be done?

 

[y5e06]

You would have to get a different barrel, and probably springs.
My Lee manual shows 9x18 MAK around 23,000 PSI & .364 bore/bullet diamter.
9x18 Luger is ~35,000 PSI & .355" bore/bullet diameter.
So the bore is too big on your current mak to bother rechambering your current barrel, even if it wasn't you wouldn't want to run factory 9x19 as the pressures are so much higher.

 

[Quiet]

9x18mm = .364 caliber bullet
9x19mm = .355 caliber bullet

 

[1858rem]

how much of an affect on pressure reduction would .009" difference in barrel siZe?

 

[Shear_stress]

So the bore is too big on your current mak to bother rechambering your current barrel, even if it wasn't you wouldn't want to run factory 9x19 as the pressures are so much higher.

That pressure is why nearly all 9x19 pistols have some kind of locking mechanism. The 9x18 is on the bleeding edge of what a pistol with an unlocked breach can safely take. The 9x19 would beat the holy snot out of the frame unless you added a pound of weight to the slide and some monster recoil springs. The result would be either a Hi-Point or Astra 600.

 

[nalioth]

There is a lot more difference than 1mm of case.

You'll blow that PA63 up running standard 9x19 Para through it.

 

[jdh]

9X19 also shoots a 115/124 gr bullet. The 9X18 bullet is less than 100 gr. Heavier bullets are longer. You will not fit 9X19 in the mag.

PA63 is blow back operated, not any type of locked breech. The higher pressure 9X19 would beat the slide and frame to pieces. Look at the difference in the slides on the PA63 and a High Point 9mm.

If you want a cheap 9MM buy the High Point for about $170.00 and don't turn a small gun into a big bomb.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Best you can get is a .380 barrel, it uses the same magazine for both calibers.

 

[Steve C]

The 9x18 is at pretty much the maximum pressure for a blow back action. A 9x18 pistol like the FEG will not take the pressure of the 9mm luger (9x19) that will run over 42K psi in +P and needs a locking action in a small pistol. The only commercially successful blow back design for the 9mm that I can remember besides SMG's that use a very heavy bolt to delay opening the action before the pressure can drop is the rather large and heavy sprung Spanish Military Astra 900.

 

[nalioth]

The only commercially successful blow back design for the 9mm that I can remember besides SMG's that use a very heavy bolt to delay opening the action before the pressure can drop is the rather large and heavy sprung Spanish Military Astra 900.

You're forgetting the "sells like hotcakes" HiPoint 9mm pistol.

 

[GLOOB]

The Hi Point works because the slide weighs 2 pounds by itself. In a FEG, even if the chamber doesn't explode, the cartridge cases will. They'll be pushed out of the chamber while the pressures are still too high.

To delay blowback enough with such a light slide, you'd need to spring it so stiff that 2 things would happen. The slide doesn't go back far enough to cycle the next round, and/or the force of return would be so hard it would break the frame after a few hundred shots.

 

[trstafford]

converting

you can get barrels to convert it to 380