I grew up studying ballistics charts, worshipped at the altar of velocity, suffered from "Magnumitis" for years, and while I've owned most accepted calibers for personal defense, I've never owned a 9mm. Probably never will.
Why? Simple personal preference. Anecdotal stuff. I grew up reading Elmer, Skeeter, Cooper, and they all liked boolits. Not, as someone called them, "boullettes". Is a 38 bigger than a 9? If you think .002" is enough to matter, yes. I understand that the 9mm was hampered for 80 years with lousy bullet design, and that the new stuff is good stuff, as good as anything else its size. So the 9 is fully the equal of the 38, better in some loadings. But I still don't want one.
Maybe it's because the 9mm has a tapered case, is harder to reload, and more finicky. Maybe it just doesn't LOOK like I think bullets should look. Maybe the Parabellum thing bothers me, never cared for the name. Nor Luger, either. It doesn't handle heavy bullets well, accuracy in some guns is iffy or worse, and while it might expand, it might not. It also tends to overpenetrate in human targets with FMJ bullets.
Those are my excuses, and I'm sticking to them.
PJ
