What's considered a "short barrel" for semi-auto pistol?

[soonerboomer]

I'm considering choices for 9mm self-defense ammo. I see that Speer makes some "short barrel" Gold Dot ammo in addition to their standard Gold Dot offerings. On the other hand I'm attracted to the relatively new Hornady Critical DUTY, but Hornady says "these loads are NOT optimized for short barreled, concealed carry style handguns".

So, is there a specific length that's considered a "short barrel"?

How would you classify the following pistols:
Kahr PM9 - 3.1" barrel
Glock 26 - 3.43" barrel
Ruger P95 - 3.9" barrel

Thanks!

 

[mgmorden]

"Standard" length these days for an autoloader seems to be 4".

At 5" or longer it's usually considered a longslide model (for modern guns - on older guns 5" seemed to be the standard).

I'd say anything under 3.5" I'd consider short.

Those aren't codified anywhere though - just kinda the general trends I've seen. For your examples, I'd consider the P95 about standard and the other two short.

 

[2wheels]

"Standard" length these days for an autoloader seems to be 4".

At 5" or longer it's usually considered a longslide model (for modern guns - on older guns 5" seemed to be the standard).

I'd say anything under 3.5" I'd consider short.

Those aren't codified anywhere though - just kinda the general trends I've seen. For your examples, I'd consider the P95 about standard and the other two short.

+1

Similar to what I was thinking. There aren't any rules I know of concering what makes a barrel "long" or "short" or "standard", but I'd say anything between 4"-5" is standard for a service type auto.

Anything slightly under 4" could be on the border, and anything under 3.5" is definitely short.

So yeah, Kahr and Glock I'd call short, Ruger I might call standard.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I would put it at the length of a Colt Officer's ACP - 3 3/4 inches - or less.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Well, since the longest common is 5, and the shortest is x, it's somewhere less than the middle, otherwise it'd be called mid-length. how's that

 

[Bovice]

If you ask the IDPA crowd, short barrels are barrels under 5".

But the trend for today's service pistol is 4" as a standard.

 

[Steve C]

Full size standard military and police sidearms usually have a barrel length greater than 4" to approximately 5" (Beretta 92, Glock 17, Sig P226, Browning HP, Walther P1, etc). Compacts usually have a barrel length very close to 4" (Glock 19, Sig 228).

I would consider any firearm classified as a "sub compact" with barrel under 4" to be considered "short" as semi auto barrels include the chamber in their over all length. Subcompact models have barrel lengths below 4" (Glock 26, Kahr PM9, KelTec PM9 etc).

 

[1911 guy]

Might be wrong, but I seem to recall reading that the "standard" was slightly diferent for each caliber, based on performance from a test barrel. Example, .45ACP ammo is usually loaded to produce well from a 5", anything less is "short".

Of course, I might be a decade behind the times, with all the new compacts coming out. Ammo production may well be stepping up to perform in the "short" barrels, making them the new "standard".

 

[vba]

I'm with Steve on this one. Consider the 1911 .45 ACP, 5" is standard, 4 to 4.25 is compact and less than 4" is subcompact.

I do believe it is somewhat different with 9mm where ~4.5 to maybe 5" is standard, 3.5 to 4" is compact and less than 3.5" is subcompact.

 

[PedalBiker]

9mm runs at pretty high pressure, so it can get pretty good service from a 3" barrel.

If you look over the reviews in magazines they give velocity and energy numbers in the guns they review. It seems that under 3.5" barrels are about the cutoff for "short".

For the Speer ammo I'd use the short barrel for 3.5" and under and at 3.5" and above you could use the regular ammo. So, the 3.5" barrels, in my opinion, are kind of a sweet spot where you get almost full size performance and don't really need to bother with short barrel ammo.

For 45 ACP I think that threshold is more around 4" barrels. I would call anything under 4" short in 45.

 

[Certaindeaf]

The 2" P38-K has a uh, 2" long barrel.

 

[Skribs]

I've actually looked at the data before, and the "short barrel" seems to be a marketing gimmick. I'll look up where I saw the data on before, but I'd actually stick with the normal stuff. 147 gr is my personal preference.

 

[1SOW]

I'm not aware of where it came from; but if you notice, the vast majority of pistol "Load Data" is given using a 4" bbl and has been for a long time.

I call anything less than 4" a short-barrel pistol. My Sig 3.6" is short-bbl'd.

 

[Got_Lead?]

Here's a tidbit of information about 4" vs. 5" barrels. There's definately a loss of velocity with the 4" pipe. My 1911 chronographs a particular load around 800 to 820 fps, while both my XD and 4" 1911 compact chronograph the same load at 720 to 750 fps. I was surprised the loss was so significent.

 

[Certaindeaf]

^
Well, even given same lengths and same makes, barrels will often vary in velocity considerably.

 

[Quiet]

"short barrel" = under a 3.5" barrel length