9mm in a 357

There's a good chance it would work , but accuracy would be worse than usual due to the undersized bullet. .38 special is a much better alternative.
 
No. The 9mm case is tapered, so it's too big at the base to even chamber in a .38/.357. Some handloaders will sometimes use a 9mm bullet seated in a .38/.357 case with varying degrees of success.
 
If you can fully chamber a 9mm loaded round in to the cylinder of a .357 Magnum, you are holding a .357 Magnum with an out-of-spec and certainly dangerous chamber.

If you "heard" you can shoot 9mm cartridges in a .357 Magnum revolver, it's most likely that you heard about a Ruger Blackhawk convertible, which comes with an accessory 9mm chambered cylinder that you can substitute for the .357 chambered one, and that will allow you to shoot 9mm.

While the 9mm cartridge case is slightly larger in diameter at the case head, the actual slug is a wee bit smaller and is ever so slightly undersized in the bore.
 
Some handloaders will sometimes use a 9mm bullet seated in a .38/.357 case with varying degrees of success.
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I size my 9mm and .38 bullets to the same diameter. I've loaded 9mm bullets in my .38. It shot OK, but truly I didn't see much point to doing it, other than to prove it would work.
 
I know of a guy that by mistake loaded 500 rounds of 9mm in 357 cases and did not figure it out till he shot about 100 of them.
No damage to the gun, only his pride.
 
At one time I was doing some experimentation and loaded a lot of 9mm bullets in .357 and .38 cases that I fired in a .357 revolver. The 9mm FMJ's had good penetration (which was the object of the testing) and were plenty accurate. I never saw any damage to the revolvers or any reason why those bullets would not work as a normal load, except that I preferred heavier bullets than the 115-125 grain 9mm bullets.

FWIW, 9x19 cartridges will not normally fit a .38 Special or .357 chamber, but they will fit a .38 S&W chamber. In WWII, British officers, issued .380 (.38 S&W) revolvers and a tiny amount of ammo routinely crimped or staked the rims of 9mm and used it in the revolvers.

Jim
 
FWIW, 9x19 cartridges will not normally fit a .38 Special or .357 chamber, but they will fit a .38 S&W chamber. In WWII, British officers, issued .380 (.38 S&W) revolvers and a tiny amount of ammo routinely crimped or staked the rims of 9mm and used it in the revolvers.
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While I don't think you were trying to imply such, it should be mentioned that attempting to shoot 9x19 ammunition in a .38 S&W revolver is an extremely bad idea. SAAMI max pressure for .38 S&W is 14,500psi while the 9mm is over double that at 35,000psi in standard pressure loadings. Compounding the issue, many .38 S&W revolvers are nearly or over 100 years old and were of questionable quality when new. Firing 9mm ammo in such a gun could quite possibly result in a catastrophic failure. Even among "strong" .38 S&W revolvers such as Colt and S&W solid-frames or Webley and Enfield top-breaks, shooting 9mm ammo would likely cause the gun to shoot loose in short order.
 
First, Webleymkv, you are perfectly correct, and I should have included a "do not try this" warning. The British, in the middle of a war, and with an issue of 24 rounds of revolver ammunition for the duration, were not much worried about damage to their revolvers; they were trying to damage the Germans. The Israelis modified S&W M&P revolvers to use 9mm, and AFAIK they didn't blow up, but they, too, were less concerned about the guns than about defending themselves.

Tekarra, you are correct; you could not close the cylinder in a normal revolver; to moon clips, the cylinder either has to be cut off at the rear or cuts machined in it to accept the clips.

I don't know if it is true or not, but it was rumored that 9mm Federal (essentially a rimmed 9x19) was taken off the market because it would chamber in those old solid frame and breaktop .38 S&W revolvers and disassembled some of them.

Jim
 
First, Webleymkv, you are perfectly correct, and I should have included a "do not try this" warning. The British, in the middle of a war, and with an issue of 24 rounds of revolver ammunition for the duration, were not much worried about damage to their revolvers; they were trying to damage the Germans. The Israelis modified S&W M&P revolvers to use 9mm, and AFAIK they didn't blow up, but they, too, were less concerned about the guns than about defending themselves.
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Oh, I understand why the British and Israeli's did it and that you were offering the information for historical interest rather than advice, I just thought that the standard "don't try this at home" warning needed to be put out there.

I don't know if it is true or not, but it was rumored that 9mm Federal (essentially a rimmed 9x19) was taken off the market because it would chamber in those old solid frame and breaktop .38 S&W revolvers and disassembled some of them.
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That's entirely believable because I know of people with Charter Arms revolvers in 9mm Federal that have made ammunition by trimming and resizing .38 S&W brass and loading it to 9x19 levels.
 
Why would you want to do that? I do not see any great advantage in doing that. You would need to find a moon clip that would fit and then maybe modify the revolver to take the moon clip. Spending more money than it is worth. I know.... I am expert in spending more money than it is worth..... I did have a friend that had a Webley .455 modified to accept 45ACP with a moon clip. That was reasonable as now he has a revolver that will fire ammunition that he can obtain in todays market.

Lemmon from Rural South Carolina......
 
I asked the guy I herd this from and he told me it was an old ruger security six and he used moon clips
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The 357 case measures .379", and the 9mm case measures .391" at the casehead. Cannot be done without some modification to the cylinder.
 


This is the Phillips & Rogers Medusa. I have shot standard 9mm (9x19) as well as 9x18 and 9x21 rounds from this gun with perfect accuracy and reliability. As a matter of fact, I have shot .38 super and many .38 special/.357 magnum rounds from this gun and it sister S&W 686 with a Medusa cylinder without issue. The only round that has not performed well is the .380 auto.

Mark
 
Didn't P&R make multi-caliber cylinders for Blackhawks & other .357s?
Maybe the revolver in question had one of them.

FWIW, 9mm bullets shoot fine in my .357 revolvers (loaded in .38 or .357 brass of course).
 
To answer the original question if the .357 revolver used was built to manufactures specifications and not modified the chamber dimension is .3809.

357chamber.jpg


http://www.saami.org/PubResources/CC_Drawings/Pistol/357 Magnum.pdf

The 9mm case is .391.

cd9parabellum.jpg


http://www.stevespages.com/page8d.htm

.3809 is smaller than .391 so the case will not fit into the cylinder chamber.
 
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