Dumb question

The .380 is 74 thou shorter than the 9mm. Chamber a .380 in a 9mm and you will have extremely excessive headspace. Most likely the .380 will not fire anyway depending on the pistol. More likely to drop into the chamber and be nowhere near the extractor. Uses a wee bit different bullet diameter too.
Highly unlikely anything horrible will happen given the difference in energy though.
 
9mm and .380 is easy to mix up. I've even made the mistake of putting .380 loose rounds in a 9mm ammo box. I think one of the cardinal rules should be: own .380's or 9mm's, but never both. I never had this problem before I inherited a .380.

If you think that is bad, then throw a 9mm Makarov into the mix. My owning 2 or 3 9x18s is what has prevented me from buying a .380 until recently. Now, I'm thinking seriously about selling my remaining two 9x18s and going to just 9x19 and .380. They are all just so close to each other in size that my aging eyes have a hard time telling which is which.
 
Sorting cases for reloading is one thing...( and yes its a pain in the butt )...and the only way to do it with any success, in my view, is after you clean them...to stand them up on a flat loading table...and segregate as you sort them / but yes, even that is hard.

....having multiple calibers of ammo on the bench at the same time is another issue ( sure its easy to mix up a .380, or Makarov or 9mm...) that's why, in my view, having a few boxes of each on the firing line bench at the same time is a mistake / because they're so close in size and easy to make a mistake...

I can see breaking the rule if you have a 9mm and a .357 Mag at the range...(its not too hard to easily see a 9mm vs a .357 Mag on the bench....so mixing them on the firing line bench is not such a big deal ..).../ I often go to the range with more than one gun..and more than one caliber too / but its not that big a deal to keep the bench organized using a small zippered range bag for ammo. Just food for thought...
 
You can chamber .380 ACP in a 9mm P or 9mm MAK chamber, usually with no dangerous results except a misfire. But you can't put a 9mm MAK in any of the other 9mm chambers; the case diameter is too big.

Jim
 
Well now that we have the 380/9mm clambering straight :). I think I will put the P238 & P938 up and get out my S&W model 10 and 15 out. I have a good understanding of what ammo to use in them, I think. :)
 
Back
Top