Safe to shoot 9mm in a .38 Super Revolver?

N

nola000

Inactive
Looking at a used S&W PC 627-4 revolver in .38 Super . I really want the S&W 929 which is 9mm because 9 is what I want to shoot but I can get the .38 Super cheaper.

Is it:

1. Possible
2. Safe
3. Reliable
4. Damaging

...to shoot 9mm through this .38 Super?
 
Should not be possible if ammo and chamber are to spec.
.38 Super is a straight case at .384", 9mm is tapered to .391" head diameter.
 
Even if you got the 9mm to chamber. Accuracy would suffer greatly. .38 Super uses.356 bullets. 9mm uses .355 it could have nearly no effect that you would be able to notice. It could be horrible and make a group that looks like it was hit with buck shot at long range.
 
It wouldn't be that terrible. .001" isn't going to give u a buckshot grouping. Look at single sixs .22mag and .22lr have a similar difference.

That said yeah the taper is going to be the main problem vs straight walled.
 
Its always good to ask when in doubt because safety is important. To my knowledge, don't have my Speer manual handy, the 38 Super and 9mm are both 9mm measuring 0.355" for a jacketed bullet. 0.356" when using lead. The issue is the case differences in terms of length, taper and rim type.

Generally rechambering a firearm is not an option because of costs and the mod will likely make it less desirable on the resale market.
 
What about resizing loaded 9mm ammo with a .384-ish carbide sizing die? A .38 Special die would work but may over-work the brass. .38 S&W is better, but might be too tight.

.380, maybe, or .223 ?

I don't know what that will do to the neck tension. Also it probably won't resize all the way to the rim. Nevermind.
 
If you are reloading, it's a lot easier to just reload .38 Super.
With moon clips, you pick empties up six at a time, no "lost brass match."
 
Checked the S&W web site the 627 is listed at 357 Magnum and 38 Special +P.

Checked on Guns International and there is NO listing for a 627 in 38 Super!
 
zxcvbob said:
What about resizing loaded 9mm ammo with a .384-ish carbide sizing die? A .38 Special die would work but may over-work the brass. .38 S&W is better, but might be too tight.

.380, maybe, or .223 ?
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I can sort of respond to that, as a result of an abortive effort on my part to come up with a full-sized semi-auto the fires .380 ACP. I knew to make it a real firearm I would have to invest in having a custom barrel built, and before getting into buying an expensive barrel I wanted to see if I could find a spring combination that would work with .380 ammo.

So my first attempt was to just shoot .380 ACP from a 9mm pistol (headspacing on the extractor). It fired, but there wasn't enough energy to cycle the slide even with a VERY light recoil spring. The brass was very black, and from the case web all the way to the mouth was badly stretched. So obviously a 9mm chamber is too big to work with .380 brass.

So I repeated the experiment with a .38 Super, and essentially got the same result. It fired, it wouldn't cycle the slide even with a VERY light (cut-down) recoil spring, and the brass was so stretched that I wouldn't consider trying to resize and reload it.

In the end, I bought some 95-grain bullets and reloaded 9mm cases to approximate the performance of .380 ammo.

So ... the point being that a .38 Super chamber is smaller than a 9mm chamber, and a .380 ACP chamber is smaller than both of the above. I would be extremely reluctant to try resizing loaded 9mm rounds down to fit a .38 Super chamber. The part that needs to be resized is the web, the thickest part of the case. I can't make myself think there's even a slight chance of that being successful.
 
Aguila Blanca said:
I can sort of respond to that, as a result of an abortive effort on my part to come up with a full-sized semi-auto the fires .380 ACP. I knew to make it a real firearm I would have to invest in having a custom barrel built, and before getting into buying an expensive barrel I wanted to see if I could find a spring combination that would work with .380 ammo.

So my first attempt was to just shoot .380 ACP from a 9mm pistol (headspacing on the extractor). It fired, but there wasn't enough energy to cycle the slide even with a VERY light recoil spring. The brass was very black, and from the case web all the way to the mouth was badly stretched. So obviously a 9mm chamber is too big to work with .380 brass.

So I repeated the experiment with a .38 Super, and essentially got the same result. It fired, it wouldn't cycle the slide even with a VERY light (cut-down) recoil spring, and the brass was so stretched that I wouldn't consider trying to resize and reload it.

In the end, I bought some 95-grain bullets and reloaded 9mm cases to approximate the performance of .380 ammo.

So ... the point being that a .38 Super chamber is smaller than a 9mm chamber, and a .380 ACP chamber is smaller than both of the above. I would be extremely reluctant to try resizing loaded 9mm rounds down to fit a .38 Super chamber. The part that needs to be resized is the web, the thickest part of the case. I can't make myself think there's even a slight chance of that being successful.
Click to expand...

Talking about a full sized pistol shooting .380ACP, back in my younger, not so much smarter days, a friend got a good deal on a bunch of 9mm Corto (.380ACP) ammo. We didn't realize it wasn't 9x19 ammo. (This was pre-internet)

We went to the lake and commenced shooting, me with my 9mm Ruger P89 and him with a US Army stamped Berreta 92/M9. His Berreta stove piped or failed to feed about every third round, while my P89 happily shot full mags of the (unknown to us .380ACP) ammo functioning perfectly. I do recall the cases being really black and it sort of "felt weird", but I chalked it up to the cheap ammo.

Good for the pistol? Probably not, but it functioned perfectly. I can't speak for accuracy as we were just plinking, but it was as good as I was at the time.

That P89 was brick of a pistol, but if you could load it into the chamber, it would fire and cycle the pistol, except for some Pyrodex rounds I loaded just fooling around once upon a time. They essentially made the P89 into a single shot pistol with magazine. I didn't have a chronograph at the time, but I always curious what the muzzle velocity was with those loads.
 
Looking at a used S&W PC 627-4 revolver in .38 Super . I really want the S&W 929 which is 9mm because 9 is what I want to shoot but I can get the .38 Super cheaper.
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What is the price difference? in my area it would not take much shooting to have the price difference in ammo eat up any savings in the price of the guns.

If 9mm is really your preferred choice that is the one I would get and forget the hassles of trying to make ammo "work" in the less expensive gun.
 
Absolutely not. Both of 'em headspace on the case mouth. You'd have about 176 thou of no headspace. Not just excess headspace.
"...for a jacketed bullet..." So does the .380 ACP.
"...This was pre-internet..." Kind of makes you wonder how we survived. snicker. .223 and 5.56NATO plus .308 and 7.62NATO were the same and interchangeable
 
Hey, I once got a very nice reply from Elmer Keith. If I just must use .357 brass, there was a 150 gr SWC but he still recommended Special brass and his 170 gr bullet.
 
Nola,
even if you get it in the cylinder (which I doubt), if you fire it, the cartridge is not likely to come out without serious force.

This is effectively what you're trying to do:
50BMG-Revolver.jpg


Don't.
 
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