Look at the 9mm Luger , smokeless powder developed from the git go ...see how small the case is !
Also look at that small case and see how much they have jacked up the load between its origin and now.
Look at the 9mm Luger , smokeless powder developed from the git go ...see how small the case is !
Also look at that small case and see how much they have jacked up the load between its origin and now.
I like this thought, could be something to play with.I load 38 short colt to match 38 special +p velocities. ES is lower, and ejection and reloads are faster. I only do this in 357 guns since pressures are on par with 9mm
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According to the Standard Catalog of Luger (Davis 2007) the original load for the 9mm Luger was the 124gr bullet at 1050fps from a 4" (100mm) barrel.
Sometime before WW I the load was changed to a 115gr at 1150fps (4")
Today, you can still get 115gr @ 1150fps
And you can also get 115gr loaded above 1300fps. Think about that for a bit...
And you can also get 115gr loaded above 1300fps. Think about that for a bit...
In QuickLOAD, with the Hornady 124-grain FMJ FP with its weight adjusted to 8.00 grams, I can get Vihtavuori N310 to give me just over that kind of pressure difference for 3.5 and 3.8 grains, and deliver about 1000 fps and 1050 fps, respectively. I cannot get any other powder past those velocities with those light charge weights without exceed the reported pressure ratio and shortening the cartridge, so I think we can assume "Parabellum" powder had characteristics similar to N310. But 100 mm barrel ballistics do not allow matching modern standard velocities without going to heavier charges of slower powders.
He also says (has a photo) the bullets were flat meplat bullets, later dropped for reasons that were unclear, with one claim being they were considered unnecessarily destructive, resulting in fear the Hague rules on "dum dum" bullets might be applied to them if they were adopted, and the other being they didn't feed well from accessory drum magazines in later tests. In any event, the bullet was replaced with the RN common today.
I wish they would make a .38 short.
As usual the powder takes up a fraction of the space in the case
The extra case length was NOT chosen as a way of keeping people from sticking the new cartridge in an old gun, it was done to achieve the ballistics that they wanted at pressures that were acceptable to long-term use of the cartridge.
Agree. Same with the .44 Mag.I believe the extra length of the .357 was to prevent it being chambered in .38 Special guns.