This is the page I goto when I got ??? about rifle and Pistol rounds.....great info...this is a cut/paste...and some parts cut out to save space.....but the 9x19 and 9x18 are diffrent.
The 9x19, also called the 9mm Luger or the 9mm Parabellum, was adopted by the German Army in 1908 as the cartridge for the famous Luger pistol. It has become the world's most popular pistol cartridge. It is now used by most of the militaries of the world, including all of the NATO countries, and also a great many police agencies. It is popular with civilians everywhere they are allowed to own handguns.
The 9x19 uses standard .355" bullets, generally from 115 to 147 grains in weight. The standard NATO load uses a 124 grain FMJ bullet.
To be so popular with so many people in so many places the 9x19 must have something going for it, and it does. For one thing, it is ideally shaped to feed well in autoloading pistols. It is a short, compact cartridge with a slight (.014") taper from rim to mouth that enhances feed reliability.
9mm Makarov (9x18)
The 9mm Makarov pistol and cartridge were adopted as the service standard by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after WW II, and almost all of the other Communist nations quickly followed suit, including China. In the Soviet Union it served the various branches of the military, the KGB, the police, and all other government agencies. "Standard" meant just that in the USSR.
The 9mm Makarov cartridge is basically a Russian copy of the .380 ACP (or 9mm Browning Short as it is known in Europe). Like the .380, it is an attempt to maximize the performance of a blow-back pistol. It is therefore not surprising how similar the performance of the two cartridges turned out to be.
The 9mm Makarov cartridge is not a true 9mm, and it does not take standard .355" diameter bullets like the .380 ACP or 9mm Luger. It takes an odd size bullet, which as far as I know is not used in any other cartridge, that measures .364" in diameter. The cartridge should be called the "9.2mm Makarov" to avoid confusion, but it is not.
Nobody mentioned the 9x18 Ultra which is a .355 unlike the MAK round.
Yes, the 9mm Ultra, made just for the new Walther Super PP. Meant to be the cutting edge of power that a blow-back design could accomodate, it was just slightly more powerful than the .380, and it's poor reception was an embarrasment to Walther. Introduced in 1972, it was obsolete by 1973.
Yes, the 9mm Ultra, made just for the new Walther Super PP. Meant to be the cutting edge of power that a blow-back design could accomodate, it was just slightly more powerful than the .380, and it's poor reception was an embarrasment to Walther. Introduced in 1972, it was obsolete by 1973.
I certainly wouldn't call the cartridge an embarrassment since it was done for the German Police specifically as requested.
We only saw them stateside after the Germans upgraded.
In a custom rechambered Colt Mustang that has some lockup the cartridge can be loaded even hotter tho ammo must be custom also..
I certainly wouldn't call the cartridge an embarrassment since it was done for the German Police specifically as requested.
We only saw them stateside after the Germans upgraded.
In a custom rechambered Colt Mustang that has some lockup the cartridge can be loaded even hotter tho ammo must be custom also..
Yeah I had a Mustang and fantasized about loading the .380 hotter because of the locking versus standard blow back system of most .380's, never tried it. Rechambering it to the obsolete Ultra which was only marginally more powerful and loading that hotter sounds like a lot of trouble and money for a pitiful return. While it's an interesting idea, it's still akin to polishing a turd. The Ultra was only made for a short time 35 years ago, finding brass might be a bit tricky.
Last edited by Taurus Fan; 03-09-2008 at 07:39 AM.
