PARA-BELL-UM

The 9mm has been known by a number of names...as in the title. The 08 in some of the designations, is the date the German army made it their official military cartridge ....1908...which made the claim of the American military leaders in the early 1990s that they wanted to modernize the military 45 acp handgun cartridge with the 9mm, a little silly on it’s face....

Many have said that I feel that the 9mm is not worth carrying. Nothing could be further from the truth...what I do say is that the 9mm is not an appropriate police and military cartridge. But it is a good personal protection round if the right ammo is used.

Police need stopping power.  The 9 doesn’t have it...the military because they are saddled with a treaty that states they must carry full patch...or ball ammo...need a large caliber blunt bullet like the 45 acp.  Military handgun ammo is traditionally very bad. The 38 ball ammo they have will not penetrate a piece of 3/4" inch plywood! The 9mm stuff over penetrates to the point it is a threat to others around the shooter. At one time the military was considering using flatfaced ball ammo...I don’t know what happened to that excellent idea but I can guess.

Ball ammo from a nine mm will over penetrate terribly...when the first nines were brought on the police line with the Illinois State Police they started with ball ammo and had some pretty bad experiences with it and it’s lack of stopping power and it’s over penetrating problems. When I was the Commissioner of Drug Abuse Control for a south eastern state in the early 1970s we tested some of the first S&W mod 39s, they were all steel and without double action abilities. Ball ammo was standard for the caliber...it was needed for reliable functioning of many of the foreign brands of 9mm autos on the market at the time. We found it was dangerous..it would go thru cars and not stop...thru people and not stop...about the only thing that would stop it was brick walls.

SuperVel ammo came along and started lowering the bullet weight and upping the velocity of rounds like the nines and the 38 special. They produced the first real hollow points shaped right for full functioning in autos...it was good stuff and it got the big ammo boys moving with their own redesigning of low end ammo to high profile and high energy loads.

All very good...but it still wasn’t police ammo, for police needs...certainly not military ammo because of the idiot restrictions they live under. Nines...the handguns and the ammo,  have come up a great deal in quality...some of the finest autoloaders made are chambered for the 9mm...ammo like the Federal 115 grain hollow point and the Remington 115 grHP have one shot stop capability never dreamed of just ten years ago. But remember the fiasco in Miami.... an FBI Agent shot a felon with a high velocity 9 mm Winchester Silvertip at point blank range. It penetrated the chest cavity of the felon but he went on to kill several Agents before he was head shot and stopped. If he had been hit in the same spot with a 41 magnum he would never have been able to even get out of the car. The time honored Federal 200 gr 45 acp (available then) in the same place would have anchored him.

The FBI after that went on a search for a more reliable caliber and came up with the 10mm...and it is a reliable round. If I were to do it all over again starting tomorrow...back on the street..I would carry a 10mm Delta Elite or one of the other fine autos chambered for it and never look back. I would not carry the 40 S&W...that is a step backwards from the 10mm. And I’m tired of hearing the complaints that the officers of large enforcement agencies get lower qualifying scores so they have to go to go to less heavy loadings like the 40 S&W over the 10mm. When I ran an enforcement agency my officers learned to be proficient with heavy magnums...they practiced until they did....we never lost an officer under my command because his sidearm, or a brother or sister officer‘s sidearm didn’t stop a felon when needed! The minimum caliber was 357, the minimum acceptable muzzle energy for a sidearm in my agency was 600 ft. lbs. And the minimum bullet weight was 150 grains...other than that, they could carry any safe handgun they could qualify with.

Police and Enforcement officers face the very real possibility every day of running into a situation where they must use their side arm to instantly stop a very pumped up felon from furthering his destructive behavior. The 9s and 38s are just not up to that with reliability. Not even the very good ammo that has been coming out in the last several years is, in my opinion, still not for police and enforcement. But it is great for self protection and home protection...I often carry a top of the line Kahr K9 stoked with 135 grain Federal ‘Personal Defense-HydraShok’ ammo. Why is there a difference between police and civilians?

Police needs are incredibly varied...from firefights involving barriers like cars and trucks and situations involving multiple shooters and bandits with body armor...but the civilian protects his family and home and himself from intrusion and attack. And usually at across the room distances. In those kinds of limited situations even the show of a firearm usually has the perpetrator scurrying to leave...felons don’t like to face citizens with guns. They know the police live under so many restrictions...they know what they can do to bring a situation to the brink but not force the officer’s hand...but the civilian is unpredictable. The civilian with a gun scares the bravado right out of the felon. Surveys done in prisons of the inmates, always bring about similar results...the most feared situation for a rapist...break in artist...burglar...cat thief is a woman in a home at night with a gun. The least feared armed situation is the police officer answering a call...under certain circumstances he is not allowed to even remove his gun from the holster!

Is it any wonder that every...THAT’S EVERY...county in every state in the union that allows concealed weapon permits has seen their violent crime statistics go down. I’m doing a comprehensive article on the bullet performance with small self protection handguns...the testing with the nines brought some interesting results.....I’ll share some of them in this tome with you.....

First and foremost...you must test the ammo you are going to carry, from the gun you are going to carry it in. The hollow point bullet that opens and performs beautifully from a four inch auto loader...sometimes refuses to open from a 2 inch barrel. Ammo that dumps energy and expands like it’s advertised in Jell-o...water bottles...and such...sometimes will plug up going thru clothing especially leather, like a jacket, and fail to expand at all....

Some states make it very difficult on the shooter even if the shooter is right, if he uses handloaded ammo...or like New Jersey if the bullet leaves the home it’s a felony....the term ‘Excessive Force’ is now being used against civilians. If someone is trying to kill you what the hell is excessive force trying to save your self or family....it’s absurd! But we live in an absurd world.

Commercial ammo...I like testing ammo on coyotes. They are hardy animals, if you don’t hit them right or with underpowered ammo they will carry off a lot of lead.

I have taken four of the wild K-Nines with the Federal 135 HyrdraShok ammo. None of them went more than 25 yards after being hit...all were hit under 25 yards. All one shot kills from different angles but into the front third of their bodies. I shot two with 90 grain Spitfire ammo and stopped testing it. Both ran for well over 100 plus yards..even then had to be finished with second shots. Both Remington and Federal’s 115 grain hollow points are extremely deadly. All shots were taken with a three inch barrel...A small Taurus 9 and the Kahr K9.

I tested a number of bullets wrapping denim and or canvas with leather around the outside of wet phone books. I found three bullets that were consistent with expansion...soft cast...Gold Dot...and Remington scallop type hollow points. The rest would often plug and not expand from the short barreled guns. I pushed 100 grain hollow points at near 1300 fps and they still would plug and penetrate...no real energy dump. I would be extremely carful with any fully jacketed hollow pointed 9mm bullet of any weight other than Gold Dots. Test from the gun you are going to use it in, loaded with the load you are going to use.

The Remington and the Gold Dot both opened to well over sixty caliber most times... the Rem was their 125 grain HP and the Gold Dot was the 124 grain marketed by Speer. The cast was a 130 grain tapered flatpoint from an old Lyman mold. 8 grains of Blue Dot powder was excellent...good accuracy with all three. The flat point had no trouble chambering in the Kahr 9.

If you get a chance to handle the Kahr, I would recommend it. For some size hands like mine it is ergonomically styled to fit perfectly. It is well balanced, only 2 pounds, solid little thing...I like it better than the S&W LadySmith 9 autos I’ve tested...though for some that gun fits better. I have carried the Kahr concealed with a minimum of clothing in our very hot southwest. Like I stated before I carry it loaded with the Federal HydraShok.

There is a 147 grain Gold Dot bullet...for those that like a heavier bullet this is it...over 6.4 grains of Blue Dot I was getting near 1100 fps and surprisingly a good deal of expansion in the clothing/wet phone books medium. I’m not much on Bullseye with this cartridge because it raises the pressure quickly but not the velocity...Unique on the other hand is excellent, and I don’t think it is dirty. All powder leaves a smoke residue...especially if it is under loaded. Hercules/Alliant powders just do it a little more...big deal. If the powder gives good service it means little...certainly not enough to give up a good powder. I have the same problem with Herco that I have with Bullseye in this cartridge...good powder but high pressures for little velocity return.

Surprisingly WW231 gave high velocities and low pressures....getting almost 1300 fps with a 100 grain bullet (5.6 grains of powder) still has the pressure in the 28,000 psi level...when other powders for that velocity push well above 32,000 psi.

With a 130 cast grain bullet using 5 grains of 231 gave 1125 fps and around 30,000 psi. I went higher in the little strongly built Kahr but I don’t want to give the load...there are some minimum strength small 9s out there. And that brings up a good point...what is your life and that of your family worth? Certainly spending money on a good self protection handgun should have a high priority for quality and reliability.

If you can find a reliable 90 grain hollow point...I didn’t test them all...you can push them to almost 1400 fps with 6.3 grains of WW231 and the pressure is still well within the cartridge’s limits...runs around 31,500 psi. The standard high end for the 9mm is 35,000 psi.

Unlike police needs...the civilian is served well by the light bullets because they will not penetrate walls like the heavy stuff. And we all shudder I think....when we hear of a firearm being fired inside an apartment or house....how many walls will the bullet penetrate if it misses the target...and who’s behind those walls....good large hollow points of light weight and at reasonably high velocities slow way down quickly when they start hitting solid objects like wall board...sheet rock...etc...they still go thru but they slow down fast.

8.5 grains of HS6 will push a 90 grain bullet at over 1400 fps at less then 29,000 psi, 7.5 grains will push a 100 grain bullet at over 1300 fps for 28,000 psi and 7.2 grains will push the 115 grain Gold Dot at 1250 fps and 29,000 plus psi. At across the room range any of these will make a lasting impression on a felon. The 124 grain Gold Dot over 9 grains of HS7 is a heavy load but within specs for the 9mm in good solid modern firearms..and gives near 1300 fps. This load is tickling the bottom side of the 357 from snubby revolvers and certainly well into the 38 +p+ 38 power class. And even if the Gold Dot plugs it still expands...it’s really a gilded copper coating with strength over soft lead...how could it not be effective.

The Kahr as I said is excellent. Taurus has a new line called the Millennium both in 40 S&W and 9mm. Ruger chambers it’s 101 for the 9mm...and it is so strong, and the 9mm brass is so strong you can load into the 357 magnum levels...plus the length of the cylinder plus the barrel gives more barrel length than the same gun chambered for the 357 cartridge. And I like the Ruger 101...it is a quality gun. I had my 32 H&R magnum Ruger 101 punched out to 32-20 it’s fantastic.