The Reliable 9mm Luger (9x19, 9mm Parabellum) By Chuck Hawks 9x19 Illustration courtesy of Hornady Mfg. Co.
The 9x19, also called the 9mm Luger or the 9mm Parabellum, was adopted by the Ge rman Army in 1908 as the cartridge for the famous Luger pistol. It has become th e world's most popular pistol cartridge. It is now used by most of the militarie s of the world, including all of the NATO countries, and also a great many polic e agencies. It is popular with civilians everywhere they are allowed to own hand guns. 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 someth ing 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") t aper from rim to mouth that enhances feed reliability. The 9x19 is more pleasant to shoot than the .40 S&W or the .45 ACP (its major co mpetitors among auto pistol cartridges). It has noticeably less muzzle blast and recoil than the other two cartridges, and a less blinding muzzle flash in the d ark (a frequently overlooked point). Because it is not as fat as the popular .40 and .45 caliber cartridges, a double stack pistol for 9x19 can hold between 50% and 100% more cartridges. The slight energy advantage held by the larger caliber per shot (345 ft. lbs. for the 124 grain 9mm slug compared to 370 ft. lbs. for the 230 grain .45 slug) does not com e close to making up the difference. The shooter with a 15 shot 9x19 pistol in h is hand controls 5175 ft. lbs. of muzzle energy, which he can deliver to any num ber of targets between 1 and 15. The shooter with a 7 shot .45 ACP pistol can de liver only 2590 ft. lbs. of muzzle energy to between 1 and 7 targets. This is on e very good reason why the U.S. Army adopted the 9x19 and the Beretta M-9 pistol in 1985. All during the post-WW II years from 1945 to the 1990's there were a tremendous number of articles and books written by supposed experts alleging the superiorit y of the .45 ACP over the 9x19. These assertions were usually based on theoretic al models of stopping power (like the Cooper "short form") that suggested a larg e .40 or larger caliber bullet had some intangible advantage in stopping power i rrespective of the actual energy delivered. These theoretical models seriously o ver estimated the stopping power of the .45 ACP and seriously underestimated the stopping power of the 9x19. Assertions that .45 ball (FMJ) ammunition was 90% e ffective in achieving one shot stops were common. The truth revealed by the 15 y ear Marshall-Sanow study of thousands of actual shootings is that standard 230 g rain .45 ball ammunition is about 62.89% effective, and 9x19 115 grain ball ammu nition is 62.26% effective in achieving a one shot stop. More important to civilian and police shooters is the effectiveness of the best bullets in the calibers, which for most purposes are expanding JHP bullets. The top load for the 9x19 is the Cor-Bon +P 115grain JHP, which is 91% effective in achieving a one shot stop. (For comparison, the top load for the .45 ACP is the Federal 230 grain Hydra-Shok, which is 92% effective.) The 115 grain +P loads fr om Federal, Remington, and Winchester are all close, averaging about 89% one sho t stops.
The effectiveness of the 9x19 goes down as the bullet weight increases and veloc ity decreases. The best 124 grain JHP loads average about 81-84% one shot stops, and the best 147 grain JHP load delivers about 76% one shot stops. Remington ballistics tables (Federal and Winchester are similar) for the standar d 115 grain JHP load show a muzzle velocity (MV) of 1155 fps and a muzzle energy (ME) of 341 ft. lbs. The trajectory of this load shows a midrange rise of .9" o ver 50 yards, and 3.9" over 100 yards. The 9x19 is one of the best auto pistol c artridges for long range shooting. Remington ballistics tables for the 115 grain +P JHP bullet claim a MV of 1250 f ps and a ME of 399 ft. lbs. The trajectory of this load is slightly flatter, wit h a midrange rise of .8" over 50 yards and 3.5" over 100 yards. The reloader can do quite well with the 9x19. According to the Speer Reloading M anual Number 13 their 124 grain Gold Dot JHP bullet can be driven to a MV of 115 9 fps by 8.0 grains of HS7 powder, and 1249 fps by 8.9 grains of HS7. This is a pretty good field load for a 9x19 pistol. These Speer loads used Speer cases and CCI 500 primers, and were chronographed in a 4" pistol barrel. It is hard to argue with these figures. The popular 9x19 is clearly a superior c artridge for self-loading pistols, and a top drawer self defense cartridge.
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