9 mm Luger Parabellum
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Ball and hollowpoint 9 mm Luger rounds |
The
9 mm Parabellum pistol cartridge (
9 x 19 mm Parabellum,
9 x 19 mm NATO) was introduced by the
German weapons manufacturer
Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM) for their
Pistole Parabellum. It was a higher-power version of the earlier
7.65 mm Luger Parabellum, itself developed from an earlier 7.65 mm
Borchardt cartridge. It is commonly known by the DWM engineer and
firearms designer,
Georg Luger, who was one of the primary people to work on the round and the pistol.
It has become the most widespread pistol cartridge in the world. It also is widely used in a variety of
pistol-caliber carbines by civilians, and has been the dominant submachine gun cartridge since World War II.
The name
Parabellum is derived from the
Latin:
Si vis pacem, para bellum ("If you seek peace, prepare for war"), which was DWM's motto.
Based upon his earlier 7.65 mm Parabellum pistol cartridge, Georg Luger designed the 9 mm Luger cartridge at the German company Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, and presented a 9 mm version of his
Luger pistol to the
British Small Arms Committee in 1902 via
Vickers. Three 9 mm Pistole Parabellum
prototype pistols were delivered to the
U.S. Army for testing at
Springfield Arsenal in mid-1903. The German military showed interest in a 9 mm version of the Parabellum on March 1904.
The initial cartridge was created by removing the bottleneck of the 7.65 mm Luger cartridge resulting in a tapered rimless cartridge. The
bullet shape was further modified in the 1910s for a better auto-loading.
Post-
World War I 9 mm pistols were adopted by a number of countries, and post-WWI acceptance of this caliber spread even more rapidly.
To conserve lead, during
World War II in Germany, the lead core was replaced by an iron core encased with lead. A black bullet jacket identified this bullet and it was designated as the 08 mE (
mit Eisenkern or "with iron core"). Another war-time variation, designated as the 08SE bullet and identified by its dark gray jacket, was created by compressing iron powder at high temperature into a solid material (
Sintereisen or "
sintered iron").
A special load (identified either by an "X" on the headstamp or by a green lacquered steel case) with a 9.7
g (150-
gr) FMJ bullet with a subsonic muzzle velocity for use with silencers was produced by the Germans during WWII. Other countries also developed heavy bullet, subsonic loads for use with silenced guns.
The 9 mm Parabellum cartridge has been manufactured by, or for, more than 70 different countries and, today, has become the world's standard pistol cartridge, being the standard pistol caliber for NATO and the militaries of most countries of the world.
After WWII, the common weight of the 9 mm was changed to 8.0 g (124 gr) to increase the accuracy of the 9 mm Luger ammunition. Many police departments that use 9 mm rounds in their handguns switched to this weight after the investigation of the
FBI shootout in Miami in 1986, because the lighter loadings used by the officers (114 gr) was found to be less effective than a heavier load like 124 gr. Bullet weights up to 9.5 g (147 gr) are available.
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Brass: Since 1902, the common construction material of 9 mm cases has been brass. For appearance, durability, or identification cases have been nickel or copper plated or painted.
*
Aluminum: To conserve brass, aluminum cases have been produced since 1941 (Switzerland) and the development of that material in the use of the 9 mm has continued and is in use today.
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Steel: Various countries have experimented with the use of steel for the construction of 9 mm cases since WWI. It has met with very little success but is still being produced and is available today from Russia.
* Other materials: Plastics have been widely used in the production of 9 mm ammunition by a number of countries.
The 9 mm Luger cartridge combines a flat
trajectory with moderate
recoil. Its main advantages lie in its small size and low use of resources for manufacturing. Its main disadvantages are its tendency to overpenetrate and small wound cavity size when nonexpanding bullets are used. There are many anecdotal reports of soldiers being shot with 9 mm full metal jacket (nonexpanding) bullets in the extremities and not even realizing it, or at least not being slowed down. Like many battle reports these are difficult to prove or disprove.
It is a good small game cartridge for the handgun hunter.
Because it is inexpensive, easy to manufacture and effective enough for most uses, it has become the most used pistol cartridge in the world. In the U.S. 9 mm remains a very popular civilian cartridge for self-defense and handgun target shooting, due to its low cost, modest recoil, and the huge number of handguns available in this chambering. Also because of these features the 9 mm also has also been widely used in the commission of
crimes and in violent shootings.
For police use, it is mainly used with higher speed overpressure (+P) expanding (hollowpoint) bullets which are intended to increase stopping power. The 9 mm cartridge was extremely popular for police use in the
1980s and early
1990s but fell out of favor — a result of marginal results in some shootings — likely due to the relatively primitive bullets available at the time, and the introduction of the
.40 S&W cartridge that was perceived to be better in all ways. There is a never-ending controversy in the United States over the suitability of 9 mm as a police and self-defense cartridge. On the other hand, European police forces favor it, and in general feel that in the United States there is too much emphasis on large cartridges for police use. This attitude is also seen in European
hunting cartridges which are generally of lesser power than their
American counterparts. Accordingly the controversy is at least partly
cultural in origin, though there is some basis for different needs. In particular, many animals that are hunted are larger in the Americas than those hunted in Europe, such as
Buffalo and
Bears, which are much more prevalent in the United States.
