shooting 9mm in a 38 super

[benjaminw7528]

 A good friend of mine told me you could shoot 9mm in a 38 super he said he shot them when he can't find 38 super and I tried it 2 shot and it worked perfect I was wondering how harmful is this

[Flint]

The 9mm rim is smaller in diameter, so it is not tight in the breech face, and the extractor will be looser.  The 9mm headspaces on the case mouth, and is shorter than the 38ACP/Super, so it can drop into the chamber too far.  The way the Colt 1911 firing pin is set up, it can still reach the primer, as the firing pin can protrude quite far forward until the spring goes solid, or the taper wedges (wedging a firing pin forward is asking for unintentional full auto, not a good thing).

The ejector is set further rearward for the longer case, so ejection might not be reliable with thew 9mm.  When I had a gun set up for both, with a 9mm and a 38 Super barrel and slide assembly for each, I cut a 9mm ejector halfway back between the 9mm and 38 length.

With the 9mm case chambered forward of the breechface (assuming the extractor is not holding it there), the case can recoil rearward and slam into the breech face too hard, which might not be good.

The 38 Super headspaces on the rim, small as it is,, some older barrels were set up to headspace on the case mouth, but they are not as accurate that way, I heard.

A 9mm case rim will fit a bit loose in a 38Super slide, but a 38Super case rim will not fit in a 9mm breech cut.

[Mikey]

benjamin - do not fire 9mms through a 38 Super, period.  Both you and your friend may have gotten away with it without harm or damage to yourselves or your firearms but that won't last for long. 

Some 38 Supers will allow the chambering of a 9mm cartridge, some will not.  The base of the 9mm is bigger than that of the 38 Super, by about .010" - which means a 38 Super chamber might allow a 9mm to get crammed into fitting into the chamber but now you have a cartridge that has been crammed, not chambered, into a chamber and this means you are gonna lose an extractor at some point in time, or have the base of the cartridge blow out.  You can also suffer a premature detonation and collect some brass fragments to the forehead, or eye - take your pick.

Today there is no excuse for not being able to locate 38 Super brass or loaded ammo - it is far too plentiful.  For that matter you can even shoot 9x23 Winchesters from your 38 Super, if you restock the pistol with heavy springs.  And if you are worried about some lack of 38 SUper ammo, get a 9mm barrel for your 1911 and you will ahve solved any potential problems.  HTH.  Mikey.

[Savage]

Good advice there Mikey!!

Don't know why anyone would want to shoot ammo in a firearm it's not chambered for! If you want to shoot 9x19, get a 9x19!!! Don't wreck a perfectly good super, or risk injury in this manner.
Savage

[rbwillnj]

Get a 9mm barrel fitted to your 38 Super, than you can switch back and forth easily and safely.  Depending on your loads, you might also need a different recoil spring.  I have heard that you can use 38 Super magazines for 9mm.  I haven't tried it yet but I plan to when I get a chance.

[benjaminw7528]

 how do you convert it to 9x23 win just a heavy recoil spring or what

[Mikey]

benjamin - the 9x23 Winchester will feed through 38 Super magazines and chamber in 38 Super barrels.  The 9x23 Winchester advertises about 1400'/sec with a 124 gn bullet, just what we used to hot load the 38 Super to.  If you wish to shoot hot 38 Supers or 9x23 Winchesters I would advise a 20 lb recoil spring Kit from Wolff Springs in Ardmore, Pa.

I suppose you can try and locate a 9x23mm Winchester barrel but I haven't seen too many around.

rbwillnj - the last time I looked, 9mm fed very nicely through 38 Super magazines. 

HTH.  Mikey.

[Mohawk]

  I would stick with the .38 Super in a .38 Super gun. When I worked with Class 3 guns our shop gunsmith converted a Swiss-K paratroop submachine gun from 9mm to 7.62x25 simply by switching the barrel. It worked for a while but the hotter 7.62 wore the, at the time, $6,000, machine gun down to a hunk of aluminum. This gun is a very slow cycle, about 550 rpm, and is very controllable. US Paratroops were issued these to hide the fact that the troops were Americans if their bodies were found since this was not a weapon or caliber carried or issued by the US. But when those 7.62 rounds started churning on the range it turned that gun to a patty melt. I just believe in that if it is not stamped on the frame, and barrel, a particular caliber, then I wouldn't use any other caliber.

[SharonAnne]

If the firing pin sticks forward, the pistol will not feed the next round. I had it happen in an ipsc match. I do not advise trying 9x23 in a .38 super. The 9x23 is a tapered case and if you do get it to chamber, when you fire it will fire form to the super chamber and jam the case tight into the chamber. Now you have the fun of getting a stuck case out. You CAN fire .38super in a 9x23 chamber but it fits loosely at the case head since the super is a straight case and the 9x23 is tapered. It too is not advisable.

[SharonAnne]

OOPS, forgot to mention. you can make a 9x23 chamber by using a 9x23 reamer to deepen a 9x19/9mmP/9mm luger chamber.  Some barrel makers just ship their 9mm barrels with a short chamber and leave it to the gunsmith to finish chamber the barrel.