The difference between 9mm Luger and 9mm Auto - and why you may have feed problems

[ezkl2230]

Interesting article appearing in Shooting Times last month. It addresses a difference between the casings of 9mm Luger and 9mm Auto cartridges about which many people are unaware. And it is a difference that may be contributing to your feed issues.

As is seen in the following photos that were posted with the article, 9mm Luger casings are tapered while 9mm Auto casings are straight walled.

Link Removed

This difference in the walls of the cartridges have an effect on how they stack in the magazine, and a significant effect on how they feed into the chamber. The tapered cartridge results in an exaggerated nosedive gap, causing feed problems as it enters the feed ramp, while the nosedive gap of the straight walled auto cartridge is minimal and the cartridges are more or less level as they enters the feed ramp. The effect is noticeable:

The article gives a good explanation about the potential problems with using 9mm Luger vs 9mm auto, and is worth the read even if you don't necessarily agree with the conclusions.

The 9mm Automatic: A Better 9mm Cartridge | Shooting Times

 

[Mark Lea]

Interesting. Thanks for the post. I will have to look at my inventory.
I am also trying to learn about the differences between 7.62 x 51, as compared to .308 . I had thought they were one and the same. Recently, I read that there are differences, even though some ammo producers and gun companies call them the same on their products.

 

[ezkl2230]

Mostly about head spacing. It's another situation in which you can run .308 through a 7.62, but not the other way around.

 

[farsidefan1]

Excellent post. Thanks! I was not aware of that. My glocks are clueless but I would prefer not to be. Another reason I enjoy this site.

 

[wolf_fire]

Similar situation between the 5.56mm and the .223. If you have a 5.56 rifle, .223 will go through, but not the other way around.

Thanks a lot ezkl for giving valuable information.


Edit: Wait a minute... the 9mm has been around for over 100 years. It's been a standard in military uses and LE uses. I've not heard of any major flaws in feeding, and if there were significant ones, would they not have been well observed by this point?

I'd like to hear from all of you that use 9mm Luger.... have you ever experienced feeding issues? Do you know of anyone that has experienced feeding issues?

 

[ezkl2230]

Similar situation between the 5.56mm and the .223. If you have a 5.56 rifle, .223 will go through, but not the other way around.

Thanks a lot ezkl for giving valuable information.


Edit: Wait a minute... the 9mm has been around for over 100 years. It's been a standard in military uses and LE uses. I've not heard of any major flaws in feeding, and if there were significant ones, would they not have been well observed by this point?

I'd like to hear from all of you that use 9mm Luger.... have you ever experienced feeding issues? Do you know of anyone that has experienced feeding issues?

I know that with some of my 9mms, there was a noticeable nosedive in the mags that may have contributed to feed issues, and I never understood what caused it. The taper was engineered to address ejection issues, but it may also contribute in some instances to feed issues. Frankly, I was unaware of the difference between luger and auto until now. Of course, it's a non-issue for me as I have switched to .45 acp.

 

[JustTheFacts]

Similar situation between the 5.56mm and the .223. If you have a 5.56 rifle, .223 will go through, but not the other way around.

Thanks a lot ezkl for giving valuable information.


Edit: Wait a minute... the 9mm has been around for over 100 years. It's been a standard in military uses and LE uses. I've not heard of any major flaws in feeding, and if there were significant ones, would they not have been well observed by this point?

I'd like to hear from all of you that use 9mm Luger.... have you ever experienced feeding issues? Do you know of anyone that has experienced feeding issues?

Feeding issues are from the FIREARM and mostly the MAGAZINE or the RAMP, not the round, Glock Armorer. You mostly design the gun around the round.

 

[wolf_fire]

I know that with some of my 9mms, there was a noticeable nosedive in the mags that may have contributed to feed issues, and I never understood what caused it. The taper was engineered to address ejection issues, but it may also contribute in some instances to feed issues. Frankly, I was unaware of the difference between luger and auto until now. Of course, it's a non-issue for me as I have switched to .45 acp.

I too was unaware of the differences and why I initially thought the article was a good read. It just seemed to me after thinking about it and not knowing anyone with feeding issues, that maybe this was "much ado about nothing". But apparently, from your experiences, it has been a factor. Thanks ezkl.

 

[gunnerbob]

Sorta off topic but, Wolf mentioned 5.56 & .223 rounds. To avoid the issue with using these two rounds I always trim the cases to .223 length in the reloading process. I don't reload 5.56 as such, it gets turned into .223 and loaded accordingly.

Carry on...

 

[SR9]

9MM Luger type ammo may also be called Parabellum by some ammo companies.

 

[JustTheFacts]

I too was unaware of the differences and why I initially thought the article was a good read. It just seemed to me after thinking about it and not knowing anyone with feeding issues, that maybe this was "much ado about nothing". But apparently, from your experiences, it has been a factor. Thanks ezkl.

If you've read anything about firearms, it becomes obvious that everyone has feeding problems at some point. The magazine is the problem in your quote so your ineptitude concerning guns is still obvious. It's not the cartridge so quit pretending it is.

 

[JustTheFacts]

Read the stupid article. It's a cartridge that some guy made in his garage.

He wants to make money addressing a problem that doesn't exist in a well designed firearm with a good magazine.

The prospective market is all the Harley guys who spend way too much on sparkly chrome bits. They spend every week night polishing their sparklies so they can trailer their bikes to the parade. Or to the bar crawls so all the men can admire their sequined Harley vests.

He's a gun magazine troll. They ran out of interesting things to write.

 

[telpinaro]

Similar situation between the 5.56mm and the .223. If you have a 5.56 rifle, .223 will go through, but not the other way around.

Thanks a lot ezkl for giving valuable information.


Edit: Wait a minute... the 9mm has been around for over 100 years. It's been a standard in military uses and LE uses. I've not heard of any major flaws in feeding, and if there were significant ones, would they not have been well observed by this point?

I'd like to hear from all of you that use 9mm Luger.... have you ever experienced feeding issues? Do you know of anyone that has experienced feeding issues?

None here, except oddly with the Glock 26 I used for a day (I was borrowing a not-so-great speed loader, too... maybe some rounds didn't get loaded properly as I was generally in a hurry so I wouldn't hold up the class). I'd bet the military would have discovered problems, though... they're good at finding problems where none exist to begin with.