TriggerTalk Radio

Trigger Talk March 2014 article: Making sense of calibers

It is easy to forget that our gun jargon can be confusing to new shooters concerning caliber names and designations.

This is especially true for the .380 acp, .38 special, 38 Super, .357 Magnum, .357 Sig, 9mm, and about a dozen more all of which have virtually the same diameter. The projectile diameter for these rounds all range between .355 and .357 of an inch, just 2 thousandths (.002) of an inch apart.

The difference is in the length of brass, and the amount and type of propellant. There are also rounds called 38 Smith & Wesson and 38 Smith & Wesson Long and a few thrown in called .38 Colt Police and .38 Long Police which are the same but Colt Arms did not want to  stamp Smith & Wesson on their revolvers so they came up with their own Colt cartridge name.

9mm X 19 is a metric designation which means (the diameter of the projectile) X (the length of the case), in some cases the exact same round as the English Caliber.

A few examples:

.380 acp (Automatic Colt Pistol)  = 9mm X 17mm is the same the metric designation and can also be named the 9mm Kurtz or Short

9X18 =  9mm Makorov which is a Russian round

9X19  = 9mm Luger or 9mm Parabellum

9X20  = 9mm Browning Long.

9X21R  = 38 Special

9X23 Largo

In the 1930’s the .38 Special was commonly used for Police work, often needing to shoot gangsters through car doors. They made it more powerful by adding more propellant or changing the burn rate.

A typical pressure in the fired chamber of a .38 Special is about 17,000 PSI (pounds per square inch). The new .357 Magnum increased the pressure to 35,000 PSI resulting in what was called at the time “The most powerful handgun in the World”.

This created a problem since the case diameter was the same as a .38 special. They didn’t want people to put the new more powerful round into older guns made for lower pressures, which could literally blow the gun up!  The solution was to lengthen the case about an 1/8  inch so it could not fit in the cylinders of a 38 Specials and the .357 Magnum was born.

Designed for higher pressures a .357 Magnum gun can safely shoot the shorter .38 Special at its lower pressure and the round will fit in the cylinder. This same “Special versus Magnum” designation is used for some larger calibers such as .44 Special and .44 Magnum.

Modern metallurgy has gotten better and today’s 38 special revolvers are capable of taking higher pressures than those made 75-100 years ago. The caliber of a revolver is always stamped on the barrel, and in past 40 years you see many with .38 Special +P, this stands for “Plus Pressure”. I mentioned earlier that a typical 38 Special is loaded to approx. 17,000 PSI, while a 38+P round will be loaded to 20,000 PSI.

Popular for self-defense, many people use +P rounds in short barreled revolvers because the higher pressure helps make up for loss of velocity with a short barrel. The higher velocities are necessary to ensure proper expansion of hollow-point ammunition

If you are unsure of your guns ability to fire +P rounds, and it is not printed on the barrel, contact the customer service department of the gun manufacturer and they can tell you if it was designed for +P pressures.

Also available for semi-auto pistols, +P rounds, if you plan to use them you should fire a few boxes to ensure your pistol will function properly and to get used to the higher recoil. There is no reason to spend extra money on +P’s for target shooting or practice.

When mocked and attacked by anti-gun groups for rejecting “Common Sense” gun control, Second Amendment advocates often speak of the “slippery slope”. The scenario of ever increasing restrictions by anti-gun groups has been evident throughout history.

When proposing new gun control laws they inevitably state “We know this action would not have prevented (choose a recent shooting incident), but it is a good first step” They ALWAYS imply that further regulation will be necessary at a future time.

The rush to “Do Something” and implement some sort of restrictive legislation makes them feel good, shows their compassion for the victims, and most importantly gets them in front of the cameras and microphones.

How can simple universal background checks /gun registration and common sense gun control lead to a Slippery Slope, They ask?  Claiming they won’t go after our hunting or sporting guns, all they want is a ban on evil Assault Weapons, and magazine restrictions”.

Rebuttals to gun registration by gun owners citing events that took place in 1930’s Europe, the Soviet Union and 70’s Cambodia are laughed off as ancient history. This is 2014, that can’t happen here!  This is just a list of law abiding gun owners and the guns they own, that’s all.

Their true intentions become evident as various states and municipalities enact such laws. One of the most egregious actions is currently taking place in New York City. In November gun owners began receiving letters requiring them to turn-in, destroy, or permanently modify their rifles or shotguns because they have “an ammunition feeding device capable of holding more than 5 rounds”. 

The guns listed in this actual letter (below) are .22 rimfire  entry level rifles used by generations of law abiding citizens for lawful purposes.  Two of the three are bolt action trainers just like the ones on which millions of new shooters learned firearms safety and marksmanship. These are not the “Assault Weapons” we have been led to believe they want to purge from society.  Ask yourself: what is the true purpose behind this confiscation?

After 17 years Canada recently scrapped its long gun registration in April of 2012. It proved to be very expensive, inaccurate, and despite the intended purpose of increased safety never provided any useful information to law enforcement. It was however used to require owners of certain previously approved guns to turn them in when the current politicians wanted to exercise their power.

Beginning January 2014, Connecticut banned the sale of Modern Sporting Rifles, certain semi-auto pistols/shotguns and magazines with a capacity over 10 rounds. Current owners of affected firearms and magazines must register them or face fines, Class D felony charges and one year in jail.

Law abiding CT gun owners line up to register their firearms and magazines.  

 Watch out for that Slippery Slope, there is no telling what the state will do with that information!