September 2010

A Hard Look at 9mm Luger Loadings: Speer, Fiocchi Win

Everyman’s cartridge has its good points, and our team found that some 9mm self-defense loads are much better than others.

Unquestionably the most popular military handgun cartridge of all time is the 9mm Luger. Originally used by Germany beginning in 1906 and universally adopted by the German Army in 1908, the 9mm Luger impressed the world enough that by 1950 the majority of the world's armed services had chosen the 9mm Luger as a service cartridge. The hodgepodge of bottlenecked .30s and short-cased 9mms were put away by the efficiency of the 9mm Luger.

This Speer Gold Dot 115-grain offers excellent expansion. Coupled with a good balance of penetration, the Gold Dot is a first class expanding bullet design. We gave it an A+.

America clung to the 1911 45 ACP largely because we had millions on hand. By 1954, the Browning High Power, French MAC 50, Beretta 1951 and Smith & Wesson Model 39 had set the pace for…

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