Most reliable and shootable 9mm semi auto pistols

That 275gr looks pretty good.




The newer Underwood 9mm looks decent as well.
Like you were saying about a wadcutter, I've always leaned toward the widest, flattest, sharpest meplat that still feeds reliably, and assume it's the least likely shape to deflect off anything. I'm just basing that on what most handgun hunters seem to think works best for killing big animals (that combined with heavy for caliber bullets).

If I could find a 9mm bullet with that 275s shape, that's probably what I'd use. That Underwood is about the closest I've seen anyone get, other than the 135 Ranch Dog. I'd think a 155 to 160 might work really well too. A 170 in 9mm would actually be the scaled down 9mm version of that 275 in a 45 ACP, but that's getting out there.
 
If I could find a 9mm bullet with that 275s shape, that's probably what I'd use. That Underwood is about the closest I've seen anyone get, other than the 135 Ranch Dog. I'd think a 155 to 160 might work really well too. A 170 in 9mm would actually be the scaled down 9mm version of that 275 in a 45 ACP, but that's getting out there.

These have a great shape, and penetrate well.



Unfortunately I haven’t seen a pistol yet that shoot them well. And the zero is significantly different than with other loads.
 
Yea... I haven't been able to find some definitive information on the cause, but I think it's likely a combination of factors.

- Starting pressure/bullet diameter/lead alloy hardness
- max pressure (and/or speed?) / lead allow hardness
- bore condition

With a pistol barrel being so short, MV generally being lower, and alloy hardness generally being higher, it's likely a non issue

Based on my experience with lead in rifle rounds, it is a combination of all these plus bullet base shape and lube type. Reasonably hard flat based bullets do best with a faster burning powder, hence higher initial pressure, in a good smooth barrel with sharp grooves and lands, and with a lot of harder bullet lube. If you add gas checks that also helps.

And also based on that experience rifle bullets will still lead a barrel eventually, regardless of bore condition, especially if the velocity is over 1800ish fps.

In non-magnum pistol calibers, I haven't really seen that to be the case as long as the bore is good. Most of my experience there is with a 45 ACP 1911 and with that gun I was able to go around 8-10 thousand rounds before I had to really worry about the barrel as long as a ran a few wet patches through the barrel when I broke it down to clean/lube it every 1,000 or so rounds. It worked like that the entire time I shot that gun for IDPA which ended up being around 100k rounds or so before the frame cracked. Those were mostly, around 75-80k, 200 gr lead swc loaded with 5.2 gr of HP-38 going 850 fps out of my gun with most of the rest being a 230 gr lead round nose with the same load data going around 800 fps. From what I remember I only ran around 3 or 4 thousand rounds of jacketed bullets out of that gun.
 
Based on my experience with lead in rifle rounds, it is a combination of all these plus bullet base shape and lube type. Reasonably hard flat based bullets do best with a faster burning powder, hence higher initial pressure, in a good smooth barrel with sharp grooves and lands, and with a lot of harder bullet lube. If you add gas checks that also helps.

And also based on that experience rifle bullets will still lead a barrel eventually, regardless of bore condition, especially if the velocity is over 1800ish fps.

In non-magnum pistol calibers, I haven't really seen that to be the case as long as the bore is good. Most of my experience there is with a 45 ACP 1911 and with that gun I was able to go around 8-10 thousand rounds before I had to really worry about the barrel as long as a ran a few wet patches through the barrel when I broke it down to clean/lube it every 1,000 or so rounds. It worked like that the entire time I shot that gun for IDPA which ended up being around 100k rounds or so before the frame cracked. Those were mostly, around 75-80k, 200 gr lead swc loaded with 5.2 gr of HP-38 going 850 fps out of my gun with most of the rest being a 230 gr lead round nose with the same load data going around 800 fps. From what I remember I only ran around 3 or 4 thousand rounds of jacketed bullets out of that gun.

Thank you. This is great information. It seems that pistols are very different from rifles and there's not much need to worry about it with normal loads
 
These have a great shape, and penetrate well.



Unfortunately I haven’t seen a pistol yet that shoot them well. And the zero is significantly different than with other loads.
I had seen those and was wondering about them. They do look like they'd work well. Thanks for the info.

Still wondering about the Lehigh Extreme Penetrators. Some people up here were saying they did a bunch of testing with different bullets in 9mm and settled on those, but I have no idea what their testing actually was. And I realize I'm splitting hairs. In the end I'm guessing there's not a huge difference between a 124 FMJ Nato type load and what we're talking about, but there's almost certainly some difference.
 
FBI Bullseye Qual.

In order, shot back to back with no warmup. The Glock and Sig were the first time shooting them for me.


Glock= 291-8x
Sig= 289-13x
2011= 297- 15x

View attachment 869033
I'm gonna mess with that some more and see if I can at least crack 260...😅

@Formidilosus, I'm actually mildly surprised you even missed 3 points with your 2011 and red dot. I don't imagine there's a better SD pistol for shooting this(??) I don't know how often you shoot these, but have you scored 300 many times?
 
The three target transition drill I wrote in the last post, is measuring first shot draw time, speed precision, target target transitions- with a throttle speed mechanism, and pure recoil control at 3.5 yards. For 9 rounds it’s making you do a lot more under time stress.

Ideally for bear/predators, you would use a lateral moving target at speed. But without that system, the 3 targets stacked in depth works pretty well when shot for a high score.
I’ll definitely be giving it a try next time I hit the range.
 
light upgrade today...
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Curious as to your use case for this setup?
 
This threads got me wanting that tisas double stack 9mm pretty badly.

Was planning to get a new scope but now I'm in a predicament. A legitimate staccato knockoff for $750 is temping.
 
nightstand gun when not plinking gongs for practice. The light/laser and can should be much more pleasant indoors with no ear muffins on......
Thanks.

What kind of effect on recoil of the 'Shadow Shorty' have you noticed with that can?

I've been contemplating the pros and cons of the Shadow Compact vs the new P-09 Nocturne CS as suppressor hosts ...
 
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