.380 through a 9x18 barrel?

[OPFOR]

OK, forum gurus - what, if any, would be the effects of firing .380ACP ammo through a 9x18 barrel? More specifically, through a 9x18 barrel on a Makarov?

Standing by to be overwhelmed with knowledge and experience, as always.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[bmcgilvray]

Don't have a deminsional chart but figure it'd fit. There might be some issues with obtaining a proper primer strike in some pistols. Would be underwhelming, like a squib load. Obviously it's not a good idea to shoot cartridges in guns for which they are not chambered but practically speaking this one would be a non event.

Just to exhibit to one and all how lame-brained I am, only a few weeks back I fired a .380 in a .38 Special revolver. Dropped it in the chamber and it slide up inside, too undersized to fit, duh. As I was on open land under my control, and not to be dissuaded from the dastardly deed, I held the revolver straight up and fired the round. Guess this could indicate what one could do in a dire emergency situation with the .380 in a .38 Special. A piece of paper slipped in beside the .380 cartridge would likely hold it well enough to obtain primer ignition. Don't do this at home kiddies.

[JD]

Well, the .380 is 9x???17??? IIRC.

Are you talking about shooting a whole mag or just one or two shots?

I think you might have some feed problems, relying on the extractor to hold the round in place without the proper head spacing wouldn't suit me well on most 9mm Mak guns.

I've heard of a guy accidentally firing a .40 in a .45 XD, without fail or harm to the gun, except that the casing expanded to the chamber diameter....

As the .380 and the 9mm Mak are the same diameter??, you don't have to worry about that....

Would be interesting to try, but I'll let you take care of that.

[pgrass101]

I own a .380 Makarov and except for a different barrel they are the same gun. I don't know if you want to do this are just asking for grins.

You can order a .380 barrel from Makarov.com

This is from Makarov.com

Can I fire .380 ACP ammo in my 9x18M Makarov?
NO NO NO NO NO !!! There are those that disagree with me including an author of an article in Handguns magazine and gun dealers who wants to sell you a Makarov. The 9x18M cartridge is not a "true" 9mm because it's really 9.2mm. Therefore the bullets are sized .364" and .365" (barrel sizes vary...slugging yours is best to find out your bore size). Yes, you can probably get away with it a few times, but accuracy will suffer, you'll get gas blow-by, your barrel will wear out faster and for what? Save a few pennies? Hardly. 9x18M ammo is usually cheaper since you can get it surplus. If you absolutely want to shoot .380 ACP ammo from your Makarov, then buy a .380 Makarov or a .380 replacement barrel.


For a car analogy, have you ever seen or owned a car that burned oil? How long did the engine last after it started blowing blue smoke? Probably not long. The reason is that the pistons and rings are now smaller than the cylinders and each explosion sends gasses by-passing the piston ("blow-by"). You're literally burning the sides of your pistons now and engine death is imminent. That's basically what you're doing by shooting undersized bullets.

[P95Carry]

I think the answers are covered .... but anyways - for one thing in particular, leaving aside diameter of bullets -- headspacing will be 1mm short of desirable.

[Duisburg]

the 9mm Mak is .365 diameter and the 9x18mm is .356 so DO NOT shoot accordingly

[OPFOR]

Thanks guys! I don't plan on doing it, it's for a case that I'm doing research on... I was wondering what might happen in terms of velocity, accuracy, terminal performance, etc if you fired a mag or so of .380 ACP through a 9x18 barrel. Sounds like it would work, but wouldn't be pretty.