Introduction to Collecting the 9mm Parabellum (Luger) Cartridge Lewis Curtis [email protected] In the November 1958 American Rifleman, Charles Yust had a three page article on the 9mm Parabellum cartridge which illustrated 27 headstamps and listed 110 headstamp codes, many of which never appeared on a 9mm Parabellum cartridge. I was fascinated by the variety of headstamps and loads and began accu- mulating 9mm Para cartridges at the tender age of 17, and have documented over 9000 different variations. Nobody, to my knowledge has a collection approaching 9000 9mm cartridges. A very good collection that doesn’t include date variations would be about 1000 specimens, and a truly outstanding collection would number over 2500. Note that there are over 1500 different headstamps documented. If a collection includes dates, then it could be expected to be two or three times this size. Origin of the 9mm Parabellum Cartridge The 9mm Parabellum cartridge was originally developed by George Luger, at the German company D W M (DWM). In early 1902, George Luger, through the Vickers Limited offered a 9mm version of his pistol to the Small Arms Committee. In mid-1903, three Luger prototype pistols in 9mm were delivered to the US Army for testing at Springfield Arsenal. These are the first pistols known to be chambered for the 9mm Parabellum cartridge. An additional 50 pistols in 9mm, along with 25,000 rounds of ammunition, were provided the US Army for testing in April 1904. The first evidence of German military interest in a 9mm version of the Luger was in March 1904. The caliber was used extensively, initially in pistols, and then in machine pistols (submachine guns) produced by Germany in World War I. A reduced power version of the cartridge was introduced in Italy in 1910 for the 9mm Glisenti pistol and later used in machine pistols. Figure 1 illustrates a sectioned 9mm Glisenti showing the wad on top of the powder to fill the case. During this time frame, 9mm pistols were adopted by a number of other countries including Holland and Bulgeria. After World War I, the caliber spread rapidly with the widespread development of the machine pistol, most of which were chambered for this caliber. Pistols and machine pistols chambered for 9mm Parabellum were also introduced in a number of countries including Belgium, Bulgeria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland before World War II. Today, the 9mm Parabellum cartridge has been manufactured by, or for more than 70 different Fig. 1 countries, with very significant production by 27 countries. It has truly become the world’s standard pistol and machine pistol cartridge. It remains the standard pistol caliber for NATO and for the military in most other countries in the world. Loads During over 100 years of use, the 9mm Parabellum cartridges have been manufacturered with a wide variety of loads. The vase majority of these are full-metal jacket (FMJ) ball loads with solid bullets. In addition to these standard ball loads a wide variety of loads have been produced to include tracers, blanks,dummies and proof loads, as well as exotic loads for special police usage, duplex & triplex loads, squeeze bore loads, shot loads Fig. 2 and tubular bullets to list just a few. Some bullets are marked on the base, particularly pre-WW I German bullets and some British bullets made before WW II. The markings illustrated in Figure 2 are all German. Note that “278F” is the DWM designation for the truncated cone bullet. Below is an overview of some of the loads encountered in 9mm Parabellum. Ball: The earliest loads have FMJ truncated cone bullets weighing 124grains. These were replaced in Germany with 124grain FMJ bullets with a round ogive in 1915-1916 (Figure 3) though truncated cone bullets were used on commercial loads in the United States into the 1930s. Later, round nose FMJ 115 grain bullets, usually has a concave base were introduced by a number of countries including Britain (Figure 4). During the early stages of World War II, Ger- Fig.4: 124gr bullet on left, Fig. 3 many developed two new bullets in an attempt to 115gr bullet on right conserve lead. the first of these bullets was designated the 08mE (for mit Eisenkern) or “with iron core”. As shown in the illustration the normal lead core is replaced by an iron core with lead around the base of the iron core. This bullet was initially identified by the black bullet jacket, but in 1944, it became the standard German ball load and the blacken bullet jacket was dropped. The second of these bullets was made by compress- ing iron powder at high Fig. 5: 08mE bullets with two types of cores on left, temperature into a solid solid iron 08SE bullet and on right is a Czech version material known as of the German 08mE bullet with nickel jacket. Sintered Iron or Sintered Eisen. This was desig- nated as the 08SE bullet and is identified by it’s dark gray color. The SE bullet Fig. 6 was introduced into general service in 1943. Until recently, the Swiss ball load used a bullet with a deep groove to facilitate a case crimp to hold the bullet in place. Figure 6 illustrates this bullet and a WW II Swill ball load with an aluminum case. During World War II the Germans also produced a special load with a 150gr FMJ bullet with a subsonic muzzle velocity for use silencers. These loads are identified by either a green lacquered steel case or by an “X” on the headstamp (Figure 7). Similiar heavy bullet loads for use with silencers were produced by the British after World War II with bullet Fig. 8: Bullets left to right: German 124gr 08, weights up to 170gr and German 150gr, British 150gr, British 170gr, are often identified by German post-WW II 155gr various color dots on the case head. A number of other countries subsequently developed heavy bullet Fig. 7 subsonic loads for use with silencers. In addition to the full metal jacket ball cartridges, 9mm Parabellum has been produced with a wide variety of hollow point and and soft point loads. DWM produced hollow-point truncated bullet loads before World War I for use by it’s colonial troops in Africa. Commercial and police hollowpoint and soft point loads have been in regular production by many countries, but particularly by the United States. There is even a unique hollowpoint, softpoint bullet with Fig. 9 a sawtooth tip called a “Pingrabber” used in the north-eastern US for the sport of shooting bowling pins. Tracer: The German Navy identified a requirement for a tracer/signal load in 9mm Parabellum prior to World War I, and there are illustra- tions of such a load in the DWM records, but there is no evidence of production, and no specimens are known. Other than the DWM records, there is no Fig. 10: Tracers from left to right: Israeli, British, Argentinean evidence that tracers were produced until the 1930s. A Polte drawing dated October 1926 describes a tracer bullet, and similar bullets have been discovered on DWM test ranges that were used prior to World War II. A red tip tracer bullet was produced by Geco in the mid-1930s for Gen Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War. The only other tracer known to have been produced prior to the 1940s was produced experimentally by Kynoch for the 1939 British Army night-fighting trials with the Finnish Soumi machine pistol. During World War II various Fig. 11: Tracers from left to right: Argentinean, nations tested tracers, but high-rate production of tracers US Navy signal, US commercial, US Army only began after the end of World War II and France led spotter-tracer the widespread introduction of 9mm Parabellum tracers. Dummy: Inert dummy (or drill cartridges) have been produced from the earliest days of the 9mm Parabellum. The DWM listing of casetypes illustrates a dummy load as one of the earlist of the DWM products in 9mm Parabellum. World War I German dummy loads (or Exercizer Patronen) were generally overall with a hollow bullet jacket making them very light weight. Between the wars, Germany introduced another style of dummy with no primer pocket and only a small dimple in the base. This style dummy sometimes has four holes in the case. In 1940, Germany introduced plastic dummies with a steel head in both black and red plastic. Both varities occur with and without headstamps. The Polte headstamped black plastic dummy is quite scarce. The red plastic dummies with the “lpk” headstamp are seldom encountered and the “ay” and “nts” headstamped dummies are quite rare. Fig.12: German Dummies from before 1945. Left to right: WW II During World War II Australia. red and black plastic with steel heads, nickel-plated with 4 case Canada and Britain produced a holes, tinned WW I, very rare fluted dummy from before WW I varity of dummies, and Winchester produced dummy loads on contract for Britain during the war. Some of these dummy loads used a wooden spacer (sometimes painted red) inside the case to prevent the bullet from being forced into the case by repeated usage. The spacer can often be seen through the case holes. Dummies for both military and commercial usage have been pro- Fig. 13: British dummies. From left to right: Kynoch truned brass duced world wide, and an interesting from 70s, Radway Green tinned case, nickelled case and brass case collection can be put together which from 50s and a Compton-Parkenson with red wood spacer consists entirely of 9mm Parabellum dummies.