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Monday, December 16, 2019

QOTD: Jeff Cooper on the 9mm Parabellum

This is from the September/October 1978 issue of American Handgunner Magazine, from an article by Jeff Cooper on IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) (p. 12):
The matter of power factoring keeps coming up, with many affiliates asking when the Parabellum will be ranked with the major calibers. My personal vote is for "never." The 9 X 19 is not a satisfactory stopper and it should be replaced by the ordnance departments of the free world. (The other people are welcome to it.) I am aware that it is standard. So was one-handed pistol shooting until we found a better way.

2 comments:

  1. And since then, we’ve found better ways to make 9mm bullets. Modern hollow points perform well enough that the reduced recoil (meaning increased rate of fire) and increased capacity over larger calibers make it a very good choice. .380, however, is still underpowered.

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    1. Yup. I thought the quote interesting because technological advances have rendered his opinion moot and passe. Even at the time he wrote the article, high-capacity 9 mm semi-automatic pistols were the up and coming handgun for both police and civilians. Smith & Wesson caught the wave, and Colt ignored it.

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