One of the more logical concepts to ever come along was the 9 mm revolver. I am not talking about an extra cylinder in a Ruger Blackhawk, but rather a compact DA/SA or DAO defensive gun. The 9 mm revolver has been made in the past. In fact, Smtih & Wesson introduced several J-Frame guns in the early 90s and Taurus had a really neat little scaled-down gun in the last decade. About 20 years ago, I made a herculean effort to convince Smith & Wesson to build an Airweight 9 mm Centennial. This was before Scandium .357 Magnums, a time when a .38 Spl. +P-rated gun was the best you could get. To evaluate a 9 mm's potential in the ballistic sense, I fired a steel 9 mm against a comparable barreled .38 Special. Using a variety of ammo in both calibers, I did a velocity shoot-off. The results were startling. Both guns had cylinders of the same length, but the 9 mm cartridge is much shorter than the .38 Special. However, the 9 mm almost invariably outran the .38 Spl. with bullets of equivalent weight. This is probably because of the greater freebore in the cylinder, but it means that a 9 mm revolver will produce a little better ballistic performance than a .38. For most people's defensive use, it is therefore a better choice.
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