Defense Articles

To most shooters, loading the .45 frame 1911 with 9mm ammo is akin to going to a personal fitness trainer and asking him to make your biceps smaller. It doesn’t seem logical — until you get into special-purpose needs.

A 9mm on a .45 frame has extremely mild recoil: great for petite females, small-statured males or anyone with weak or injured arms or wrists. The recoil force is so light the gun seems to shoot forever without breaking any parts. With a BarSto barrel and 147 gr. Olin Super Match ammo, it’s deadly accurate. From PPC shooting with autos, to Steel Challenge events, to IDPA “Enhanced Service Pistol” competition, the 1911 has a distinct competitive edge.

overwhelming majority of 1911s are .45s. Jeff Cooper said once that people bought 1911 pistols for the .45 caliber cartridge and bought 9mm pistols for the most popular articles in sports eatures of the guns. Still, there are times and places where the ideal gun may be a 1911 that fires a cartridge other than the .45 caliber round with which it is so inextricably linked.

New from Talon Industries, the T200 9mm double-action-only features a lock breach, load indicator and a 10-round magazine capacity. The T200 weighs 20 ounces, measures 6 inches long and 1 inch wide. The hammer, firing pin and component parts are made from heat treated 416 stainless steal. The frame and slide are an alloy metal and the grip is glass-filled polymer.

Massad Ayoob’s column (GUNS, August 2004) was, as usual, exciting, inspiring and instructional. However. I may have taken something away from it he had not intended. The Sheriff’s Deputy in the story was forced to fire eight 9mm shots, even with hot +P+ loads, to finally drop an animal the size of a dog. If I was that deputy I would be looking around for a sidearm to replace that 9mm plinker, preferably one firing a cartridge beginning with 4.

Thanks for putting out such great gun magazines. GUNS and American Handgunner are far and away the picks of the litter.

The personal experience that any pistol round, regardless of caliber, is an “iffy” proposition at best. When deployed against a real-live critter (as opposed to cardboard) the results can never be relied upon to be anything resembling predictable. Would a bigger caliber have done a better job in the case of the deputy and the dog? Possibly. Then again, in sports.

final accuracy is what really counts and obviously, there were no instantly-fatal shots until the deputy hit the attacking dog’s head. My own agency (the San Diego Police Department) had sterling results with 147 grain sub-sonic 9mms against dozens of miscreants, dogs included.

Charges against a New York City art dealer who displayed a glass vase full of 9mm ammo in her gallery have been dropped. Mary Boone had been arrested for “disposal of live ammunition” and “possession of an exposed rifle.” Boone asserted the display was art, part of an exhibit by sculptor Tom Sach called “Cultural Prosthetics.”

The prosecution had claimed that Boone had placed 234 rounds of 9mm in a glass vase at her gallery. Boone said the cartridges were a statement on popular culture, likening the availability of guns to a “bowl of candy.”

“The district attorney decision to dismiss makes it clear about its priorities. It’s a win for the First Amendment,” Boone said. Funny, no one bothered to mention the Second.

Taurus’ PT-111 9mm Millennium pistol features a titanium slide on a polymer frame. The Millennium, a DAO striker fired pistol, is equipped with fixed night sights, polymer grips and a safety mounted on the left side of the frame. With a barrel length of 3.25 inches, it holds 10 + 1 rounds of 9mm Parabellum.

INS/Border Patrol reports great performance with the issue Beretta .40, which replaced .357 revolvers and 9mm auras. They issue a 155 grain JHP .40 at 1,150-1,200 fps. DEA has long since authorized .45s in lieu of the issue 9mm with subsonic ammo. and now issues the Glock .40. Ditto FBI, which started the whole 147 grain subsonic 9mm trend and has issued .40 Glocks for years. Many FBI agents still carry optional .45s. though some also carry the still-optional 9mm. and a few still pack the S&W 10mm. Only a few Federal law enforcement agencies (US Customs, with the Glock 17, and Park Service Police, with the HK P7M13, to name two) still mandate 9mm pistols on duty. Park Police issue a 115 grain JHP 9mm round.

The 9mm is tar from dead in law enforcement. Its light recoil makes it a sensible choice for agencies like NYPD, which must regularly qualify nearly 40,000 cops with widely disparate hand sizes and shooting skills. But, it’s clear after more than 20 years experience with the 9mm in general and 15 years with the 147 grain subsonic JHP in many shootings, American police have moved on to more powerful rounds than those they used to protect themselves and the public a decade ago.