"I don’t know if someone's going to find ammo for a German handgun from World War II all that readily." -- Kenneth Clarke, CEO and President of the Pritzker Military Library, Chicago, Illinois.
"I don’t know if someone's going to find ammo for a German handgun from World War II all that readily." -- Kenneth Clarke, CEO and President of the Pritzker Military Library, Chicago, Illinois.
14 comments:
Hell, Alderman - It is even harder to find ammo for those old World War ONE German Pistols!
The ammo for them will never be a problem ...
Shite! These pukes think nothing important ever happened before they came on the scene - Self-important ignorant twits.
III
well, if it's .380 that pistol uses, I have several thousand rounds sitting right here...on the other hand if it uses the slightly-better-than-nothing-at-all .32 ACP, my club's shop carries it. I was about to post this on the story's comments page but decided the sheeple didn't need another reason not to display the piece.
Yowsa, them 9mm, and 9mm kurtz is hard to find, boss!
This from the CEO and President of the Pritzker Military Library?!
Can the idiot even read?
After the coming difficulty, when Mike is elected first president of the New American Republic, perhaps this quote can be engraved on the new National Monument to Stupidity.
III N TN
There may be more truth to this that you realize. I'm having one heck of a time finding ammo for my finicky eater (1913 Erfurt P08). 9mm Parabellum ammo can be found but while the stuff currently "available" will cycle my wife's Beretta 92F all day long, my Luger was tuned at birth to feed on 124 grn bullets that move out at 1250 fps. American ammo (when it can be found) runs about 100 fps short of that. So I should reload it hotter? Now we move from the current ammo shortage to the shortages of primers, powder, and bullets. Even reloading equipment is "out of stock -- no backorder". RCBS 9mm die sets are going for 4 times retail on ebay. Cast lead bullet vendors suggest 6 to 8 weeks delays on delivery. Even the moulds needed to cast your own are in short supply.
"May you live in interesting times!" -- traditional Chinese curse.
And this guy runs a Military Library? Must be a political appointee.
Great Laugh to the start of the day!
Most gun-grabbers don't know anything about the guns they seek to regulate. The gun pictured looks like a Walther PP, which in WWII was likely chambered in .32 ACP caliber.
If not, then it was 9mm kurtz (9mm short), which is the European name for what we call .380 ACP.
By the way, most speeches given at the recent NRA Annual Meetings can be seen on videos on www.nra.org
Go there and see them. Two of the best are by Ted Cruz and Jeanine Pirro. Also, Glenn Beck's speech is great, but very long.
- Old Greybeard
Well...I can find 9mm parbellum for the Walther P38 that my dad took off a german officer in Italy.
It still shoots just fine. And NO PAPER ON IT!
III
Well, given the current run on ammo he has a point...
Well, under PRESENT ammo market conditions, maybe.
Sheesh. It's a firearm, not a computer.
Shhh...Don't tell him...
In a way, he's right.
But only because someone looking for ammo for a Kel-Tec p32 or 3AT is also having trouble procuring ammo these days,
Anonymous of May 9, 2013 at 5:43 AM,
Yes, the P08 was designed to run on VERY hot ammo, and the toggle lock design doesn't tolerate much deviation from those specs. Almost all US commercial ammo is loaded to 12-15% lower velocities and 25%+ lower pressures, causing no end of problems not only in P08s but also open-bolt SMGs. If you ever wondered why the velocities in, for example, the Vihtavuori manuals are so much higher, that's why. Their powders aren't magic, they're just loading to higher pressures than SAAMI spec.
Back when Lugers were shooters and not investments, one trick recommended in old (circa 1946) articles in American Rifleman was to cut a few coils off the recoil spring. Some people could make them work this way. However, some say that a Luger with lightened recoil springs may eventually crack its frame due to the speed with which the toggle opens, even with relatively light loads.
Or you could get replacement recoil springs (available from Wolff, among others) and load up ammo until it runs.
Try these recipes, supposedly duplicating milspec 9mm "submachinegun ammo." You will of course want to start at least 10% low and work up slowly.
Any 9mm brass will do, any small pistol primers. Load to overall length matching that of factory ammo.
115gr FMJ RN, 6.5gr Alliant Unique, supposedly good for 1275-1300 f.p.s. from most handguns with 4-5 inch barrels
124gr FMJ RN, 6.2gr Alliant Unique, supposedly good for 1225-1250 f.p.s. from most handguns with 4-5 inch barrels
These recipes are from the late Stephen Camp, he of the "Hi Powers and Handguns" page, and he supposedly shot many thousands of that latter one, sometimes with FMJ, sometimes with Hornady jacketed hollowpoint bullets, through an assortment of CZ75 and Browning Hi-Power pattern handguns without ill effects, though he did like to put stouter than factory recoil springs in them.
And you will, of course, want to start low and work up slowly; you are way, way outside current loading manual data here; SAAMI spec 9mm ammo has a maximum allowable pressure of 32,000 PSI, but the P08 (and the Sten, and the Suomi M31, and the Uzi, and the MP40, and the Madsen M53, and the Carl Gustav M45, and...) was built to run on ammo loaded up in the 42K PSI range if not hotter, which gives you less safety margin than you might get with more modern handgun designs. You might want to work up slowly increasing the powder charge by small increments until you get 100% function and stop there.
Good luck.
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