9x18 Makarov....

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pwillie

pwillie

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..will a 380 work in a 9x18 pistol?...if so, what will be the outcome?....I just purchased a 9x18 CZ, and mistook it for a reg 9mm...9x19....so, just asking...???
 
Kinda but certainly not a good idea. The 9mm Makarov cartridge and bullet are slightly wider than the 380. That means it's possible to use the 9mm short in a Mak BUT there will be excessive gap and likely flame damage plus loss of accuracy. 9mm Mak though is readily available.
 
pwillie

It's okay to ask but as others have already stated: Not a good idea!

Stick with the round that it was chambered for, the 9x18 Makarov.
 
By the way. You can also order a 380 barrel for your Mak. It is a simple gunsmith swap but not a field strip type event. Decide which way you want to go. The 9mm Mak is still slightly hotter than the new 380s but the variety of 380s is far greater than for Mak.
 
MedWheeler said:
I almost made that mistake many years ago. Hey, the gun said "9mm", right? I only knew of one "9mm" back then. :scrutiny:
Click to expand...

Yes, 9mm kurz (.380), 9x18 Makarov, 9mm Luger, 9mm Largo, 9mm Steyr, 9x21, .38 Super, 9x23 Win. and there are probably more that I never heard of. :confused:

Oops, I forgot .357 Sig.
 
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It really pays to spend a couple of hours on a milsurp handgun forum (later ask a question-wait for a response) before buying anything chambered in "9x18 Mak.". "Gunboards: Mak. forum" guys will answer questions about other guns using the same ammo chambering.

On a different note, even a very seasoned milsurp guy, a middle-aged friend, had the impression that his Polish P-64 handgun is a true Makarov (No: only E. German, Russian, Bulg., Chinese). It didn't make any difference to him, as he carries the P-64 literally every time he leaves his house. This guy has shown me his one hundred milsurp guns kept in a coded, armored walk-in vault, and it's easy to confuse a foreign surplus gun's actual type with its chambering.

Patocazador: a different friend owns a Spanish (?) gun chambered in "9mm Largo".
 
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Patocazador said:
Probably a Star or a Llama.
I think(?) a .38 super will shoot a 9mm Largo but it would be a mistake to shoot a .38 super out of a Spanish gun chambered for the 9mm Largo. The pressures might result in a bad situation.
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Might , on some worn samples, but not advised.
 
Yes, TYM just lost all credibility with this. 380 brass is not supported by the larger Mak chamber. If you did much of it you would eventually have a brass failure and damage to the gun. The difference in bore diameter .355 vs .365 means that the bullets won't shoot well either. Really a dumb suggestion.
 
armarsh said:
Yes, TYM just lost all credibility with this. 380 brass is not supported by the larger Mak chamber. If you did much of it you would eventually have a brass failure and damage to the gun. The difference in bore diameter .355 vs .365 means that the bullets won't shoot well either. Really a dumb suggestion.
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In my eyes, he never had credibility. To me, he is simply a bafoon generating views by click bait labeled videos. His content is usually just him yammering about topics with little to no supporting documentation, shooting footage, or constructive input. I’m all for folks having their own opinion, but when I watch YouTube, I like to see why the content creator has that opinion. MAC, Nutnfancy, etc do a much better job by actually showing their viewers footage of them shooting instead of merely ranting about something in a room.
 
Patocazador said:
Probably a Star or a Llama.
I think(?) a .38 super will shoot a 9mm Largo but it would be a mistake to shoot a .38 super out of a Spanish gun chambered for the 9mm Largo. The pressures might result in a bad situation.
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There is a pretty long list of stuff that shoots 9mm Largo, as it was the standard Spanish military pistol round up until the late 1970s or 80s (and in Denmark for a while too).

It was never that popular in the US, but Astras in Largo seem to float around Gunbroker on a regular basis as well as the Stars and Llamas.
 
I like shooting 9mm Largo and stocked up on good ammo a few years ago. The biggest issue with using Spanish surplus ammo is that much of it was dual purpose for the pistols and sub machine guns. It was too hot for extended use in the Astra 1921 and 400 and cracked frames mainly in the Mod 1921. Their fix was to put a hammer spring from hell into the 1921 especially the early models which are only marked Mod 1921 on the slide. I cannot rack those pistols and have to use a long socket (7/8" I think) to force open the slide until it catches on the empty mag.
 
I purchased and installed a .380 ACP barrel for my Baikal 9mm Mak after much internet research indicating it would work. Long story short, it would not feed reliably at all. Had many failures to extract the fired round. I suspect the difference in head diameter made it more difficult for the extractor to purchase the .380 rim. I ended up putting the 9mm Mak barrel back in and it returned to 100% function.
 
You can find aftermarket barrel in .380 cal.
Please don't mix caliber, use the caliber designed for that pistol.

CZhen
FL
 
"I think(?) a .38 super will shoot a 9mm Largo but it would be a mistake to shoot a .38 super out of a Spanish gun chambered for the 9mm Largo. The pressures might result in a bad situation."

I believe that someone on this forum wrote that they are the same dimensionally, but the 38 super is a hotter round.
 
A few years ago a federal prosecutor was killed by a mak with a 9mm mak chambered after market barrel firing .380. In this case the gun and ammo worked well enough. The FBI searched the vendors sales records for after market barrels. They had some suspects, but never got a conviction.
https://forums.gunboards.com/showth...murder-was-with-a-Yugo-Makarov-Don-t-think-so
He then told me that a Makarov Pistol with an aftermarket barrel had been used to assassinate a Washington State Official. He told me it had fired a .380 round and they had the empty case which was bulged severely indicating it was fired in a 9x18 barrel, to wit I immediately told them the gun wouldn't fire a 9x17 round because the firing pin would hit the primer. ...........
HE DID SOME TESTING AND
If you loaded a loose round and pointed the gun down it wouldn't fire,,, great!

If you loaded a loose round and pointed the gun UP,,, it did fire but didn't eject the case normally but the case did fall out.

If you loaded the magazine the gun Fed, Fired, Cycled, and Ejected normally!!! All the cases were severely bulged but for close in stuff, or a last ditch effort who cares. The gun fires. Nevermind the bullet hardly touches the rifling, it goes out the hole and would kill somebody.
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The extractor was holding the case against the primer.
I once accidentally fired some .380 reloads in a 9mm largo astra pistol. Cases were bulged, but function was 100%.
 
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