The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Any difference between 9mm Luger/9mm Parabellum?

Foxy · April 7, 2002, 12:37 PM

I was playing around with my TZ99 last night, loading the mag with A-zoom snap caps that I recently bought, cycling the rounds through manually.

I noticed that the TZ99 failed to eject the last round consistently. After some experimenting, I found that the ejector was not engaging the bottom 'lip' of the cartridge, so the round was not being thrown out. All the other rounds flew out because they were being supported by a round underneath it - the last one had nothing except the follower, and so wouldn't eject.

After some experimenting with the available types of 9mm and other brands of snap caps, we found that the Winchester White Box stuff fit the best - it would not come out of the ejector unless we slapped the slide (disassembled the pistol) against our palm or something. The A-zoom snap caps didn't even touch the extractor and fell out without moving the slide at all.

Now, to get to my question - the pistol is marked 9mm Para, while the A-zoom snap caps are marked 9mm Luger. Is there some infetestimal difference in the thickness of the 'lip' at the bottom of the cartridge between the two? I always thought that Parabellum and Luger and x19 were all synonomous for each other. Then again, the Winchester stuff was marked 9mm Luger as well. Could it just be that the A-Zoom snap caps were not made to the right dimensions?

April 7, 2002, 12:37 PM	#1
Foxy Senior Member Join Date: September 14, 2001 Location: Maryland Posts: 846	Any difference between 9mm Luger/9mm Parabellum? I was playing around with my TZ99 last night, loading the mag with A-zoom snap caps that I recently bought, cycling the rounds through manually. I noticed that the TZ99 failed to eject the last round consistently. After some experimenting, I found that the ejector was not engaging the bottom 'lip' of the cartridge, so the round was not being thrown out. All the other rounds flew out because they were being supported by a round underneath it - the last one had nothing except the follower, and so wouldn't eject. After some experimenting with the available types of 9mm and other brands of snap caps, we found that the Winchester White Box stuff fit the best - it would not come out of the ejector unless we slapped the slide (disassembled the pistol) against our palm or something. The A-zoom snap caps didn't even touch the extractor and fell out without moving the slide at all. Now, to get to my question - the pistol is marked 9mm Para, while the A-zoom snap caps are marked 9mm Luger. Is there some infetestimal difference in the thickness of the 'lip' at the bottom of the cartridge between the two? I always thought that Parabellum and Luger and x19 were all synonomous for each other. Then again, the Winchester stuff was marked 9mm Luger as well. Could it just be that the A-Zoom snap caps were not made to the right dimensions?