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Old June 21, 2018, 08:13 AM   #51
Ricklin
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Not advocating

I haven't really seen much here to indicate anyone recommending .380 in a 9mm chamber. I agree it's not smart to do so.
Plenty of folks have made the error of wrong ammo in the gun.

In the case of .380 in a 9mm it's usually just embarrassing.

One of the more dangerous accidental "swaps" is 20ga shell in a 12ga shotgun.

A 20ga shell will drop down the chamber with the rim catching on the forcing cone area of the 12ga chamber.
A 12ga shell can then be chambered "on top" of the 20ga shell.

Really bad things happen when the trigger is pulled, including a blown up gun.
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Old June 21, 2018, 08:44 AM   #52
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What about a revolver with moon clips? If it is designed for 9mm parabellum with moon clips, couldn't you also use .380 with moon clips?
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Old June 22, 2018, 05:40 AM   #53
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Originally Posted by cjwils View Post
What about a revolver with moon clips? If it is designed for 9mm parabellum with moon clips, couldn't you also use .380 with moon clips?


380 is straight walled and differs in all dimensions from 9mm. Do not shoot 380 in 9mm guns.


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Old June 22, 2018, 10:49 AM   #54
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I don't have experience with moon clips, but I can tell you that 9 mm and .380ACP require different shell holders when reloading. Because of that, I have doubts that moon clips would work properly. Not sure why one would want to do that anyway. As the author of the previous post indicated, deliberately using an incorrect ammo in a gun is going to have risks due to different dimensions and the complications that thus arise.
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Old June 22, 2018, 01:06 PM   #55
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Originally Posted by TailGator
I don't have experience with moon clips, but I can tell you that 9 mm and .380ACP require different shell holders when reloading. Because of that, I have doubts that moon clips would work properly.
cjwils didn't stipulate "9mm" moon clips.

The answer is that it could be done, but the results would be disappointing. As has already been discussed at length, the .380 ACP case has a smaller outside dimension than the 9mm Parabellum. It would fire in a 9mm revolver (or even a .38 Special or .357 Magnum) if held in an appropriately-sized moon clip, but the smaller case would mean lots of blow-by, reduced velocity, and bulged brass that would not be reloadable.

Can it be done? Yes.

Should it be done? Probably not.
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Old June 22, 2018, 01:50 PM   #56
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cjwils didn't stipulate "9mm" moon clips.
OK, I'll grant that. It seemed implied to me, but I read into it something you didn't. My apology to him and you.

Quote:
As has already been discussed at length, the .380 ACP case has a smaller outside dimension than the 9mm Parabellum. It would fire in a 9mm revolver (or even a .38 Special or .357 Magnum) if held in an appropriately-sized moon clip, but the smaller case would mean lots of blow-by, reduced velocity, and bulged brass that would not be reloadable.

Can it be done? Yes.

Should it be done? Probably not.
Yep, that was kind of what I was going for in the last sentence of my post, but in more detail.
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Old June 23, 2018, 12:02 AM   #57
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjwils View Post
What about a revolver with moon clips? If it is designed for 9mm parabellum with moon clips, couldn't you also use .380 with moon clips?
You'd have to modify the moon clips to accept .380, but yeah, it would be just like shooting in a 9mm pistol, just you don't have to worry about cycling failures.

Don't know how easy they'd extract given you'd have 5 or 6 .380 cases fully blown out against the chamber walls, but so long as a speedy reload isn't necessary, you'd have a full cylinder of ammo to get done what needs getting done.

I thought about getting a 9mm LCR to try .380 in, but I grew disinterested in it because of the crimp jumping issues known to be in the 9mm LCR's.
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Old June 23, 2018, 12:11 AM   #58
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Originally Posted by Guggmeister View Post
380 is straight walled and differs in all dimensions from 9mm. Do not shoot 380 in 9mm guns.


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There was a revolver made in the 80s called the Medusa MH47 and it was a legit revolver that could fire .380, 9mm, .357, .38 Special, .38 Super, a litany of other similar diameter bullets, and even 7.62x25 Tokarev and .32 ACP.

It wasn't recommended to shoot them often, it bounces down the bore, but it could shoot it and shoot it safely.

You can shoot .380 in 9mm guns, just only use brass. I don't think aluminum or steel case is smart tho, either not malleable enough or not strong enough to not rupture. The concern isn't pressures, 9mm barrels are able to take 9mm +P, which is 16,000 PSI more than .380.

A 9mm is not going to blow up shooting a single round of .380 in it.
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Old June 23, 2018, 09:22 AM   #59
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"cjwils didn't stipulate "9mm" moon clips."

I was assuming 9mm clips. Didn't consider that 9mm and 380 have different bases. Anyway, I think I got sufficient answers.
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Old June 23, 2018, 10:46 AM   #60
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1 mm shorter

I have had good results reloading 9mm Makarov in a 9 mm case.

I ran them through my case trimmer and just took 1mm off the length of the good quality 9mm case.

No issues whatsoever, made good accurate ammo. I did make certain to color the case heads with a sharpie so they did not get mixed in with normal 9mm.

If there are other differences in the case besides the 1mm length difference it was not apparent.
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Old June 23, 2018, 05:39 PM   #61
Glenn E. Meyer
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I saw someone try to shoot 380 in an High Power. It would fire one round and wouldn't cycle.
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