On the lower end of the spectrum, steel and aluminum cased ammo generally cannot be reloaded. Reloaders love nickel as well, as it can usually be recycled 10 or more times, something you just can’t get out of a brass case. With a lower friction coefficient, it feeds better, especially under dirty conditions, and is stronger– allowing a higher level of confidence in up-charged +P offerings. Stepping up for there are nickel-plated cases, which are typically just seen in higher-end defensive ammunition loads. The reason that brass has for over a century been the standard for both rimfire and centerfire cartridges of all stripes is that it is cheap, reliable, soft enough to not mar steel, and –perhaps most important– is incredibly resistant against rust and oils for the money.įundamentally it is hard to go wrong with a brass-cased cartridge. In short, while no pistol cartridge is a “do all” round, the 9mm comes a lot closer than just about any other.įor a long time, the only type of case in the 9mm game was brass metallic. Meanwhile, the 9mm still delivers sufficient ballistic performance in FBI tests, making it capable as a duty round in self-defense loads. 45 ACP which require dimensionally larger guns and have the downside of producing stout felt recoil, especially with smaller statured users. 25 ACP, which have a reputation of being in the realm of “mouse gun” fodder generally finding homes in pocket pistols with decidedly short barrels, and larger cartridges like the 10mm Auto and. With that being said, the 9mm splits the difference between smaller underperforming rounds such as the. Sure, you can take a circa 1902-minted 9mm round and, so long as its components have not deteriorated, load it in a modern Glock G17 that came off the assembly line yesterday and fire it, but current rounds are much more effective, due to modern bullet design reliable, due to low-flash/low-volume powders and are less corrosive due to improvements in primers and cases. The fact is the cartridge has benefited from over a century of advances in ballistics and ammunition development to become what it is today. Look, nobody sat up one day and said, “Hey, you know that bullet used in the Luger? Well, I think it is the greatest pistol round ever made,” and then everyone just clapped and seconded the notion with “hear, hears” all around.

Remington vs winchester 9mm ammo