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Question
Kyle,
I want to know your opinion about what pistol is the best for 9mm + P ammo. Sig P226 maybe?
Yoy gave a some time ago a link to a site that has a study about bullet man-stopping efficiency. But i see there that 9mm +P amoo has the same efficiency like 40SW and 357 mag: about 95%. Why police dont used this ammo or the 357 mag and create the 40SW?
Everybody know about the famous Miami shootout (1986 or 1983?) when FBI agents cant kill a bad boy with their 38 special. I dont understand why they dont use then the 9mm +P or 357 mag and create the 40SW?
Thank you. Andy


Answer
Andy,

Well, the Sig P226 is about the best 9mm production auto there is, so I'm guessing it'd be the best for running +P ammo. I'd have to think its full-length guide rails give it plenty of strength, so it should be able to run that ammo without any problem.

I'm not sure exactly why police departments traded their 9mms for .40s as opposed to just going to +P ammo. It may have had to do with liability, since +P loads are technically loaded just above SAAMI specifications. I can see an over-zealous defense attorney really demonizing the +P bullet a cop used in a justified shooting to an jury.

As  for that famous FBI shootout, the main lessons learned were that revolvers, at least in the FBI's opinion, just don't have the ammo capacity agents need (well, they also learned that bullet-resistent vests only work when worn and are pretty useless when left on the back seat of the car). So, even upgrading the .38s to .357 wouldn't have solved the ammo capacity problem (keeping in mind S&W's seven and eight-shot .357s hadn't been introduced yet).

I'm not sure how exactly the FBI leapt from .38s and 9mms to the 10mm, though we know how they went from 10mm to .40 S&W. At the time, there weren't quite as many choices as we have today. Law enforcement had long shied away from the 1911 because it needed to be carried cocked-and-locked with the safety on, a liability lawyer's nightmare. The Browning Hi-Power, Beretta 92 etc. would have solved the ammo capacity problem, but for some reason the FBI apparently didn't think the 9mm, even in +P, was enough gun for them.

I guess the nice thing we can take from all that is we, luckily, now have a truly HUGE selection of pistol types and cartridges to choose from with newer ones, like the .357 Sig and .45 GAP being added every few years.

Take it easy and feel free to ask anything else.

Kyle