This pistol round is probably the first thing a person would think of when someone talks about handgun ammunition. There is a very good reason for this. The Nine millimeter (9mm was First created by an Austrian accountant named Georg Luger. In 1901 Mr. Luger created the 9mm for the German Empire and was first widely used during the World War. The round is being used today. This was the first pistol round used in an automatic gun that birthed a new class of firearm, the “submachine gun”. The MP18 was introduced using the 9mm. The Mp18 was developed by Theodor Bergmann and was used by troops who specialized in trench combat. This prompted the Allied forces to create the Thompson and was countered by the Germans in WW2 to create the MP40.
The design of the 9mm was new in the fact that it was small, cheap and had no bottle neck design. If you were to look at the side of the round, you would see one slight bump but it has a streamlined contour. It has a diameter of 9.01 millimeters (mm), or 0.355 inches (in) with a length of 29.69mm or 1.69 in. The grains of gunpowder are different based on the desired usage with 115, 124 and 147. With a control barrel length of 150mm or 5.91 in, a 9mm round will fire with a max psi of 34,084. With a weight of 7.45 grams (g), the bullet will fly out of the barrel at 390 meters per second (1300 feet per second) and will hit a target with 420 pound force. With a breaking point of 300-700psi, it will perform well.
The usage for the round in four categories, targets, hunting, home defence and war is important. I believe that for target shooting and practice, this round is excellent. It is cheap, reliable and can be put into a large magazine. Hunting is a poor choice for this round. Unless you are hunting snakes with snake shot, you should use a rifle. It is much preferable to use it as a back up to defend yourself. For hunting, I suggest a larger round for self defence against larger animals. Home defence is the perfect useage for this round. The small size combined with its excellent penetrating power and its typically high magazine count is accessible to all ages and genders making one clip better than a larger round. The cost effectiveness of the 9mm is the main reason, countries and police forces worldwide ship them a crate per person. You can carry four 19 round magazine verses four 8 round magazines giving you 44 more rounds.
References:http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/concrete-properties-d_1223.html
http://smith-wessonforum.com/ammo/118644-9mm-115-gr-vs-124-gr-vs-147-gr.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9×19mm_Parabellum
https://ammo.com/handgun/9mm-ammo#caliber-history