My daughter was watching one of those crime tv shows tonight, I'm not sure of the name of the show but it is based on the murder investigations solved by guy named Lt. Joe Kenda. In the show he stated that they found "several" .380 caliber shell casings at the crime scene that were fired from a Browning 9mm pistol that they recovered. He stated that a .380 can be used in 9mm pistols. I'm pretty sure that if you put a .380 in the chamber of a 9mm it would fire but I don't think it would cycle. Maybe I'm wrong but even if it would work I seriously doubt that it would work well enough to leave "several" shell casings at the crime scene. Am I wrong? Will a .380 round work in a 9mm?

There are lots of stories of people accidentally loading .380 into 9mm pistols and firing off several before realizing their mistake. The reverse would likely not even chamber.

 

So, technically, it might, but not necessarily safely or reliably.

Google 9mm kurz.

I have seen people shoot 9mm out of a .40 and .40 out of a .45 by accident. The round fires, but the shell is usually not extracted. I would venture that .380 out of a 9 would do the same.

I have seen it happen more than once. 380 will feed from a 9mm magazine. The extractor will hold the case so the firing pin hits the primer. Gun will fire but not enough pressure to cycle the slide. SAAMI pressure for 380 is about 21,000 psi vs 35,000 for 9mm parabellum. If you hand cycle the slide it will eject and feed the next round.

 

I've seen it done for 4 or 5 rounds hand cycling the slide. As long as the extractor hooks on to the round I imagine you could fire it all day like that.

 

I've also arrested more than one bad guy who had his 9mm loaded with 380 ACP.

If you have a weak or light recoil spring it might cycle just fine.

Griz got it right. Fires because the extractor is holding the case in place, but it will not cycle. If it happens to get by the extractor, it will not fire.

Had one mixed in with a box of UMC 9s

Jammed my Sig up.

The ROB used a dowel to remove the stuck casing.

I've also arrested more than one bad guy who had his 9mm loaded with 380 ACP.

^^^ This

 

I have also locked up quite a few baddies with .380 rounds loaded in the mag of a 9mm.

 

I have rarely found a gun on the street that was fully loaded, or loaded with all the same rounds. I can only remember once where I found a reload - it was in his girlfriend's purse, and it only had a couple rounds in it.

 

We also had one genius try to load a 9mm into a .380 Hi-Point. The gun obviously jammed when he went to chamber the first round before shooting his target. His target, another legit bad dude, was not impressed. He snatched the Hi-Point out of the idiots hands and beat him half to death with it.

 

By the time I got there, all I found was a mag spring and floorplaye, a handful of .380 rounds, one 9mm round that was all chewed up, and a trigger guard strewn about the roadway and a lot of blood.

 

Good Times!

I was told a funny story from many years ago in England where the bad guy couldn't find ammo for a 45 Webley and tried to use 45ACP instead. Apparently the catch that held the gun closed let go but the hinge held so the barrel was swinging in the breeze so to speak. BG gave up to the police art that point.

My daughter was watching one of those crime tv shows tonight, I'm not sure of the name of the show but it is based on the murder investigations solved by guy named Lt. Joe Kenda. In the show he stated that they found "several" .380 caliber shell casings at the crime scene that were fired from a Browning 9mm pistol that they recovered. He stated that a .380 can be used in 9mm pistols. I'm pretty sure that if you put a .380 in the chamber of a 9mm it would fire but I don't think it would cycle. Maybe I'm wrong but even if it would work I seriously doubt that it would work well enough to leave "several" shell casings at the crime scene. Am I wrong? Will a .380 round work in a 9mm?

 

 

I saw that show and the gun they thought had shot the 380 cartridges was a Shield 9mm, but later found they were wrong.  The show is "48 Hours" on A&E. Turned out the Shield belonged to a CCW holder who was murdered by a mugger that was using a 380...can't remember but I believe it was a robbery and the CCW apparently resisted.