Will Makarov 9X18 ammo load and fire in a Springfield XD9?

Answer 1

The Makarov ammunition has a case (the brass shell containing the explosive powder behind the bullet) which is one millimeter shorter than the 9mm Luger which is also commonly called 9mm Parabellum (meaning "for war"). There are two major concerns with firing a foreign cartridge through a gun that was not built for the round: one is the size/shape and the other the power of the load. In this case, the shape is different in that there is a millimeter missing from the Makarov, which could potentially cause errors in feeding the ammunition through a semi-automatic. The main problem is that the muzzle energy and the velocity of the 9x19 Parabellum are higher than the Makarov, and the detonation of the Parabellum develops much higher chamber pressures than the Makarov. Because of this, the Makarov ammunition is used in semiautomatics with a different design than the 9mm Parabellum. If you tried to fire it through a locked-breech pistol (which many 9mm Parabellum pistols use) and ones with stronger springs, it is highly likely that the gun will jam because the Makarov cannot generate enough energy to open the slide and properly eject the shell. In general, if you want to use a round in your weapon that is not standard, it MUST be a weaker round or you may seriously injure yourself. Second, if there is any kind of discrepancy in the sizes or shapes of your cartridge (such as a bottlenecked cartridge or a shorter cartridge) then it's usually not worth trying it.