Last I checked, .38 Super doesn't fit in a 9mm framed handgun like a G19 or M&P 2.0 Compact.

Much like 9x21mm IMI, the overall length is the same as 9x19mm.



9x19mm, .356 TSW, .357 SIG

A 9mm magnum seems interesting.

Just don't get your hopes up about terminal ballistics in humans. It's not going to do much above what 9mm already does.

If you want to handgun hunt small to medium game with your Glock 17, tho...well...might be a neat option.

Oh hell yeah.

Yes.

Because when it comes to what we are trying to do with defensive handguns, they don't reliably produce results that are vastly superior to 9mm.

All handgun bullets to...all of them...is punch holes in things. Bigger, heavier bullets can do a better job of breaking through bones. Lighter, faster bullets can do a better job of zipping through intermediate barriers.

In the end, though, all we get is a bullet that creates a permanent crush cavity that hopefully reliably penetrates deep enough to hit important vital structures in a human being. Bullets that over-expand cause shallow penetration. If you take an HST and you push it from the ~ 1,100-1,200 FPS it is currently running and stick the very same bullet over more powder pushing it to ~ 1,400-1,500 fps or more it's going to over-expand and penetrate shallow.

So you need, at a minimum, a new bullet that will expand more slowly to go along with the increased velocity. And that bullet will end up expanding about as much as the 9mm bullet. And it will end up with about the same penetration as the 9mm bullet. It may do a bit better through intermediate barriers, but by "a bit" I mean the performance difference will be extremely marginal.

Because physics is physics. Every cartridge is a compromise.

Now if you are looking for a caliber/cartridge you can push to the gills to hunt game with, the extra capacity can come in handy. I'd rather have a 10mm loaded well if I was hunting, say, hogs, than my 9mm. Some of the advantages the 10mm's larger bullet and larger powder capacity starts to come into play in those circumstances.

But against human threats, a .356 TSW or .357 Sig is still going to be pushing a .355 bullet into human flesh where, if the bullet is designed properly for the velocity it is going, will penetrate deeply enough to hit the vitals of a person and will expand reliably to the same general size as a 9mm projectile.

That's what a .357 magnum does, by the way. The .357 magnum loaded to its potential pushing a 158 grain bullet fast penetrates deep. So deep, in fact, that it tends to overpenetrate. And in flesh it doesn't do anything spectacular that sets it apart from what a 124 grain or 147 grain 9mm projectile does to tissue. But if you need that extra penetration for performance at distance against game, or to bust through the tougher bits on a hog, the extra blast, recoil, and slower followup shots aren't an issue anymore. In defensive use of a handgun that .357's extra penetration doesn't buy you any advantage unless you're shooting at a dude through a significant barrier...and even then, it does so at the cost of lower capacity and slower followup. With more capacity and more time you can shoot more rounds from a 9mm and negate the benefit of that barrier.

Handgun bullets just punch holes in things. To make them do more than that you have to make them move twice as fast or make them more than twice as heavy. Either of which means you can't fit the cartridge into a practical handgun anymore.