.380 ACP
Introduced 1908John BrowningCIP standard
Also known as 9×17mm, 9mm Browning court, 9mm Kurz — the same cartridge under different names, all of which find this page.
Dimensions and pressure
Generated from the schema, like every specification table on this site, so a figure recorded on this entry cannot be missing from the table.
Identity
- Designed by
- John Browning
- Introduced
- 1908
- Production
- not recorded
- Standards body
- C.I.P.
- Case type
- Rimless
- Case shape
- Straight
Dimensions
- Bullet diameter
- 9.04 mm0.3559 insource
C.I.P. G1, maximum bullet diameter.
- Bore diameter
- not recorded
- Case length
- 17.33 mm0.6823 insource
C.I.P. L3, maximum case length.
- Overall length
- 25 mm0.9843 insource
C.I.P. L6, maximum cartridge overall length.
- Rim diameter
- 9.53 mm0.3752 insource
C.I.P. R1.
- Neck diameter
- 9.53 mm0.3752 insource
C.I.P. H2.
- Base diameter
- 9.53 mm0.3752 insource
C.I.P. P1.
Pressure
- Maximum pressure
- 135 MPa19,580 psisource
C.I.P. Pmax 1350 bar; 1 bar = 0.1 MPa exactly.
- Pressure standard
- C.I.P.
SAAMI and C.I.P. measure pressure differently and their figures are not interchangeable, which is why the body is always named beside the figure.
Loads
Velocity is recorded per barrel length as published. A gun page interpolates between these points and never projects beyond them.
Federal 95 gr full metal jacket
Federal
- Bullet mass
- 6.156 g95.00 grsource
Published as 95 gr; 1 gr = 0.06479891 g exactly.
- Cartridge mass
- not recorded
- Bullet type
- FMJ
- G1 BC
- not recorded
- G7 BC
- not recorded
| Barrel | Velocity |
|---|---|
| 95.25 mm3.750 in | 298.7 m/s980.0 fps |
Chambered in
Computed from every entry that lists this cartridge. Nothing here is hand-maintained.
- MAC-11
Military Armament Corporation
Gallery
Image credit
- Title
- File:Cartridge .380 ACP CC BY-SA 4.0 by Grasyl.jpg
- Author
- Grasyl(attribution required)
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Source
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartridge_.380_ACP_CC_BY-SA_4.0_by_Grasyl.jpg
Detail
The same bullet as the 9×19mm in a case two millimetres shorter, at two-thirds the pressure. That is the entire design: Browning wanted a cartridge that a pistol could fire without a locked breech, and 135 MPa is about the ceiling at which a slide heavy enough to carry in a pocket can hold the case until the bullet leaves.
The result is why so many small pistols are chambered for it. No locking lugs, no tilting barrel, no linkage — a simple blowback with a fixed barrel is inherently more accurate and much cheaper to make. The price is a sharp recoil impulse for the energy delivered, because the whole slide has to move.
Its name is a minor scandal of nomenclature: it is a nine-millimetre cartridge called .380, sold in Europe as 9mm Browning court, 9mm Kurz and 9mm Corto, and C.I.P. files it under the French name.
References
- C.I.P. TDCC datasheet — 9 mm Browning court · 2008-09-23 · read 2026-08-31
- .380 ACP · 1363481298 · read 2026-08-31
Last verified 2026-08-31 · review status: agent-populated