Jim,
I should be very interested in hearing the details of your experiments involving constraining the bullet from any movement. It is true that in a recoil operated firearm there would be no recoil under such a condition and the action would not unlock in the normal way. How ever I would expect some extremely high pressures inside the chamber and not be at all surprised to see the pistol blow apart. We might fear for the safety of the pistol if an overweight bullet were loaded in front of a normal powder charge and allowed to move forward in the normal way.
If the bullet is allowed to move and strike an object in the barrel, it is not the kinetic energy of the bullet that does the damage but the standing wave set up in the gas inside the barrel. Or at least that's the conventional theory. I suppose the bullet would tend to deform on striking an object and expand sideways, exerting some pressure on the barrel walls.
On the other hand, I have seen an experiment in which a S&W revolver was fitted with a barrel with no hole through it so that the bullet would move forward in the chamber and stop when it struck the solid breech face of the barrel. In this experiment the revolver did not come unglued.
It is a fact that it is possible to fire a 9 mm Parabellum cartridge in a 7.63 mm Mauser chambered C96 Broom Handle and not have it come unglued. I used to regard this as an apocryphal claim until I ran into an actual case of it. (A highly not recommended practice. If your Broom Handle does not come apart on the first try it will on the umpty eleventh try.)
I have a research project going on the internal ballistics of the Luger and so am particularly interested in your story. Contact me via private message if you do not want to broadcast the details.
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