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Artsi · 02-14-2001, 01:28 PM

Hi

I'm new to 9mm P08 pistol, just got my piece less than a month ago.

Am I right believing that originally the 9mm ammo around the 1st World War era was pretty lame by today's standards? Was is not like about 1000fps with a 124grain bullet?

I briefly flipped through annual 2001 issue by Guns&Ammo Magazine where they feature P08's on 5 pages. There they claim today's 9mm ammo being downloaded from the long gone days era thus resulting in feeding jams when shot in a P08 pistol. They suggest P08 owners to find +P loaded 9mm ammo to achieve a glitch free feeding.

I feel the Guns&Ammo got it wrong here.

I was advised by many local shooting enthusiasts that I'd need to seek a stronger spring to my P08 that operates the toggle assy. This way I'd avoid breaking my precious pistol since it really is built to handle only weak ammo and todays ammo is a lot hotter.

I've shot handloaded 124grain ball ammo that clocks about 900fps. I am going to use my pistol in a certain shooting sports that requires shot ammo to achieve pre-determined power level. I have to load 124gr ammo to about 1050fps. Right now I have a shortened spring from a Russian bolt action rifle. The spring measured 15 lbs/inch on a special spring compression gauge.

This spring seems to be pretty spot on for ammo at about 850-900fps. Over 950fps ammo does really make the spent cases to exit from gun in a fairly energetic way, indicating substantially increased bolt/toggle velocity before it crashes to halt at the end of it's rearward travel.

I managed to source an outlet that carries 25 lbs/inch rating springs for P08. That looks like a perfect spring for shooting beefier ammo. When operating the gun by hand one really can feel the difference. I don't expect 1050fps ammo to be able to operate the action with this 25 lb spring installed.

I reckon this spring has to be cut shorter fairly signifigantly to end up with a rating somewhere between 15 and 25 lbs/inch.

Does anyone what lb/inch rating are aftermarket springs that can be generally obtained for P08 (say from Gun Parts Corp, NY) ?

I can post an update of my experiments if anyone is interested.

- Artsi

02-14-2001, 01:28 PM	#1
Artsi User Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Finland Posts: 61 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	handloading 9mm ammo Hi I'm new to 9mm P08 pistol, just got my piece less than a month ago. Am I right believing that originally the 9mm ammo around the 1st World War era was pretty lame by today's standards? Was is not like about 1000fps with a 124grain bullet? I briefly flipped through annual 2001 issue by Guns&Ammo Magazine where they feature P08's on 5 pages. There they claim today's 9mm ammo being downloaded from the long gone days era thus resulting in feeding jams when shot in a P08 pistol. They suggest P08 owners to find +P loaded 9mm ammo to achieve a glitch free feeding. I feel the Guns&Ammo got it wrong here. I was advised by many local shooting enthusiasts that I'd need to seek a stronger spring to my P08 that operates the toggle assy. This way I'd avoid breaking my precious pistol since it really is built to handle only weak ammo and todays ammo is a lot hotter. I've shot handloaded 124grain ball ammo that clocks about 900fps. I am going to use my pistol in a certain shooting sports that requires shot ammo to achieve pre-determined power level. I have to load 124gr ammo to about 1050fps. Right now I have a shortened spring from a Russian bolt action rifle. The spring measured 15 lbs/inch on a special spring compression gauge. This spring seems to be pretty spot on for ammo at about 850-900fps. Over 950fps ammo does really make the spent cases to exit from gun in a fairly energetic way, indicating substantially increased bolt/toggle velocity before it crashes to halt at the end of it's rearward travel. I managed to source an outlet that carries 25 lbs/inch rating springs for P08. That looks like a perfect spring for shooting beefier ammo. When operating the gun by hand one really can feel the difference. I don't expect 1050fps ammo to be able to operate the action with this 25 lb spring installed. I reckon this spring has to be cut shorter fairly signifigantly to end up with a rating somewhere between 15 and 25 lbs/inch. Does anyone what lb/inch rating are aftermarket springs that can be generally obtained for P08 (say from Gun Parts Corp, NY) ? I can post an update of my experiments if anyone is interested. - Artsi