# Early history of the 9mm Parabellum



## Bob Wright (May 10, 2006)

The Luger pistol was first introduced around 1898, when Georg Luger refined the design of Hugo Borchardt. Borchardt, incidentally, had worked both at Sharps and Winchester. He tried to sell his design to Colt, but Colt was already involved with John Browning.

The Borchardt pistol was finally accepted for production by DWM, and DWM submitted it to both the British Small Arms Commmission and to the U.S. Ordnance at Springfield Armory. While the little .30 caliber bullet looked impressive in test media, both British and American boards wanted something larger.

In 1902 one 9mm Luger pistol was delivered to the British, and in 1903 three were delivered to Springfield. These were the first four 9mm Parabellum pistols made. The German designed cartridge had a 124 gr truncated cone bullet, which was the standard until WW I.

In 1915 the German arsenals began making a round nosed bullet for ease of production, and this has become basically the standard world-wide configuration.

As a matter of interest, during the testing at Springfield Armory, live goats were used in some of the testing.

Bob Wright


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