When one is interested in firearms you hear many things about certain nations and their history with firearms. Britain, America, Germany, Russia, Sweden, and maybe even China all grace the canvas of the most influential firearm manufacturing countries of the world. This goes without mention that other nations have also produced fine firearms for their national armies, militia or police. The 9mm Largo cartridge falls into that category of near forgotten importance and the country that has has a strong influence on world events than many people remember. The 9mm Largo is actually a very old European cartridge, that the Spanish adopted in 1913 and was developed for the Bergmann-Bayard pistol in 1908. Largo is Spanish for long, and the 9mm Largo was chambered in Spain’s first semi automatic service pistol the Campo Giro. Later in 1921 the Campo Giro would be superseded by the Astra Model 1921, usually known as the Model 400 in the commercial circles.
The Astra like the Campo Giro, was of a blowback design but was designed in a more stable and heavier feel. Later Spain would adopt the locked breech styling of the Star Model “A”, and then the Super Star, which mimicked the M1911 but were chambered in the 9mm Largo. These service pistols helped to shape the country of Spain and like the advancement of American firearms have advanced along with technology. But in Spain the 9mm Largo cartridge was unique in the sense that it saw little change through the years, while America changed caliber and technologies, Spain saw the firearm technology change but in comparison the 9mmLargo cartridge did little. OF course the 9mm Largo was eventually changed but for a bit the 9mm Largo cartridge had a great run of dominance.
For years there have been limited quantities of the Spanish Largo Pistols on the U.S. surplus market, but ammunition was always a problem. Factory ammunition of the 9m Largo cartridge was a little hard to come by. So many owners of these 9mm Largo chambered firearms decide to shoot the 38 Super or the 9mm Luger cartridges through them. This was a mistake, since the 38 Super has a higher pressure, and the semi rimmed nature of the 38 Super caused feeding problems. The 9mm Luger also operates at a higher pressure and the cartridge headspace is different, these differences lead to severely damaged cases and poor performance. Not until reloading did the 9mm Largo cartridge find a new home, with reloading the home reloaders were able to buy some actual 9mm Largo cartridges and then reload then for their pistols.
If you happen to have a pistol chambered in the 9mm Largo, make sure to only fire the 9mm Largo cartridge through it, and also you may want to look into reloading the cartridge for not only improved custom performance but also to keep you supply of 9mm Largo cartridges on a decent level. The 9mm Largo cartridge has had a great history as the Spanish service pistol cartridge and as an all around good cartridge that was similar to the German 9mm Luger. To help keep the 9mm Largo cartridge in use and out of the history books is one of the reasons so many American choose to get into firearms and history in the first place, one cannot overlook the lesser known countries in the arm race simply because they are not as well known. World Wars have made many cartridges popular, if Spain had taken a more integral part in a couple of wars their firearm, technologies, cartridges, and ways would be of more common mention than British, German, Russian, American,and possibly the Chinese.
