7.62x25 vs. 9mm: Soviet vs. Austrian Design

The 7.62x25mm Tokarev is a Soviet rimless bottleneck submachine gun and pistol cartridge that entered production in 1930. The Russian military eventually replaced it with the 9x18mm Makarov – but that’s not the 9mm we’re comparing the 7.62x25mm to in this article.

We are talking about the ever-popular 9mm Luger: designed by Georg Luger, an Austrian gunsmith, in 1901. It’s a rimless tapered handgun and submachine gun cartridge that is used by civilians, law enforcement and military organizations worldwide.

Let’s see how the cartridges compare to one another!

Comparing The 7.62x25 to 9mm

Despite having been designed decades apart, these cartridges do share some similarities. We’ll focus on their differences so you can decide which is better for your situation by the end of this article.

We’ll compare and contrast their recoil, accuracy, stopping power, self-defense capabilities, cost and availability, and reloadability. At the end, we’ll tally up the scores and declare a winner for all of time! Okay, it’s admittedly not that dramatic, but you will better understand which round will work better for you.

Technical Specs

You can tell these two rounds apart at a glance. The first noticeable differences are their overall lengths and one is bottlenecked. The 7.62x25 Tokarev is a bottlenecked cartridge with an overall length of 1.386 in, while the 9mm Luger has a shorter length of 1.169 in. The 7.62x25’s extra length comes from its case: 0.984 in, as opposed to 0.754 for the 9mm Luger. Its longer case and same rim diameter naturally means the 7.62x25mm Tokarev cartridge has more case capacity: 16.8 grains H2O versus 13.3 grains H2O for the 9mm Parabellum.

The 9mm Luger fires a larger bullet in diameter and weight. 9mm bullet diameter is 0.355 in and fires a bullet ranging in weight from 90 to 165 grain. The 7.62x25mm bullet diameter is 0.309 in and fires a bullet ranging in weight from 85 to 90 grain.

Now that we know some of the cartridges’ physical differences, let’s discuss how they affect performance in everyday situations.

How Does the Recoil of 7.62x25 Tokarev Compare to That of 9mm Luger Rounds?

It is crucial to take recoil into consideration. A round with heavy recoil will be more challenging to control, and will slow the rate of your follow-up shots. The potential for flinching (which makes you less accurate) is also an issue for heavy-recoil cartridges.

Felt recoil differs from shooter to shooter, and often depends on the firearm, stance, and ammo choice. Free recoil is an objective measure of how much a cartridge kicks based on firearm weight, muzzle velocity, propellant weight, and bullet weight.

Both cartridges are known for having low recoil. The 7.62x25mm Tokarev has about 4.6 ft-lbs of free recoil when you’re firing an 85 grain FMJ at 1,525 fps from a 1.9 lbs pistol. The 9mm Luger has about 4.4 ft-lbs when you’re firing a 115 grain JHP at 1,190 fps from a 2 lbs Glock pistol.

The difference in recoil is so minimal that you won’t be able to sense it when firing the two rounds. Generally, any difference within 1 ft-lbs is incredibly difficult to perceive.

This section is a tie because the difference in recoil is nearly impossible to distinguish.

Accuracy: 9mm vs. 7.62x25

A cartridge’s accuracy depends on many factors, including the firearm, bullet design, shooter, and environmental factors. Recoil and trajectory also play pivotal roles.

Since these cartridges were designed for pistols and submachine guns, we can expect their trajectories to be similar within 25 yards (the distance the average self-defense situation occurs). However, the 7.62x25mm has a much flatter trajectory as we increase the distance to the target.

When sighted in at 25 yards, the 7.26x25mm 85 grain bullet drops only -5.8 in at 100 yards. The 9mm 115 grain bullet drops -9.7 in under the same conditions.

Accuracy will appear identical at close range. As the target moves farther away, the 7.62x25mm Tokarev’s flatter trajectory will significantly facilitate accurate shot placement…

The 7.62x25 wins this section.

Continue reading 7.62x25 vs. 9mm: Soviet vs. Austrian Design on Ammo.com

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Reminds me to ask, do you have any 9mm parabellum vs 9mm luger articles?

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And till the 357 mag came along the 7.62x25 was the fastest handgun cartridge around.

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still my choice
will penetrate most kevlar helmets and goes through most vests that are not lvl 4
I was getting 1700fps out of a 5" barrel using my soviet surplus nickel case and 1400 using PPU.
Still trying to build a Colt Government in 762 tok but trying find a .38 super donor is not an easy task.

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We’re working on it right after we polish off our 300 Whisper vs. 300 AAC Blackout piece.

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I always thought those two were simply different names for the same cartridge.

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Interesting fact the article doesn’t mention.

Hugo Bouchard was an American who designed the abominable looking Bouchard pistol, C-93, way back in about 1893 or so. He went to Germany to do the development work and presented it to the Swiss and German militaries for adoption. It failed - miserably. He left Germany in disgust and returned to America. While in Germany he was assisted by a young engineer named George Luger. After he left, George continued development work, to eventually. end up with the famous Luger pistol, maybe the sexiest pistol made.

The Borchard C-93 was chambered in 7.65X25. That’s a fairly long cartridge, so the magazine was in front of the trigger, a`la the Mauser C-96 machine pistol. George decided he wanted the ammo to be stored in a magazine in the grip but the 7.65X25 was too long. So he cut it down to 7.65X21 - what today is known as “the .30 Luger”. He presented that to the Swiss and German militaries and they accepted it. Then a bit later they asked for a cartridge with a little more oomph, so George designed the 9 mm Parabellum - the original name, which translates into “for war”.

Robbie Leatham resurrected the .38 Super cartridge for use in IPSC competition, a round that was very popular in Mexico and other nations that prohibited citizens from owning any weapon that fired a “military round”. Colt made and sold a bunch in Mexico, where it was very popular. I expect there were also examples in Italy, which I believe has similar laws. Later, in search of more. pressure to make the comps work better, he made with Brian Enos the 9 mm JLE (Just Long Enough) a 9X21 cartridge made to get around the then limits on 9mm making major that IPSC put on that cartridge. From there I believe Robbie went to 9X23, which is almost identical to the .38 Super but without a rim, and finally to the 9X25, which never caught on.

So you can see these various 9mm cartridges are interconnected in history.

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That is very interesting. I’ve always loved the C-96 ever since I was little. I’ve never had the pleasure of firing one, but it was the best handgun in my favorite video game growing up.

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Yeah, that flat-shooting 7.62x25 definitely has the edge at longer distances, no doubt. The higher velocity keeps it from dropping as much compared to 9mm, which is great if you’re taking shots past typical handgun ranges. But for most defensive scenarios within 25 yards, the accuracy difference isn’t really noticeable.

That being said, ammo availability and modern handgun options favor the 9mm by a mile. If you’re rocking an old Tokarev or a PPS-43, the 7.62x25 is fun and effective, but if we’re talking practical everyday use, the 9mm’s versatility still makes it the king.

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:grin:

Tough to imagine, welcome :slightly_smiling_face:

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I was familiar with the term 9mm parabellum but didnt know what it meant until John Wick :joy::joy::joy:

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like 7 or 8 of them or a 226 clone in 762 tok

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