9mm Makarov ballistics surprised me.

[Captain Waffles]

I don't have a Makarov, I thought it looked like an interesting little fixed barrel gun so, I looked up the ballistics of its proprietary caliber and was surprised.
it's actually a bit larger in diameter than 9x19mm, the Makarov is .362, whereas 9x19mm is .355. The Makarov's case length is shorter at 9x18mm.

It's strange how the .380 ACP is 9x17mm and the Makarov at 9x18mm seems to be almost identical in ballistics to the .380 ACP. The velocities are so close, it hits a little harder, because it is slightly larger but I'm surprised at how unimpressive the Makarov's ballistics are. I don't want to offend fans of the caliber, I just thought it would be more on par with the 9x19mm, but it's not. It's markedly slower and I'd assume the penetration and accuracy would be less as well. It's surprising to me that it's been so popular as a police and miltary gun in Russia for so long. The cold weather and those super thick winter coats they were, I'd think that they would have all sorts of penetration problems and apparently not.

Everyone knows I'm a big fan of .45 ACP, I carry my Springfield 1911 at least twice a week and with the right loads it's IMO the best autoloader caliber, 200 grains, plus p it is devastating and much flatter shooting than the 230 standard loading that it's typically evaluated at for some unknown reason. With that being said I do carry 9x19mm the most frequently, at 124 grains plus p is my preferred loading for that caliber.

[JoshIronshaft]

You're looking at these different calibers through the lenses of today. There is almost 100 years of history that explains why these calibers exist today and are still in use. There were technological limitations, politics, institutional inertia, and so on. Lots to be studied on this topic other than mass and velocity.