Another chambering in the mix is the 9x21.5mm...aka Performance Center 356 TSW(Team Smith & Wesson)
38Super ballistics w/ ammo that fits/functions thru std 9x19 mag bodies.
Sometime in 2002 I went down to Mexico City to meet with a Lt. Colonel in SEDENA (Secretaria de Defensa Nacional -- The Mexican Army) who at the time was running the Mexican Army Store. This store was called UCAM at the time but has since switched it's name to DCAM. Same place, different sign on the front. The only "store" where in theory you can buy a firearm in Mexico. I bought a Glock 25 there in 1999 through 2001 (that's how long the process took), which I quickly switched over to .380 CAL making it technically a Glock 19/25 -- but that's another story.
During this meeting the topic of discussion was to find a caliber or calibers that could be "allowed" for civilian ownership and the growing competitive competition sports in Mexico at the time that was better than the .380 ACP and the .38 Special which are the top calibers allowed for Auto Pistols or Revolvers for non-military/Police use. The 9x21 was top of my list. It was not allowed, because of the "9". Since 9mm is not permitted for civilian use, it was felt that the case being stamped "9x21" would get people shot-up at check-stops by dim-witted enforcement officials. Remember: at this time the Drug War was ramping up. It was a dangerous (and fun) time to be traipsing around the country as a gun-guy. The .356 TSW was okay with them: a rapid call to Starline produced the information that they were not making .356 TSW any longer and that it would cost us 10,000.00 US to get a special run since it was the "headstamp" we needed more than anything else. Damn.
357 Sig had just been officially discounted by SEDENA because of it's power, and "availability". Standing there, in that Colonel's office, was sort of weird. Here I was, a Canadian, in the office of one of the S.S. men, finding myself rather liking him. He was a functionary, no doubt, but he seemed to have the power to get things done and seemed at least sympathetic to my point of view.
"What you are saying," I said back to him, "is that you want a cartridge that is reloadable only. Not something that could be bought as a box of shells in a store?"
He nodded. "Exactly. That is the only way it will pass muster with 'the Chiefs'."
I never met with him again. The .380 Cal developments really took off and when we realized that we now had a cartridge that was totally legal to use and transport under already existing laws that gave us 9mm +P power and even .38 Super power (out of a fully supported ramped barrel), we simply decided to just let it go. Mexico's Combat Shooting groups loosely united at that time -- tenously with me as sort of a controlling arbiter -- and we did our thing. As evolution continued, a group of shooters sent up to an IPSC match in Texas got disqualifed for "coaching" when they had only been trying to translate to a non-English speaking shooter forced a vote to
STOP using the U.S. as anything other than a supply point and concentrate all efforts for growth towards the South. Yes, we were pissed, to put it lightly. I was there for the vote, but since I had not been part of the team at that match, I kept my mouth shut and let it happen. Friends I know and trust had been at that match -- several of them completely bilingual -- so I do seriously believe their version of events.
Thus, things have now swung around to the current formation of the "Latin American Practical Shooting" group, although they haven't come up with a formal acronym as yet. Member countries being Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru up until this moment I believe. My joke to a friend over this was "Maybe the next time I fly into Tegucigalpa I could have a Glock 19 in my checked luggage" might be working out. I guess we'll see.
In a Zoom interview I did in April, 2021 with the Mexican Federacion de Tiro (FEMETI):
we discussed the formation of this Combat Shooting League. FEMETI has been interviewing the IPSC Directors of all the member countries and the interviews -- including my own -- are on the FEMETI website. This is all in Spanish, be warned. FEMETI is directly overseen by the Mexican Army, so it's interesting that we were even permitted to talk openly about new calibers, and that the interviews remain on the website. This is not the Mexican Army of the 1990's, believe me.
During the interview, the topic of these "possible new calibers" came up, and since there was a general knowledge of my meeting with that Lt. Colonel back in 2002, as "public knowledge" as had I posted my memories of that meeting around 2010 in an article I wrote for the Mexican firearms website "Mexico Armado" in an article about the development of the .380 Cal -- what it's limits were, the load data we had at the time, and my own recommendation to all Mexican shooters to keep experimenting and
share the data morons, my interviewer mentioned that 2002 meeting.
He explained to me that the prohibition against 9mm for civilian usage in Mexico is written directly into the 1973 gun law and cannot be changed without a 2/3 positive vote in the Mexican Congress. This could easily go the other way, so nobody wants to do that. Thus, the easiest solution of allowing competitors into the new "league" to own a 9 m.m. might not be all that easy. A new caliber would be nice, however, having already approached SEDENA they were told "no". Then he floored me: "They want to meet with you to discuss it."
I just sat there a second, forgetting I was being recorded, thinking WTF? "Me?" I retorted. "Why me? I don't even live there right now."
"Because," said my interviewer, "the General in charge of civilian firearms ownership in Mexico right now is the same Lt. Colonel you met with back in 2002."
Interesting. I believe this is just a SEDENA delaying tactic, but I assured my interviewer that I'm open to a meeting, either in March or April 2023 or anytime in 2024. If someone is paying my ticket, we could say "anytime starting now". I told my interviewer exactly this "off camera" and suggested immediately they start working on seeing if the 38 TJ could be approved. My interviewer immediately reminded me that the whole "deal" of the Latin American Combat League was to use Production Class guns, not the 1911 (which also has a specific prohibition under the 1973 Mexican gun law including the .38 Super cartridge although US gun-writers don't seem to have noticed or known this). "Who cares?" was my reply. "Get the .38 TJ cartridge itself approved for use, we can buy the cases in bulk and bring them down and trim them back to 9x21, ream them, then shoot them. Don't frickin' wait for me!"
So that was my immediate solution to a ridiculous situational problem. I do not know how it's going, I have not bothered to ask. I will find out in February or March when I'm there and able to talk directly face-to-face with the participants. If I get to meet with the Sedena General, well, that will be the continuation of a story for me. I would not decline to meet him again all these years later.
In the meantime, I cross my fingers that Starline will start to produce the .356 TSW case, marked as .356 TSW -- and to quote Inspector Clauseau and Chief Inspector Drefus "my problems will be solve-ed."
