Any one conversant with pistols does not even glance at them. When he buys the pistol, he also buys the cartridge made for it. He does not buy a pistol and then try which make of cartridge will fit into the chamber.
A cartridge should fulfil the following conditions:
First of all, it should be safe against accidental explosion, such as dropping or when feeding through the magazine of an automatic pistol. Next, the case should not split or swell when fired, so as to make it difficult to extract.
Next (this is a matter also of the construction of the pistol), it should not blow back fire into the eyes of the shooter. This has several times happened to me with cheap makes of rifles and pistols and one is very apt to have such an accident when shooting at bottles at a fair with cheap worn rifles.
I asked a woman attending at one of the shooting booths at a fair, if it was not very dangerous when drunken men came to shoot.
She answered: “Oh no, when a man looks dangerous I load only blank ammunition for him.”
The chief requisite is accuracy; and without accuracy a cartridge is useless.