Initial loadings of this cartridge were quite powerful. Reported ballistics for the first commercial loads were a 130-grain bullet at , and some experimental loads ran as high as . However, these ballistics proved too violent for the Colt Model 1900 pistol, and velocities were soon lowered to below . Subsequent commercial loadings varied considerably in power. For example, Hugh B.C. Pollard, writing in "Automatic Pistols" in 1920, gives Winchester factory ballistics for a 130-grain bullet at muzzle velocity and of muzzle energy; for Ely ammo, the figures for a 128-grain bullet were and and for Kynoch a 130-grain bullet . Later U.S. commercial loads in this caliber had factory standard ballistics of a 130-grain bullet at from the barrel of the Colt 1903 Pocket Model.