Stuff from stats

It’s been a while since I looked at my stats and the search terms people are using to get here.

Looks like this one turned into a gun one.

can you reload brass for springfield xd

Yes.

what is the most controllable 9mm

There’s no blanket answer for that as what one person can control (or find controllable) may be different from another.

However, as a general rule, a physically larger and heavier gun is more likely to be controllable. As well, a gun that fits properly in your hand, in terms of getting a good and complete grip on it (with both hands, and the skin of both palms contacting the grip), not having to reach too far (or too little) to get at the trigger, getting all your fingers — especially your pinky — onto the grip. All of these things will help.

how to manage pistol recoil

Technique.

There’s the Todd Jarrett approach, which is “grip the gun 20% tighter”. That is, grip it, now tighten your grip up more. Massad Ayoob calls it a “crush grip” and writes about it here.

But I’ve recently been re-reading my Brian Enos book and he’s not such an advocate of that. He more advocates finding just the right amount of tension that lets the gun recoil then come back to exactly where it was before the trigger was pressed. He says there’s no way to stop recoil, so don’t fight recoil; just let recoil happen and manage it, letting the gun fire then come back to exactly where it started. There’s certainly something to this.

I’ve been experimenting more with both of these approaches. I see merit in both.

airweight snub nose vs steel frame snub

First, let’s clarify. “Airweight” are Smith & Wesson’s lightweight revolvers (e.g 642, 442, 638, 438) whose frame is constructed from aluminum. Thus they are lighter than steel, but consequently can also only chamber up to .38 Special +P whereas many steel can chamber .357 Magnum (e.g. the S&W 640, 649). Then there are the “Airlight” series (e.g. 340, 360), whose frame is made from a scandium alloy. These are even lighter than the Airweight models and can also handle .357 Magnum.

So apart from the above weight and chambering differences, what do you want to know? Well of course, there are also price differences, as the Airlight’s tend to be very expensive. I’ve handled one but never shot one. The Airlight’s are amazingly light, you barely notice it in your hand. Consequently, I can imagine they’d also be painful to shoot, especially .357 Magnum loads. Weight helps to soak up recoil, and weight is one thing the Airlights lack. I mean, shooting .38 +P loads out of my Airweight can sting your hand enough… I can’t imagine less weight and more recoil being pleasant.

The lightweight models are of course designed for carry, so they’ll be comfortable. But the steel really aren’t that much heavier. It’s a personal choice, and depends in part on how much you’ll shoot with it. Some people say to get both: a steel and a lightweight, in a similar form factor (e.g. both “Centential” body style, both “Bodyguard” style) and outfit them with the same setup in sights and trigger and grip and so on. Then use the steel to practice with, since it will be more pleasant to shoot, then carry the lightweight. All depends what you want to do.

corbon dpx or hornady critical defense

That’s up to you. Try both in your gun. If one doesn’t work reliably in your gun, then don’t use it. If both work reliably, pick the one that works better for you. For instance, while presently I use Buffalo Bore 20/20C in my .38 Special snub revolver, I am fortunate that my local Cabela’s carries Buffalo Bore; I know BB isn’t available everywhere. If say you can’t get enough of your desired self-defense ammo, that can play a part into it as well.

my m1a doesn’t cycle the bolt after ever

If your M1A isn’t cycling, you may have problems with the gas system.

When I first got my M1A it was “short stroking” meaning it would fire, but it wouldn’t fully cycle. Sometimes the brass would not eject at all. Sometimes it might eject but a new round doesn’t get stripped from the magazine so the next shot just goes “click” on an empty chamber.

In my case the problem was the gas system. The gas cylinder lock was not completely tightened down from the factory, thus the gas holes weren’t lined up fully and consequently not enough gas was getting into the gas cylinder to operate the action. I was able to test this by field stripping the rifle such that I could see the gas port in the bottom of the barrel. Take a 1/16″ allen wrench and insert it through the gas port into the bore of the barrel. There should be zero resistence when you do this, and looking down the bore you should see the allen wrench sticking up into the bore. If there’s any resistence, if you don’t see the wrench sticking through, then things aren’t lined up. When I called Springfield Armory about this the tech on the phone said I should be able to tighten the lock down another full turn (or 2… surprised it came from the factory that way). Sure enough, one more turn and things were lined up and short stroking no more!

But there can be other reasons for it. Clint McKee has a Q&A on this topic but with a Garand. Still, the M1A and Garand are close enough relatives that the answer applies just as well.

223. semi automatic banana clip

Magazine. Not clip. Know the difference.

minimum caliber for texas concealed hand

Ugh. I hate it when the stats thing cuts off the phrases.

As of this writing, there is no minimum caliber for carrying.

The only caliber minimum is during the taking of the qualifying test, a .32 caliber is the present minimum.

On a related search….

texas concealed carry .22

Yes, you could carry a pistol chambered in .22 LR but you cannot use it to qualify.

is a .223 legal for deer hunting in texas

Short answer: Yes.

Better answer: A summary of the “means and methods” from Texas Park & Wildlife.

So using a single-shot or semi-automatic rifle chambered in .223 Remington without a suppressor, that’s usable for game animals.

Random stuff

From today… just some random bits of things.

iPhone

I’m peeved that my iPhone went dead. I have no idea what caused the sudden drain of battery. Google turns up this isn’t an unheard of thing and hypotheses are some apps just are poor at battery management. That perhaps somehow I put the phone to bed with particular apps still running and someone sucked the battery dry. Don’t know, but oh well.

Managing Unknown Contacts

To understand the term “Managing Unknown Contacts” (MUC) see here or here. I failed at this this morning. *sigh* When I left the house this morning I stopped into the drug store to get some food and drink to eat during the match. When I went in I saw a girl (probably 18-25 years old) gathering her stuff on a bench outside the store. I go inside, do my thing, I come back out to my car and the girl approaches me. Initially I was stand-off-ish and unwilling to help her, but she ultimately said she just wanted directions. I answered her question and she went on her way. So, it was probably nothing.

However, I got in the car and realized I failed MUC. I didn’t move well, I didn’t use my hands right (e.g. fence), wrong dialogue. I know why: I was preoccupied with the match. Bad bad bad me. *sigh*

CHL

I am surprised at the number of people who have CHL’s but don’t carry. So… why do you have a CHL?

People at the match seemed surprised that I came to the match carrying and that I wanted to leave the match carrying. They were surprised at my carry. I was surprised at their surprise, and at their lack of carry.

I want to start asking people who have a CHL why they have a CHL if they don’t carry… and carry always (apart from legal or other such reasons).

Reloading

I got to try a Hornady Lock-n-Lock AP. I’m sold. No the Dillon isn’t bad, but there’s no question the LnL AP is evolution.

Walked away with a LOT of 9mm brass today (lots of people didn’t want their brass). Happy me.

Match People

I forgot to mention about the match. I was surprised at the level of shooters. I figured it was a local club and that it might not be that hot… maybe one or two guys, but that’d be it. I was floored at the number of people with “sponsor” shirts on, race guns, and other very serious gear and really into it. Lots of quality shooters. It was good to watch them and how they went about things, from how people choose to handle the course of fire (I like that about IPSC, vs. IDPA) to how they shot (e.g. the steady cadence in particular strings of the stage). Or just being impressed with how fast some of these guys are.

Family

I love my wife. She supports me. She is a rock for me.

Could Be Oldest’s Favorite Website

Pickles and Beef Jerky… dot-com.

Looks to have been a short-lived venture into the world of pickles and beef jerky (natch). Yes, Oldest could love this website.

Things I found to be pretty cool:

The guy likes Korean food.

He tried Alton Brown’s beef jerky. I always thought Alton’s approach was cool and have been curious about it, but the whole notion of using furnace air filters always put me off a bit. Just didn’t seem “food grade”. Still doesn’t. But the results seemed to be good.

He knows about Robertsons! You see, not too far north of Austin there is another Robertson’s in Salado, Texas. I always thought it was just the one store, but doing a road trip a couple years back I stumbled upon another Robertson’s up in Oklahoma. Turns out the one in Salado is actually a franchise, and they add a lot of their own products to the mix. I’m glad they do. I don’t like the “true” Roberston’s jerky… it’s hickory smoked and dry as a bone (sometimes brittle!); I know some folks like it this way, and it’s really not that horrible, but it’s just not my preference. However, the Choppin’ Block stuff the Salado folks make? Awesome. Any time I pass the store (conveniently located off Interstate 35 at exit 285) I stop in and pick up a 1 pound bag of the mesquite smoked beef jerky. The taste, texture, everything, just the best. And checking their website this morning to make this blog entry and lo… they have buffalo jerky! I’ll have to try some of that next time I pass through. They’ve got great smoked meats and cheeses too.

OK, I’m hungry now.

Quirkology

Quirkology. A term coined by author Richard Wiseman to refer to psychological research that is quirky. Much of this work uses mainstream methods to investigate unusual topics, or unusual methods to investigate mainstream topics. Read more about it here.

What got me about it was this video on the color-changing card trick.

Just watch it. I don’t want to spoil the trick. After you watch it, go read about the trick and see another interesting video that supports the original.

I’ll just say, it has interesting implications for eye-witness accounts.

He’s got a lot of other interesting videos and studies on the Quirkology website. Check it out.

Questions from the search stats

It’s always interesting to see what the search stats turn up.

Ruger SR-22

This has been an amazingly popular search term. I haven’t seen anything like it in my blog stats before. People are really curious about this firearm. It’s interesting for sure, and to me the real interesting factor is the possible side-effects of producing such a firearm. I still have no compelling reason to buy one tho.

Hornady Critical Defense

This is another very popular term. My initial posting is here, but if you search my blog for it you’ll find other postings on it as well. The ammo is certainly interesting and I applaud Hornady for continuing to find ways to serve the civilian self-defense market. I also applaud their efforts to focus on “small calibers” popular for concealed carry and trying to find ways to improve upon the terminal effectiveness of cartridges in those calibers. That all said, I’m not yet sold on this ammo being something for me to trust my life on. It’s too new to the market and there just hasn’t been enough testing beyond some simple ballistics gel and newspaper wetpack testing. I’d like to see more data. Meantime, I’ll stick with Gold Dots for my 9mm and the LSWCHP’s for my .38 snub.

is a 9mm gun good self defense

Nope. It’s a good tool that can help you physically defend yourself, but really the best self-defense is using your gray matter. Get training, get skills, gain awareness, and conduct your daily life in a manner that works to keep you safe. That’s really better for self-defense. But if it comes to that point, I feel my 9mm handgun is a useful tool to have.

how to expand compress in snow leopard

StuffIt

(but I’m biased)

can you shoot a 45 bullet with a 9mm

Sure, if you’ve got really good aim and a steady hand… amazing what those sharpshooters and trick shooters can do. 🙂

But if you mean can you chamber a .45 ACP cartridge in a gun chambered for 9mm Luger? Nope. A .45 bullet has a larger diameter, just won’t work.

kimber with dawson precision sights

Envy. A 1911 is in my future… someday.

what does chl exam looks like

If you are curious about the Texas Concealed Handgun License course of fire, here it is.

“fear of girls”

Funny stuff.

9mm +p+ in any pistol

No. Only in pistols specifically rated as being able to handle +P+ (means that the round has about 15% greater pressure than a standard round). Using +P+ in a gun not rated as being able to handle it could have catastrophic results. If you’re not 100% sure the gun can handle it, don’t do it. If you’re not 100% sure, contact the manufacturer and ask (or check their website, they may have manuals online).

martial arts canes

Damned if I can find sources other than Cane Masters and Goju-Shorei for good fighting canes. I myself am looking for others. Not that I have a problem with what these guys are doing (I hear only good things about the quality of the CM canes) but I just want to see more selection.

If you know of any other cane makers, especially small guys that do good hand-crafting, please let me know.

selecting a gun for kids

Depends what you want to do with them (and I’ll avoid the obvious jokes and snark on this one), plus it depends upon the kid. But IMHO the best way to start out is with a .22. This is because for most kids, the power of recoil may be more than they can handle. Plus larger calibers are going to be louder, which can affect a lot of kids in negative ways. Ease them into things. Make it fun, make it easy (e.g. put the target at 5 yards not 50). If they can do something like shoot at some cans or gallon water jugs… i.e. make the target do something, that helps to make it fun.

But even tho they’re kids, don’t overlook getting them good training and ingraining proper safety habits. Safety is paramount.

Search term blog fodder

And so… back to the search terms, for more cheap blog material.

hwarangdo vs kuksool

What do you want to know? Both rather controlling, ego driven, Hapkido-related, traditional Korean martial arts. They both have really fancy schmancy uniforms. They both claim to be the ultimate in martial arts covering everything for every one. They both claim to have gazillion year old lineages, full of secret information.

I remember long long ago when I first heard of HRD that I was impressed… I thought it was such a cool, bad-ass martial art. Then I read a lot of the rules, rules that broached into your personal life for a total code of behavior. While I can sorta see the traditional aspect behind that, it also reeks of cult-ism, which both of these arts have been accused of. Not that they are a cult, they aren’t, but they do exhibit cult-like behavior. Still, if you watch the senior ranking masters perform, they’re quite awesome. Taejoon Lee of HRD and Sung Jin Suh of KSW (both the sons of the respective art founders) are fantastic martial artists.

Given a choice tho, I’d study neither. HRD offers me nothing that I haven’t already dealt with in Kuk Sool, and after 6 years of Kuk Sool I opted to leave it and study other things.

difference in damage from 9mm to 45

On paper, in ballistics gel, in the laboratory, .45 ACP probably does more. In the real world, doesn’t really matter… both suck.

Shoot the gun that you can shoot best: fast, accurate. You want to get fast, accurate hits in the proper target zone. Shot placement is key. The biggest baddest round in the wrong spot means nothing. And lots of little “weak” .22 LR’s placed in the right spot have taken down all sorts of things over the years. Shot placement matters more.

And so to improve your chances at shot placement, you want to shoot the gun you can shoot better. Me, I can shoot .45 ACP just fine and dandy, but I can shoot 9mm better because there’s less recoil to manage (I can get back on the sights and on target faster). I can shoot it faster and maintain a high level of accuracy with it.

YMMV

best email client for macintosh snow leopard

What’s left these days? Microsoft Entourage and Apple’s Mail.app. Is there anything else even available?

Mail.app has the advantage of a lot of integration with the OS, with your iPhone, and so on. I still don’t think it’s as good a client as Entourage is tho. But I must admit, Mail’s complete integration, especially now that I have an iPhone, really makes it tempting for me to want to switch to Mail.app. Why don’t I? Inertia. There’s WAY too much to overcome to make the switch.

how to manage geeks

See: how to herd cats.

Or more easily: enable them to do their work and leave them alone to do it. Don’t bullshit them. Meritocracy tends to be strongly in play.

“kuk sool won” mcdojo

Yup.

I shouldn’t be so harsh. Any martial art can be a McDojo. Unfortunately, more and more the way World Kuk Sool Association is running Kuk Sool Won, it’s reeking more and more of McDojo-ism. The art itself can be a very solid art, unfortunately the way the business side of things is run, you get what you got.

hfs+ detect changes spotlight

FSEvents.framework is your friend.

why did marlin sims leave kuk sool

Why don’t you ask him?

But if you don’t want to, my understanding is disagreements with the WKSA. He wanted to do one thing, they wouldn’t let him. Exerting too much control over a person, restricting and restraining, that’s not a productive thing. He left. I don’t blame him.

But whatever. He’s doing his own thing now. I think it’s better for the martial arts world in general, because now he can control his own destiny… he can share his vast knowledge, experience, and ability with the world and no one can stop him. It’s a loss for WKSA but a big gain for the rest of the world.

BTW, I got to speak with him at length on the phone one time. Great guy. Funny. So knowledgeable. An artist, but more so a scientist. I never got the chance to directly train with him, but would love to do so if the opportunity arose.

best good nine 9 mm handgun

As opposed to the best bad nine 9mm handgun? Or maybe the worst good nine 9 mm handgun?

how far does a 9mm hand gun shoot?

If you angled everything just right, centerfire handgun rounds can travel about 1 to 1.5 miles.

This is why you must follow the rules, especially NRA rule 1 or Cooper rule 4.

how many shots does a 9mm gun carry?

Depends upon the gun and the magazine. For instance a Glock 17 magazine holds 17 rounds. A Springfield EMP magazine holds 9 rounds. I can buy a 33 round magazine for the Glock…. it sticks out a lot, but still can be used.

best 9mm handgun 2009

Springfield Armory’s XD(m) won the 2009 NRA Golden Bullseye Award for Handgun of the Year. Take that for what it’s worth.

shotgun vs pistol home defense

Neither. Rifle.

Back to the stats

And now, let’s delve back into the blog stats search terms….

the 3 things everyone should know

  1. Treat others like you want to be treated.
  2. Freedom is something we must give to others if we wish it for ourselves.
  3. Don’t eat the yellow snow.

muscovy duck shit

Yes they do, and in copious amounts.

how to shoot snub nose well

Practice. Get some training. Practice more.

is a ar rifle good for home defense

Yup.

opeth smokes what cigarettes

Why would you care about this, unless Mikael asked you to run down to the store and buy him a pack?

how fast can 9mm clip empty

Well that depends. First, find me a 9mm clip. Oh, you meant magazine. Gotcha. We might need to care about how many rounds are in it as I can sure empty 1 round faster than 10 faster than 20. Then we need to know by what means are you emptying it: using your fingers to shave rounds off the top, loading the magazine into the gun and shooting all the rounds. Or of course, the fastest way is to just get a cheap aftermarket Glock magazine, load it up, drop it on the floor, let the baseplate shatter and you’ll see really how quickly you can empty a 9mm magazine. 🙂

truth on shotgun spread

Yes, pellets fired from a shotgun do spread out. That’s the truth.

To really know how that spread works out, you’ll have to take a particular shotgun, with a particular choke, with a particular load, and go try it yourself. Set up some cardboard (large piece of it, 2′ to 3′ per side at least) against a good backstop. Step back to your desired distance to shoot from, then shoot. You’ll see how it spreads out… or more specifically, the pattern of how the load’s pellets disperse. This can vary from shotgun to shotgun, from choke to choke, from load to load. So really, the only way to know 100% how things will go is to check it yourself.

do you really need anything more than 9mm

Last time I made homemade ice cream, a gun didn’t help me at all…. I needed a lot of other things to accomplish that.

But if you mean for self-defense, 9mm with good modern self-defense loads works just fine. Caliber is important, but more important is shot placement. 9mm caliber bullets will do their job so long as you do your job.

is a buckshot rifle good for self defense

I didn’t know rifles could shoot buckshot.

how to use 3 dot sight

Don’t.

how to line up three dot sights

Again, don’t.

why are there three dots in my sight

Because someone was under the mistaken notion it was a good idea. If you can’t replace them with better sights, at least black out the dots on the rear sight.

can a 13 year old shoot a 9mm

Sure. Tori Nonaka handles one just fine. With proper technique and practice, they can certainly handle it.

Search term grab bag

Let’s delve into the search terms and see what people are searching for now that wind them up here at my blog.

apple os x “snow leopard” gcc version

Technically, 4.2. However, there’s new stuff coming from Apple in terms of complier technology. Check out LLVM and Clang. This Ars Technica article on Snow Leopard has a good discussion of the compiler situation. Heck, the whole article is a good read regarding the real nuts and bolts of Snow Leopard.

contrast sights vs 3 dot sights

I believe contrast is good. Good shooting technique has you focusing on the front sight. Thus, things to help your eyes pick up the front sight are good. Furthermore eliminating things that can distract your eyes are also good. Thus, increasing the contrast between your front sight and the rear sight, between your front sight and your surroundings, IMHO these things are good.

That’s one reason I don’t like 3-dot sights. When you’re trying to quickly get a sight picture, now you have 3 dots to choose from, which is the front sight? If you’re moving fast it doesn’t take much to have the gun pointed slightly askew and actually having the front sight appear to the right or left. Or maybe the front sight doesn’t appear at all and you mentally ask yourself “is that the front sight?” You don’t need to waste time trying to determine “is that the front sight.” It should be definitive.

My current setup is using a set of Dawson Precision sights. The rear is just flat black, but very crisp, sharp, and no-glare. The front is a simple post, but has a red fiber optic insert to help draw my eye. The fiber isn’t used for aiming, just to make the front sight stand out so your eyes come to it. Otherwise, the sights act like any other notch-and-post type sights in terms of aiming.

a 9mm round is equal to what caliber

A 9mm Parabellum bullet is about a .36 caliber. Or maybe .35, depending how you round (.355″).

what does lswchp mean

Lead Semi Wad Cutter Hollow Point. A type of bullet.

is prvi partizan ammo safe in m1a?

I’ve used their .308 Winchester 168 grain match ammo in mine, and it’s been fine.

There’s nothing on the list that seems to say otherwise. My experiences with Prvi ammo have been good, and the reviews and comments I’ve read online have been generally positive about Prvi ammo in general. IMHO it’s not the best ammo in the world, but it’s good stuff and I have no aversion to shooting it in my guns.

where to store pistol home defense

I would say, where it’s handy to serve it’s purpose. I keep the dishwasher near the kitchen sink, because that’s where it’s most handy for its purpose. I keep the TV remote control by my La-Z-Boy recliner because that’s where it’s most handy for its purpose. I keep the toilet paper next to the toilet because that’s where it’s most handy for its purpose. Think about these examples. If the useful tool was not where you wanted it when you wanted it, what good would that be? Why do people store their remote controls up by the TV? If I wanted to get off my butt to change the channel, I wouldn’t have a remote control in the first place. 😉

But of course, you may have additional issues to consider, such as children in the home. I always liked Kathy Jackson’s take on things. Go read her stuff. No point in me duplicating it here.

Another possible issue is appearances. Depending who you are and/or where you live, to have a rack of guns openly about in the house may be no big deal, or it may be impermissible. You may have to consider other options.

When I think about where to store, my main concerns are access and safety. To ensure those who should get to it can get to it promptly when needed, and those you shouldn’t get to it can’t. And to be safe about it to ensure no one, save the one deserving it, gets hurt. But I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

will a 9mm stop a person

A 9mm what? Oh, I’m sure they mean bullet.

If it’s placed correctly, yes it can.

.45 vs 9mm handgun difference

One shoots a .45 caliber bullet, the other a 9mm caliber bullet. Duh! 😉

3 dots on my nuts

I don’t want to know what that’s all about.

fingers hurts when typing

“Doctor, it hurts when I do this.”

“Don’t do that.”

best offensive gun

Now I admit, that’s a search term twist. Most people are always searching for the best defensive gun or other defense-related terms.

I would say that it doesn’t really matter. To be offensive or defensive depends more upon your mental state, your skills, your situation; that is, you. The gun, it’s just a lump of steel. It’s not the gun, it’s what you do with it.

Or maybe they don’t mean offensive as in “going on the attack.” Maybe they mean the best gun to offend someone with. I guess again it would depend. Paul Helmke, any gun. Carolyn McCarthy, any gun with a shoulder thing that goes up. For Xavier, he’s got a whole collection of ugly guns and shows them off every Sunday. For Charlton Heston, the one taken from his cold dead hands. For Ted Nugent, the one that caused him to miss that white-tailed deer. 🙂

More questions from stats

More questions from the stats page… things people are searching on that bring them to my blog.

federal p308h

What we’re talking about is Federal Premium Vital-Shok .308 Winchester 165 grain Barnes Triple-Shock X-Bullet

I picked this as my hunting load because of the constraints of my M1A. It works great. I’m no longer using the M1A for hunting (after that first time, it was just too much), but I’m still using that load in my Savage because the load works. I like those Barnes bullets.

what choke to use for home defense

Despite what most people think, there isn’t an easy answer to this. The conventional wisdom is to use as open a shotgun choke as possible, typically going for cylinder bore. I’ve even seen some home-defense shotguns with spreader chokes (e.g. Mossberg 500 HS410). But the reality is you have to pick the right combination of choke and load that patterns as you want it to be. Take a look at what came from The Box O’ Truth on this matter. It presents a good argument that there isn’t a simple recipe that works for everyone and anyone, you have to know how things will pattern and invest the time and money to find out.

One additional factor is to consider your particular situation. Will you be shooting longer distances? Shorter? Might you have to deal with shooting around objects (barriers, potential for hostages)? How about risks of collateral damage, e.g. are you out on 50 acres of land or are you in an apartment complex and what happens if one of those pellets doesn’t strike the intended target? One if the biggest things I picked up out of KR Training’s Defensive Long Gun class is knowing your weapon and what it’s capable of at distances and with objects. There’s no question a shotgun is a vicious weapon, but it’s also a trickier one because you’re dealing with numerous projectiles that spread as they travel. If you have to shoot to 25 yards, you may need a tighter choke (it should still be effective at 3 yards). If you live alone it may not be as big a deal to ensure all pellets hit the target as if say you had children that might risk being caught in the crossfire and thus a tighter pattern offers a bit more control in shot placement.

So again, there’s no single solution that works. You have to know your situational needs, then take your gun (and do this with each gun if you have multiple), you have to buy a lot of different loads, you have to see how they pattern at different distances, you have to ensure it’s reliable in the patterning, switch chokes around to see how they work, and you cannot be afraid to switch and shop around until you find what satisfies your need. Or at least, you need to know how what you’ve got works, the capabilities and the limits.

do .38 special snub noses have recoil

Yes they do. All guns, when fired, will have recoil. 🙂  Just a question of how much actual recoil and how much felt recoil (felt recoil usually being more important to your shooting experience). Generally people are wanting to cope with “felt recoil”, and generally larger guns with heavier frames will absorb more recoil thus you’ll feel less. That is, take a .38 Special snub that’s one of the ultralight frames (e.g. aluminum alloy, or maybe one of the newer scandium alloys like the S&W 340) and a snub that’s an all steel frame, and you’ll feel less recoil with the all steel model. Take an all steel snub revolver vs. an all steel full sized revolver (e.g. S&W 627), and you’ll feel less recoil with the larger one.

the best 9mm gun

Why, the one I shoot, of course! 🙂

“Best” is highly subjective. You’ll have to be a little more specific about your goals.

I like my Springfield XD-9, customized by Springer Precision. It fits my hand well, the customized trigger is nice, the Dawson Precision sights (thin red fiber front, black “target” rear) are great, good capacity, good balance and weight for me. If I was buying a gun today, I’d probably get a Springfield XD(m) 9. It’s XD 2.0, if you will.

great self defense handgun

Now that’s a little more specific. But still rather broad because what works for one person may not work for another. Check out this guide from KR Training. I’d say what fits you and thus you can shoot well, is reliable, and you’re willing to practice and train with… that’s good for a start.

what is the more effective gun 9mm .45

Define “effective.” Seriously. Effective in what way? If you’re talking terminal effectiveness, they’re more or less the same. .45 ACP will have more recoil than a 9mm; if you can’t manage that additional recoil, if that keeps you from putting the shots where you want them to go, then who cares about cartridge/caliber terminal effectiveness because shot placement is the most important factor in terminal effectiveness… better to have a .22 you can shoot and nail things with than a .45 that you can’t hit the side of the barn with.

farting funny pictures

That seems to require the prerequisite of being able to capture a fart on film. I didn’t realize they were visible. Either I need new glasses, or maybe there’s an app for that.

socially accepted rifles for defense

That’s a good question, and I guess it all depends what social circles you run in. I’m sure Paul Helmke would say no rifle is socially acceptable for any reason whatsoever, but Ted Nugent would say whatever you can get your hands on. 🙂

The general rule seems to be that black plastic parts on the gun equal scary, and wood parts on the gun is not scary. Black plastic has a “military” look, wood parts has an old fart hunter/farmer look. Of course, the real important parts of the gun (e.g. the action) are the same.

Read this article.