So, more questions from my blog stats:

do or do not dry fire a .22

Generally no, you should not dry fire a rimfire gun. It will eventually lead to damaging the gun. However, it is worthwhile to ask the manufacturer. For instance, Ruger’s 10/22 specifically says in its user guide that you can dry fire it — certainly more the exception than the rule. On my Buck Mark, it didn’t say either way so I called Browning’s customer support to ask and they said no.

That said, you could use snap caps, but I’ve had a hard time finding .22 LR snap caps. There are some that claim to be, but online reviews say they’re too short and thus may not feed right. Probably not a problem if you have a .22 revolver, but in things like the Ruger 10/22’s rotary magazine they won’t work. YMMV.

how to accurately shoot a 9mm pistol

Slow down. 🙂

Seriously. Accuracy and speed are somewhat of an inverse relationship. Granted as you get better you can shoot both faster and more accurately, but ultimately one will have to be sacrificed somewhat for the other.

You can check out my posting about how to correct handgun shooting problems for some target helps.

I would also recommend attending a reputable school and obtaining training. Having a good teacher does wonders.

why 9mm so expensive 2009

Short answer: Obama.

Longer answer: Obama got elected US President, and a Democrat-controlled Congress. It has long been established that Obama is no friend to gun owners and gun rights (his actions speak clearer than his words). People felt once he got elected that resurrecting the “assault weapons ban” was going to happen so there was quite a run on guns and ammo. The run on guns seems to be quieting down since people are tapped out for money. Ammo is still trying to regain stability but signs are pointing towards things improving (both prices dropping and stocks building).

are guns free on tax free weekend?

Probably not, but I guess it depends how you interpret that question.

Guns will likely not be free on any weekend, or weekday for that matter. Someone somewhere wants to make money and just won’t be giving them away. 🙂

What tax free weekend? Here in Texas when you say “tax free weekend” it generally refers to the sales tax holiday used to help kids get ready for back-to-school. Guns are not on the list of approved items; in fact, not a lot of stuff is. Generally sporting goods are not considered necessities for schooling (e.g. cleats, helmets, pads, rollerskates, etc. aren’t tax free).

Or if you mean maybe a sales tax holiday for guns, earlier in this 2009 Texas Legislative season, Sen. Jeff Wentworth proposed one, but it went nowhere.

preferred shotgun for home defense

There isn’t one. 😉  To paraphrase John Holschen: AR, AR, AR.

That said, if you really want a shotgun, most any will do so long as it is reliable and works well. I’d prefer one with a shorter barrel, e.g. an 18.5″ or 20″ vs. say 26″ or so… dealing with navigating in the tighter confines of hallways and such. I’d prefer 12 gauge, but 20 can be fine too. Buckshot (00 for 12 gauge, #3 or #4 for 20 gauge). Use reduced recoil loads, if possible to make it easier to fire and fire again. Semi-auto may be more finicky and require more maintenance, but it will be a lot easier for the untrained to operate vs. a pump, whereas a pump is likely to be more reliable and run whatever you feed it but you gotta know what you’re doing; consider who will be using it. Make sure you pattern your gun and your load, and go through various loads until you find the one that works best; change chokes if needed too. Read this to see why patterning is important.

Check this.

And practice, practice, practice.

Being the geek that I am, I like looking at my blog statistical data. One of the more interesting things is to look at the things that people are searching for that leads them to my blog. I’ve been thinking about responding directly to some of them, as I find interesting ones. So, why not go ahead and start.

One that came in my current stats is:

will a 9mm +p shoot in any 9mm pistol?

I’m assuming the person is curious to know if 9 mm (Luger, Parabellum, 9x19mm, etc.) +P ammo can be shot out of any gun chambered for 9 mm.

Short answer? No, +P won’t shoot in any pistol.

Longer answer? Any pistol? No. Some pistols? Yes, but you better check first (and not by trying it and seeing what happens).

The thing is, any ammo that is +P rated means that it’s loaded to a higher pressure than the standard (non-+P) load; generally about 10% higher pressure. Thus, more pressure means more well… pressure and stress being imparted upon the firearm. Take a balloon. It’s only able to handle so much air pressure within it before it pops. But if you inflate it with more air pressure than it’s designed to handle what happens? It pops. More or less, that’s what could happen to your gun if you use ammo in it that it is not able to handle.

Thus, you must know your firearm. You must know if it can handle +P ammo before you use +P ammo in it. If you’re not sure, contact the manufacturer of the firearm and ask them. If for some reason you cannot do that, contact a reputable gunsmith. Yes, you could also try to find things out on “t3h int3rw3bz”, but that can be a crap-shoot; know your source. In the end, it may be safer to err on the side of caution and not use the +P ammo.

Note as well there’s a further variant known as +P+, which means the ammo is loaded to even higher specs. This is another thing to ask about and watch out for. Check this Wikipedia article on Overpressure Ammunition for some details on the topic.

Granted most modern firearms can handle the additional pressure of +P rounds, but it’s still wise to know for sure and not guess. Read the user manual, ask the manufacturer. Know before you do. You really don’t want to be on the receiving end of a firearms failure.