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.

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.