Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Metric system in the US

No kidding! If we switched, we might become the world's largest economy.
+1

Canada tried to go full metric in 1975–why was that? Because our largest trading partner announced that it was going full metric by 1980. I tried to tell the local politicians that it was never going to happen. I told them cattle ranchers out west sold their beef by the hundred wieght—and Midwest farmers sold corn at 56lbs per bushel and even the West Virginia coal miners sold coal in long tons not metric.
I’ve had to live for the last 40years under both systems—the hardest thing to get used to was temperatures—what the hell is 12C anyway.
The way I do it is to double the 12 to 24 and add 32 to it = 56 F —not exactly but close enough.

Gas mileage under the metric system is really screwed—not miles per gallon but how many litres per 100 klicks driven.

Metric is based on a unit of measurement, dollars are based on cents (a derivative of century) not based on 39.38 inches...

You think NASA scientists wouldn't have used the metric system in their calculations? I suppose the Russkies wouldn't have used the metric system either to put the first man into space.

Nothing to fear, the metric system is simplicity itself. Mind you, when I catch an 8lb rainbow trout it's sounds a lot better than saying it weighs 3.6827Kg.



Good point shrapnel.

THERE YA GO !!

Bob’s your Uncle ......

But Shrapnel’s ours !!

Learning our system vs. metric forces the brain to work harder. I wonder if anyone has done research to find out if this lead to slightly better brain development, or helps with thinking outside the box? It could be part of the reason why the U.S. lead the world in invention and industrial development.

Curious, do we actually know NASA used English units? Werner von Braun and company certainly would have been comfy with metric.

Try running a time-on-target air assault, ground speed in nautical miles per hour and distance in kilometers.

The instruments in a Blackhawk for systems had temps in Celsius and pressure in PSI.

I now understand temp in Celsius, only because it was used in performance planning.

After awhile, its all just numbers that your brain deciphers. We could have made the change years ago.

I am glad we didnt, chrono readings just are not as impressive in meters per second.

Seems to me we should go metric because we're already half and half, which is more difficult. The Army uses clicks. Bullets are 5.56mm, not .223 inches. Mortars are 81mm. Liquor comes in 750ml bottles. Don't know about the moon program in 1969 but space calculations are mostly metric now.

Metric makes sense for electronics or any other time you are using huge numbers. In machining not so much. I can convert and do just fine but just try to find metric nuts, bolts or tooling anywhere around here and you'll end up as nuts as Nancy Pelosi. Even threading on a metric lathe is a pita.

As for cartridges everything is crazy because some are designated by bore diameter and some are designated by groove diameter. Even the metric countries suffer. Go ahead and try to chamber a 9mm Makarov in a 9mm Luger. For many years now we have existed just fine with the imperial system here and we can produce anything we are required to to whatever tolerance required. Metric countries are not so capable. Metric equivalent imperial bolts and nuts are hit and miss. A metric bolt from China may or may not fit a metric nut from Japan or UK. Before WWII Britton and Germany were Whitworth and that's another story.

I was a Survey Crew Chief back when Arkansas tried to convert. It was no problem (mostly) for surveying but the rumor that I heard was that they could not get the culvert and steel people to go along. At one time I had all of the stuff in my trucks to do a survey either way, foot or metric, plus inch tapes for bridge widening jobs. On a bridge widening, you had to measure the existing bridge in inches so they could compare the old plans to the "as built" measurement. Most of my crew had trouble using the inch tapes as they had used tenth tapes for years and been told that only whores and carpenters uses inches. Try getting all the measurements to come out to the same as EDM shot distances and trying to find the bad measurement when it don't. miles

Since I retired, I only have one. miles

Nope, What Brazos said. miles

It’s just numbers. Shooting elevations is in hundredths, like 3” equals .25. 6”equals .50 9” equals .75. No big deal once you get over not liking it. It’s easier really!

No one who knows me would consider me either a "liberal snowflake" or a "commie". That is a stretch.

Don't go metric like we did in 1977. Trudope #1 wanted us to be like France. Cost billions every sign scale and so on has to be changed. Still causes a lot of confusion. Most people still talk and use imperial measure. Country was surveyed in miles same as United States. I remember the debate United States had about going metric several years ago. Thank goodness you were smart enough to stay Imperial. It was forced on us. I'm a farmer do you know how much it pizzez me off when every chemical label is in metric and french ? EVERYONE converts that metric BS back to imperial even the young farmers.

That's whats done here. 2x4 and 4x8 sheets of plywood. F metric

Not trying to be disrepectful but that's not the case

You have to make up your mind. First you say you should have one system, which you then say is miles, then you say to listen what Brazos said. Brazos referred to using the measurement of a foot, not a meter. You can't have it both ways...