Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Shooters/hunters/manufacturers using the wrong terminology

I was thinking recently how some people and manufacturers use words which are incorrect. For example, "My favorite caliber is the 30-06." When they should have said, "My favorite chambering and cartridge is the 30-06." Or they refer to a cartridge as a bullet, although a bullet is part of the cartridge it is not the whole. What are some examples that you hear which make you cringe a little?

Point Blank

One of Jack O'Conner's last articles dealt with this. It appalled his to see people use cute words and simply wrong words. I'm in his corner. Usually when someone want to know what cartridge is best for this of that, they ask what rifle should they get. And referring to cartridges as bullet's really get's old. One the Jack mentioned was the term mulies! He said something like the correct term is mule deer! Lot of time's I see cute words some make up for this or that and I'm lost! have no idea where their mind was with the word they chose! Big down side to it is new to the sport people get started off calling different things by the wrong names and you have to wonder what they really mean. ie. which bullet's should I use for deer, never hunted before? Well before you can answer that in a decent way you do need to know what cartridge is being used! Stuff really turned off Jack but keep in mind he was a collage professor!

"Ladder test"...I've always known it to be some version of an Audette-style ladder test. Reloaders now commonly refer to any load work up where they're increasing charge weights as a ladder test.

Jack O'Connor was not only a professor but an ENGLISH professor. I would imagine there were quite a few improper uses of language and grammer that irritated him (maybe why he didn't like Elmer Keith too well).
I personally dislike interchanging "clip" and "magazine". Not that anyone cares.

Direct impingement. There is such a mechanism, but it doesn't apply to the M16.

Clips vs magazines, yup. Wonder if it's a regional thing. Seems nine of ten Mainers use the terms interchangeably.

Using the word clip when talking about a magazine.

Fire control group or trigger pack when talking a about a trigger group on an older military rifle.

Spelling the word bullet as "boolet" or "boolit".

Referring to a rifle as a "shooting platform".

" If I do my part ".

Audettes = possessive noun

Ladder noun = ascending stages by which somebody or something can progress

Test verb = to use (something) in a planned and usually controlled way in order to see if it works properly

Dump the possessive noun and what have you got?

A ladder test.

Insert name of tester as a possessive noun and what do you have JoeBlows Ladder Test. That meets the actual definition.

Lighten up

English is not static, rather it is constantly changing. If large number of people use the term, it becomes the understood term and thus the correct term.

Wow, that's sick!

Simple pronunciation. . . . It isn't "an-shultz" and it sure as hell isn't "sa-vor-ski"

I like the chosen phrases of the TV news.

Experts say......

Statistics show......

Most people agree.....

Rampage.......

Huge ammunition cache.....

Arms stockpile.......

Dressed in paramilitary gear.......

Our unofficial pole shows......

Inadvertent misuse of terminology buy gun owners just doesn't stack up :⁠-⁠)

Leo- pold

Say- ko

What kind of scope do you run?

What about the Statistically Questionable Ladder Test?

Hunters calling fawns yearlings.

😂

That’s part of the JoeBlow Ladder Test I do believe.

I worked as a gunsmith in three different retail gun stores and have heard many. I never worried much about interchanging of cartridge, chambering, and caliber, because I just didn't care. I never considered myself to be a qualified judge of what is proper or not. I did hear some which were amusing and some which required some thought to decipher.
One of the first was the fellow who called up because his pump action shotgun had a loose armature. I guessed this was probably the forearm, and I was right!
Another time, a fellow called up and asked where he could get a setter. The guy who fielded this call was a dog guy and said he didn't know of anyone with setters, but did have contact numbers for breeders of Pointers and Brittany Spaniels. The potential customer said he didn't need a dog; he needed a setter for his rear sight.
There was seldom a day went by without a request to have a scope line bored. We all learned to interpret this as bore sighting.
We had rifles which were equipped with retractors, rejectors, and on one memorable occasion, an ejaculator. GD