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

Years ago, a potential customer looking at a shotgun asked "What inch is that barrel?"

Considering there’s a worldwide effort well under way to destroy Western Civilization and turn us all into bug-munching serfs constrained to living in tiny dwellings at temperatures dictated by our masters etc etc etc…

I don’t fret much about trivial matters like people calling cartridges bullets, or even boolets.

… “irregardless” of whether it makes any sense or is even self-negating.

Among the ignorant, the word “misfire” has come to mean any unwanted outcome involving shooting, such as when “my M1911 pistol misfired in the holster and shot my girlfriend’s dog in the head.”

“I can’t get no satisfaction.”

Indeed we're watching Western Civilization die the Death of a Thousand Cuts. Those who cheer for the end result or simply don't care as long as they are snug in their little worlds are the enemy, and those who rail against the small "cuts" are only doing their bit to staunch the bleeding.

I started my work career in manufacturing. I worked in a company which employed between 300 and 400 staff from all walks of life. I started in maintenance and eventually made it to one of the research and development labs at the company. Certain words have to have a meaning which transcends all walks of life. Things come up in manufacturing where you have to have several departments working together to accomplish something. For example, if a machine breaks and you send maintenance to work on it you have several things happen. First, maintenance will have to diagnose the problem. They may have to read a manual or parts catalog to figure out how to repair the machine. Or maybe the machine is unique to this factory and they have to call one of the engineers who designed it to get their expertise. If maintenance calls it a widget and the engineer calls it a thingamajig, how would you fix it or find a replacement? Better yet, you now have to get purchasing involved to order the part that no one can say the correct name for it.

What you are observing from Federal to Weatherby is a disconnect between departments. Sales/marketing/front office are the direct line of communication to the customer/end user. The people who make the product, work on the machines which produce it, and those who design and test it are not involved directly with the customer. I observed many times a sales person or someone in the front office who did not understand what the company produced. They were more concerned with kissing the rear end of the best customers. Heck one of these customers could have told them more about their product than they knew. Yet, the people who makes these decisions are not knowledgeable to discuss the product they are trying to sell. I would bet there are engineers/ballisticians/scientists at these companies who understand the difference between caliber and cartridge. The sales/marketing/front office would never come to this group and get their opinion on their website design or content. The engineers/ballisticians/scientists group would also never feel the need to complain about it. They would probably just say, "Idiots!" shake their head and go on with their day.

I hear you on common usage. A word like gay has changed dramatically through the decades. Gay as a word, to my grandparents has a different meaning than it does to my son.

I hate hearing the weather reporter say "hotter temperatures" or "cold temperatures." It irks me that anyone so educated as a meteorologist would use such phrases. Temperatures can be high, and they can be low. Weather can be hotter or colder than yesterday, but temperature is neither hot nor cold.

The old "hot water heater" redundancy is just funny, not maddening like "irregardless" is. I wonder if anyone at Home Depot would think it strange if I asked to be shown the water heaters.

....and a .38 Spl is actually .357" and a .357 Magnum is .357"...and a 9mm is .357"!

Hmmm....
Yeah, I get the actual diameter thingie. No biggie!
Uhhmmm.... curious about "diameter" thing, so I quizzed a gunsmith.
Well, actually, there are two measurements being referred to.
For instance, the .270 Win.
To someone adept at using and reading a dial caliper, you will find that the measurement between grooves will be .277". The measurement between lands will be .270".
That means the grooves are .0035" deep.


"... 7mm is not .284" - it's actually .276". ..." (??? You sure you didn't burn your popcorn?)
You may find the 7mm will probably measure .280" - .284".
BTW, a 7mm Rem Mag is nothing but a noisy .270 Win! 😉

Another grimace moment. "I shoot a 6 em-em (6.5, 7, 8, etc).
Those two m's stand for "millimeter"!

Shells and bullets are in the same category to me! 😖
It's ammo or ammunition.

A local lawyer we all knew walked into our shop and paid cash (late 70's) for a Leupold 3.5-10×50 and walked over to the gunsmith.
Handed it to the gunsmith and said, "Set this for 150 yards." and walked out of the shop!

Stand in a gun shop/store for a little while. It will blow your mind the questions you get asked!

I was in an Academy in Corpus Christi, TX in the winter of '22.
All the ammo was in locked cases at the front of the store.
Asked the lady, "Do you have any "three-oh-eight" ammo?"
"No," she said, "we have yadda, yadda, 7.62, yadda, yadda..."
"WAIT!, what 7.62 ammo?"
"7.62×51."
"I'll take two boxes!"

I never say anything because it just starts an argument that goes nowhere, but these get me.

there - their - they're 😖 NOT interchangeable
accept - except 😖 NOT interchangeable
then - than 😖 NOT interchangeable
should "have", not should "of" 😵‍💫

Older folks that had always shot iron sights.
"When I seen 'im, I drew a fine bead....."
"... draw a bead ..."?

Andy Griffith once made a movie where he was a rich guy that hired a guide. Basically, he ended up hunting the guide.
Guide asked what rifle he was shooting.
"A .30-06 Magnum!" 🙉

P.S. - no matter where you go, what you do, who you meet or how much you love them, you're going to find things that just irritate the living daylights out of you.
DO NOT expect the world to change to satisfy you.
You're just gonna hafta live with it!

I can't stand the YouTube idiot that shoots "boo-lots" in his "bing-bangs", some of which wear "shushers"...

Each leg is a "pant", therefore, two of them is a "pair" of pants!
A spotting scope is a "monocular". Attach two noculars together and you have "bi"noculars. I normally just call them "by-noes" (binos).
Unless of course, Frank is there. Then I call them "barnacles"!
Or shall we just say, "A binocular!", or "A pants!"? 😉

I am not expecting anyone to change. I do plenty of things incorrectly too. I thought it would be interesting to hear what makes others scratch their heads. I have really enjoyed reading the comments. For example, some take issue with pronunciation. It never crossed my mind. I mispronounce lots of words. Much of my life I have been around people whose first language is not English. They mispronounce words all the time. Sometimes it can be funny when it sounds like something they did not intend. For me, not a big deal. For some that is their trigger. I hope everyone in the thread takes away that we are all wrong and all right at different times. Cut people some slack and show kindness instead of anger. We are all in this together.

I agree!

Here's one that I have to catch myself on from time to time!

A Colt "Gov't" .45ACP is a "PISTOL"!
A Ruger "BlackHawk" .45 LC is a "REVOLVER"!
"Pistol" or "Revolver", it's a "handgun".
A T/C Contender? It's a handgun.

How do you hold a handgun?
By the handle?
By the grips?
By the stock?

Yep

And........

Some folks say "I could care less" when they mean they couldn't care less.

….and nothing . I don’t actually care one way or another, just mentioned it as a change I’ve observed.

I think there's a special place in hell....

I hate the term Grain Weight.

There was a book.about gunsmithing years ago that referred to Schnabel and snobble

Die or down in his tracks (even if they run a mile.and succumb to the wound, they die in their tracks )

My brother had a guy want a rifle rebarreled to 7 em em( argh) because it has a good pressure CUP (copper unit it's of pressure )

Not guns but....
VIN number......vs just VIN

I had a copy of that book, which was written by a guy named Tommy Bish. The title of one chapter was, "No Squabble for a Snobble." Don't remember him using Schnabel....

I enjoy the authors that use 'caliber' and 'cartridge' in the same paragraph to mean the same thing.

An chuckle at no extra charge.