Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Over used shooting cliche's

I got to thinking on another point about the most over used shooting and hunting cliches. Thought I would post some of the ones that I hate the most:

1. Its a "tactical" weapon/version.

Painting something black or green doesn't make it tactical. Does anyone really know just what the heck "tactical" means nowadays? Why does that word seem to be applied to everything from cleaning kits to shoelaces?

2. It is a very nice/quality rifle you just need to tweak the trigger, re-barrel and bed it into a new stock.

3. It will shoot MOA "all day long" (provided you aonly shoot 1 group a day and are lucky that 1 time)

Any others? Little sayings and quips that seem to permeate the industry/hobby?

One of my favorites:

1) I use a big-bore Remchester RUSM because I don't live in Elk country and can't be picky about my shots


-Lou

I like "the deer died in it's tracks." Well, yeah, they all do, if they don't fly. Sometimes, though, the death occurs someplace over the ridge.

I'm also fond of "the venerable .30-06." Some writers evidently can't type .30-06 without venerable next to it.

MD

"Kills all out of proportion"

Mark <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My favorite is "flat shootin' " applied to MV's from 2400 FPS to 4300+ FPS.

The ubiquitous or long lived....fill in with your favorite old cartridge.

I second "kills all out of proportion". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Excellent and necessary post!

David Fortier is one of these writers that is SO FULL OF CLICHES that is boring and of course, nbody, can believe his claims. I don't understand why ST is contracting work with him. It's obvious that he is a marketing guy, payed to write the marketing stuff for a range of companies.

His writing style, is beyond poorness, is almost impossible to attact a reader with more that two lines of forehead.

Or when writters call the 30-06 the "old war horse". I would think that by now the 06 has taken more game than enemies.

How about "stretched string" trajectories, "easy packin'" (sic) attached to anything from kit guns to mountain rifles, "combo"--really hate that non-word, and do we include euphemisms like "hit it a little far back" for gut shot.

....hits like Thor's hammer....

I am also a bit tired of "Brush guns" - Are you trying to tell me nothing was ever killed outside of a cedar swamp with a Win 94?

"A bit far back" usually means "A bit foreward of THS" which = gut shot.

Here's some:

"It shoots like a dart." I guess they hunt in bars.

"My scope was dead on." Dead since it doesn't have an effect on your shot.

"I must have bumped my scope off somehow." Ya right, four years ago when you fell out of the tree.

"He must have been hit." Hit with the dirt your shot kicked up.

"I couldn't have missed." Well you did.......again!

"There's gotta be blood or hair around here" Sure, if it's an old Indian battle site.

"The gunshop told me this was the ammo to use." Too bad he didn't tell you to sight in your gun with it too.

"You don't need a magnum." Because I want one and can't afford it, am afraid to shoot it, someone else told another guy that and he actually knows something even though I know I don't.

"What flich?" OK I guess that jump when the pin hit an empty chamber was just fear of damage to that highly collectable 110 in 30-06, right?

"I never clean a centerfire. You don't have to." Hmmm. You don't have to change oil, either.

"Is the barrel free floated?" Not this 870.

"I don't have the time to handload." So you'd rather use that extra time to track gut shot game, huh?

"I don't shoot enough to handload." Gee, I couldn't tell.

"That's an elephant gun." Yep, right along with a 7X57.

"Recoil doesn't bother me." Just your groups, I guess.

"Those 'ol 30-30's (or any levergun calibers) are great for busting brush" How much was that brush license?

"The 30-30 has taken more game than any caliber going." Amazing what hunger, marksmanship and woodsmanship can do.

"I just can't find the time to hunt like I would like to." I'll help:give me your TV.

help me I can't quit! ha ha

Laughing like an idiot here.




Way too much truth in those.

RickyD already mentioned the cliche that makes my skin crawl. When working in gun stores, there was always the guys that would look you straight in the eye, and with the same look in their eyes that one would expect from someone announcing that he had just talked to God would say "Recoil doesn't bother me". Sometimes, when we were feeling mea, we would take a rifle, double check it for safety, and then have this super human dry fire the rifle.
Now, when this nimrod (to use one of Brad's least favorite words) would cause the firing pin to fall, almost always, he would slam his eyes shut, roll his head towards the center of his body, and clutch at the pistol grip of the stock. The trigger "squeeze" would look more like the motion required to pull the pin from a grenade.
A close relative of this statement is "I never feel recoil when I am shooting at an animal, so recoil doesn't really matter". Well, flinching happens BEFORE the recoil is felt, and its the 'not flinching" that has to be learned, and that learned behavior is easily forgotten when the adrenalin is hot and the feet are cold.

Royce

I really hate the word "harvested"! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

Who was the #%#/%$& "politically-correct idiot " who first used the word "harvested" when he meant killed.

Probably some whipped farmer whose wife was the local PETA president.

Here's another along the same lines often asked by women:

"Did you catch anything?" No but a nice eight point caught 180 grains behind the front shoulder!

We were going bear hunting and a dental hygenist asked my father (he works with Dentists) "What will you do if you catch one?"

That was classic!

While not a cliche, the "front shoulder" tickles me... have yet to see a rear shoulder... Commonly used in plural form to confirm the fact they were not thinking of the nearside shoulder.
art