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

Agreed! Tactical is terribly overused.

Jeff Cooper once explained the difference between Strategy and Tactics as the difference between drafting a grand plan, and actually executing it. The plan is a strategy, the execution is tactical. he gave an example, as Follows:

When you take a girl to a dinner, you Dress up nice, take her to a fine restauarant, buy her flowers, compare her smile to the shining sun, etc,. That is strategy, it was planned in advance for a purpose.

When, later that evening, you have parked by the lake, and the strategy having been successful, its time to execute from then on the plan. from there on its "tactical." <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Unfortunately, everything that is parkerized or has a rail on it is "tactical." I *think* they mean, law enforcement related.

I also think "kills all out of proportion" is overused.

Just my 2 cents,

BMT

My teeth grind at these (among others):

� rifles that "sport" or "wear" scopes or whatever
� "tube" for barrel, especially in reference to rifle barrels
� "harvested" for killed
� "projectile" or "slug" for bullet
� "handle" for stock
� "glass" or "optics" for scope or binoculars

Fowler said it well � 'The obvious is preferable to the obvious avoidance of it."

Tactical has to be the most overused of 'em all. I've seen tactical shooting glasses,tactical shirts/shorts, tactical hats.

Hell, I've even heard of a fellow using a "Tactical Bucket"... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

It's none of my business, other than David Fortier is a friend of mine and one of the hardest working and competent writers around, but on what do you base your character assasination? As a reader, you are certainly free not to like David's writing but why throw in ludicrous inaccurate assaults against his character? FWIW, I note you have only made three posts on this forum and two of them were blatant SPAM for some outfitter. So just who is the ad man here?

... and FWIW, clich�, by definition, means overused. There's no other kind of clich�, no such thing as an underused clich�, certainly no such thing as a novel clich�. Their problem is that they're no longer (if they ever were) crisply creative or expressive. Excessive use has even made 'em intrusive or even offensive. I hate 'em. Every careful writer does. Every writer should.

Main Entry: cli�ch�
Variant(s): also cli�che /klE-'shA, 'klE-", kli-'/
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally, printer's stereotype, from past participle of clicher to stereotype, of imitative origin
1 : a trite phrase or expression; also : the idea expressed by it
2 : a hackneyed theme, characterization, or situation
3 : something (as a menu item) that has become overly familiar or commonplace
(Merriam-Webster dictionary)

cli�ch� (kl�-sh��) n. A trite or overused expression or idea: �Even while the phrase was degenerating to clich� in ordinary public use . . . scholars were giving it increasing attention� (Anthony Brandt). [French, past participle of clicher, to stereotype (imitative of the sound made when the matrix is dropped into molten metal to make a stereotype plate).]
(American Heritage dictionary)

I'll third 'all out of proportion' and 'bang flop', capt david <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

"...if I do my part," as in "This thing will shoot 3/128-ths of an inch, ..."

Jaywalker

I could think of hundreds, but here are just a few that set me off:

This rifle "prints" "sub-MOA groups" "all day long" "as long as I do my part." (This is usually found after the writer has described only one or two three-shot groups!)

Also, I hate it when writers describe gun tests as "I went to the range and put it through its paces," or mention caliber by saying "reamed" rather than "chambered" for a certain cartridge.

Plus, it drives me nuts when Rick Jamison constantly says "propellant" rather than "powder," and "projectile" rather than "bullet."

The terms "tactical" and "benchrest accuracy" make me feel ill.......

ADay

How about; "The 250 Savage was the BRAINCHILD of..."

Seriously, has anyone ever penned a paragraph about the 250-3000 without plagerizing this phrase????

I love this thread! It confirms what I try to tell my writers and writing students � that readers notice careless, shallow, and lazy writing and don't like it or respect it.

For me it's "Tack Driver". Where did this one originate? Just about every article I've read about accurate rifles states this. Can't we just say that it's very accurate?

I've actually driven tacks with a High Standard Field King .22.

I too am tired of "tack-driver" and have used two replacements for it that anyone here who likes 'em is free and welcome to adopt �

� candle-snuffer � tighter-shooting than "tack-driver"

� match-lighter � tighter-shooting than "candle-snuffer"

I got your front AND rear shoulder right here!


Don't have a clue which is which though.

Hi, My name's John Kerry and can I use that truck for a few months?

How about "Accurate enough for it's intended purposes" usually when talking about a crappy handgun, but I'm sure it applies to rifles as well.

Well, that's so we can call it "projectile dysfunction" if we don't do our part <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

All time worst.....

"I never miss when aiming at hair"


yea right...........DJ

When referencing a rifle, calling it a "gun" gets to me. Just call it a rifle.



Roads

I get tired of the East coast rifles don't have to be long range. Guess there is nothing but 3 acre fields out here.

This is my rifle....this is my gun.....this one's for shooting....this one's for fun.

Calling your hunting rifle a "weapon" is just as bad.

And calling your action a "sucks"..kinda sucks too. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

�Shoots like a house afire.� Huh?

"I shot my rifle," as opposed to "I fired my rifle."

"Shooting" all my rifles would get expensive. I suppose a guy would have to club the last one to death <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />.

Ken, I like the 'candle snuffer/match lighter' idea. How long before they become cliches? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> How about "Shoots tighter than the backside of a match holder when I'm testing a new load for my match lighter?" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Not long if they "catch on" and get used too much � IOW, as too-frequent substitutes for independent word-smithing.

I've seen a couple of posts by people or a person that has used the word "bonked" to infer killing an animal. For some reason this just bothered me, sounding kind of disrespectful and demeaning.

"...and don't look back."

I think it means, "The advantages of my choice are obvious to the veriest clod, and therefore I need not explain my reasoning. All right-thinking people will move this direction immediately." Maybe it's wrong to saddle gunwriters with this one, but WTH, we're on a roll.

Jaywalker

"This rifle/pistol will shoot better than I able."

Well, exactly how does one know that?

For Ken Howell

I think someone some start a thread for the most original cliche-

TIC

Royce

Slightly off topic, but I hate it when "This gun wasn't really meant for long range shots" so the gunwriter "shoots it off his hind legs like a man as fast as he can pull the trigger and all of them grouped into a pieplate at 15 yards and that's good enough for me". That really tells me a lot about the gun's accuracy.

When the gunwriter hates "magnums", you know: too much weight, recoil, powder, & muzzle blast. So he uses proceeds to use a "non-magnum" with his "special loads" that equals the magnum's velocity, but burns less powder, has less muzzle blast, in a gun that weighs less than the dreaded magnum all while providing less recoil. I guess Newton's law has been repealed!

'The recoil from this rifle is more like a slow push'- Really! Wish Newton was still around to try and explain this one.

'This gun shoots flat out to (xxx) yards'- great for hunting in anti-gravity forests.

'The .(270, 30-06) is an adequate caliber for (pick an animal)'

"I've got this new range finding scope" "I can shoot up to 600 yards"

"Harvested" makes me want to climb up the nearest water tower with a "tactical" rifle that's "accurate right out of the box" . jorge

Besides "a real tackdriver right out of the box" I can't stand reading that such and such caliber is a "proven manstopper". That's mostly the pistol press, but man you read it a lot...

Some of mine have already been mentioned. To the list I would add the use of the word "pill" when referring to a bullet. Geez, I hate that one!



Use of the "pre" qualifiers such as "pre-64 model 70", "pre-garcia sako" or "tang-safety ruger" are irritating. I'm waiting for someone to write, "My pre-2004 A-Bolt with the tang safety...." or "pre-accutrigger model 110". Perhaps a more universal description could be, "pre-POS model [number here].



Seen more in bowhunting is "whacked". Not cool. "I sent my [arrow/bullet] downrange...."

Yeah, "Pill" and "No Brainer" are mind numbingly stupid...

Is there any room in there for a "gnat castrater"?

This topic got me thinking about how often I see these same cliches online, including here and on other forums. I did a quick search on these forums for the last 6 months and of all the cliches that were listed here, the king (in terms of # search results returned, not counting mentions in this thread) is "if you do your part". Funny thing is, I feel like I've heard it more than once or twice at the range too, and at gun shops, shows... they say language is like a virus, maybe this particular line is much more "catching" than the others;-)