Firearm terminology; its meaning and possible every day use

ivanthehunter

I just thought it might be nice to have a thread that discussed the different terminology that exists in the shooting world and possibly how some of this relates to every day use of the English language.

Does anybody know where the term Half cocked comes from or hows about the term cock up?

I know one but not the other so i wont go shooting off my mouth and end up going off half cocked!

ivanthehunter

Come on out with the sayings and i don't want to heard any double barrel meanings i know that some of you out there have a few phrases in your sights and don't worry how bad they are the supers mods won't let people take any pot shots.:p

Where did the word shoot come from?

Kramer

......everyone's keeping their powder dry Ivan.. :D.

meathstevie

Hold your fire lads...

biko

...don't jump the gun

ivanthehunter

whos shooting blanks now?:p

flanum

let the hare sit!

hang fire!

Both guns blazing!

a shot in the dark.

ivanthehunter

Ye have to aim high to hit to hit your target;)

bullets

Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes

According to Bartleby.com: "This saying comes from an order allegedly given by American officer William Prescott at the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War."



or "he was loaded"
(Dunno if thats a phrase that came from anything gun related its a phrase
I heard to indicate someone was drunk or "tanked up" with drugs etc.)

IRLConor

"Lock, stock and barrel"

ivanthehunter

I have'em in my sights..


The whole 9 yards.
This comes from the Vickers machine guns used in fighter/bomber aircraft during WWII. They where loaded with .303 on a chain, the length of which was 27 foot or 9 YARDS.
Often when an allied fighter pilot engaged one of the germans he would fire all his ammo at the target, infact he would fire the whole 9 yards and would not spare any ammo for later

Croppy Boy

Lock, stock and barrel. The three components of a muzzleloader.

Flash in the pan. The prime in the pan is ignited but fails the ignite the main charge.

Going off half cocked. When a muzzleloader (and early cartridge guns) were in half cocked position, this was their safety. To go off in this position would not be good news. (Volatile)

Cock the gun. The piece holding the flint on a flintlock is known as the cock. To cock the gun, pull this back to full cock. The hammer is the piece the flint strikes.

Hang fire. This is when the prime in the pan is ignited but is slow to ignite the main charge in the barrel. There are various reasons for this: vent in the barrel is too low or too small, vent partially blocked with fouling or pan too full causing the prime to act like a fuse

chem

GOING IN HALF COCKED: as said above it was the firearms safty position. So going in half cocked ment you were open to been shot at, without been able to shoot back:o

BITE THE BULLET: In times past. The rifle men used to make paper bullets containing the ball and powder. The ball end of the paped bullet was bit off. Holding the bullet in the mouth. The powder was emptied into the muzzel. The paper was then used as the wad and the bullet, spit into the barrel and rammed down to allow another shot.

bunny shooter

I read somewhere that bite the bullet came from the wounded biting on a bullet if no anastetic was available

ivanthehunter

I,m going to come about for a full broadside, Tbh i better let the sand baggers go in first. You know its hard to find canon fodder there days but i know where to look!:p

Sparks

I can see the point of a thread explaining phrases originating from firearms (such as "the whole nine yards" above).
I can't see the point of just posting random puns. There's a Humour forum for that.

ivanthehunter

Sparks wrote: »

I can see the point of a thread explaining phrases originating from firearms (such as "the whole nine yards" above).
I can't see the point of just posting random puns. There's a Humour forum for that.

Jes your that cold, you'd freeze the balls of a brass monkey sparky me auld chum. Seriously you need to lighten up, you sound like the Terminator.


Anyway I'll explain it so your data banks can process it.
The phrase Its cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey is primarily a Naval expression. The Brass Monkey was an object (made of brass:D) which was constructed with furrow in its top side. This furrow was tapered so as to allow the cannon balls to travel along its length with the kind assistance of gravity. The whole idea was to force cannon balls to the muzzle end of the cannon so as to make for quicker reload times.
All battleships were in a state of constant readiness and their brass monkeys would have been at max capacity. Now mariners noted that on very cold nights (i suppose in the Arctic) a cannon ball would often find its way free from the Brass Monkey and onto the deck:eek:
They common sailors often blamed spirits and ghosts but the real reality was that the brass contracted so much that it actual forced one of the balls very high until it could no longer keeps its self docked and it succumbed to the pitch and roll of the ship on the high sea.

IRLConor

ivanthehunter wrote: »

Jes your that cold, you'd freeze the balls of a brass monkey sparky me auld chum. Seriously you need to lighten up, you sound like the Terminator.

He's an engineer. They're a humourless lot.

ivanthehunter wrote: »

Anyway I'll explain it so your data banks can process it.
The phrase Its cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey is primarily a Naval expression. The Brass Monkey was an object (made of brass:D) which was constructed with furrow in its top side. This furrow was tapered so as to allow the cannon balls to travel along its length with the kind assistance of gravity. The whole idea was to force cannon balls to the muzzle end of the cannon so as to make for quicker reload times.
All battleships were in a state of constant readiness and their brass monkeys would have been at max capacity. Now mariners noted that on very cold nights (i suppose in the Arctic) a cannon ball would often find its way free from the Brass Monkey and onto the deck:eek:
They common sailors often blamed spirits and ghosts but the real reality was that the brass contracted so much that it actual forced one of the balls very high until it could no longer keeps its self docked and it succumbed to the pitch and roll of the ship on the high sea.

That's not the origin of "brass monkeys".

Sparks

IRLConor wrote: »

He's an engineer. They're a humourless lot.

They have good reasons for not training engineers for constant giggling...

chem

Sparks would you have accountancy as a hoddy as well :D:D

ivanthehunter

One a serious note can someone explain the terms fullbore and smallbore.

bunny shooter

ivanthehunter wrote: »

Jes your that cold, you'd freeze the balls of a brass monkey sparky me auld chum. Seriously you need to lighten up, you sound like the Terminator.

+1

Grizzly 45

chem wrote: »

Sparks would you have accountancy as a hoddy as well :D:D

Nah ,an actuary.They are folks who found being an accountant wayy too much of an adrenaline rush.:D:D:D:D
Anyways,anyone explain "a whiff of Grape?" or the difference between Bore and Gauge?

Sparks

Bore is the inside diameter of a pipe or tube; it's used as a synonym of gauge when talking about shotguns (gauge is the number of lead balls the same diameter as the inside of the barrel that would be needed to make up one pound in weight - ie, for 12-bore/12-gauge, 12 such lead balls would weigh a pound in total).

A whiff of grape is supposedly a napoleonic term, meaning to fire grapeshot from a cannon at people (in the case of the supposed origin, peasants storming the gates of Paris).

Small-bore is rather self-explanitory: a small bore, a small inside diameter on the barrel.

Full-bore has conflicting stories of origin; according to some it refers to "maximum powder charge", meaning that the entire bore had powder in it behind the ball. But the better case, complete with 1927 citation, is that it's referring to a car engine cylinder and "to go full-bore" means "to go all-out". It was used in the context by the RAF during WW2 more than once. Today it just seems to mean a larger calibre than .22lr in the context of firearms.


And no, not an accountant or an actuary, an engineer.

ivanthehunter

Seeing as there is a lot of friendly fire on the horizon i have too restrict the fun and tell every body to pay close attention to the following explanation.

The first shooters never had guns:eek:


The term cock up is derived from the original form of shooting, Archery.
In actual fact you fire guns and you shoot arrows.
The term "cock up" arises when the cock feather lies against the arrow plate or the side of the bow. As the cock feather strikes the bow belly (inner riser) at 90 deg when shooting the arrow is given a significant kick because of the incorrectly nocked arrow.
If the arrow had have been turned 180 it would have allowed the two flight feathers to slip past the bow as they are separated by a wide angle of 120 deg.

Sparks

That's not the origin of the term "cock up", which is British military slang from the 1920s. No-one can say for sure precisely what the reasoning of the phrase was - there are several non-obscene possibilities. For example, Navy hats were worn with the brim cocked up (as in, at an angle) and with the contempt the Army held the Navy in, when talking about a land battles as a "cock-up", they were saying that it was so badly mangled that it might as well have been run by a Navy officer. Another is from beer making, where when a batch of beer turned bad, the cock (the tap or spigot in the barrel) was turned up to drain the barrel.

There are also the obvious obscene possibilities - this was wartime after all, and "cock" was a slang term for the male member as far back as the Middle ages.

Enough 12-year-old level humour for the day Ivan? Can we move on now?

chem

:DYou might be an engineer if . . .

. . . you have no life and can prove it mathematically.

. . . you enjoy pain.

. . . you know vector calculus but you can’t remember how to do long division.

. . . you chuckle whenever anyone says “centrifugal force.”

. . . you’ve actually ever used every single function on your graphing calculator.

. . . when you look in the mirror, you see an engineering major.

. . . it is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer.

. . . you frequently whistle the theme song to “MacGyver.”

. . . you always do homework on Friday nights.

. . . you know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.

. . . you think in “math.”

. . . you’ve calculated that the World Series actually diverges.

. . . you hesitate to look at something because you don’t want to break down its wave function.

. . . you have a pet named after a scientist.

. . . you laugh at jokes about mathematicians.

. . . the Humane Society has had you arrested because you actually performed the Schroedinger’s Cat Experiment.

. . . you can translate English into Binary.

. . . you can’t remember what’s behind the door in the science building which says "Exit.”

. . . you have to bring a jacket with you, in the middle of summer, because there’s a wind-chill factor in the lab.

. . . you are completely addicted to caffeine.

. . . you avoid doing anything because you don’t want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.

. . . you consider any non-science course “easy.”

. . . when your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe.

. . . the “fun” center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use.

. . . you’ll assume that a “horse” is a “sphere” in order to make the math easier.

. . . you understood more than five of these indicators.

. . . you make a hard copy of this list and post it on your office door.

. . . you think it might be a neat idea to send this message to all of your friends in the form of email.

. . . you know the glass is neither half full nor half empty; it's simply twice as big as it needs to be. (from mduffin3)

Sparks

chem wrote: »

:DYou might be an engineer if . . .

...you have a degree in engineering from an accredited university.

Look lads, I'm all for humour, but this is the Shooting forum. The humor forum is here.

ivanthehunter

Sparks wrote: »

That's not the origin of the term "cock up"

Are you sure, i forgot your never wrong

Sparks wrote: »

No-one can say for sure precisely what the reasoning of the phrase was

Oh so you could be wrong!

On the issue of a cock up, The original form of shooting is older than the English language and there are hundreds of everyday phrases that are so ingrained into English that we don't even see the double meanings anymore..

Sparks wrote: »

Enough 12-year-old level humour for the day Ivan? Can we move on now?

Humour reaches across all boundaries and ages, its just a pity that you seem to lack it and as such you seem intolerant to it. I don't applicate your 12 year old comments sparks no body is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to let your hair down so if you dont like the humor then dont get involved.
Regards Ivan

PS this is not an attack on moderation it is only a response to a random post.

Sparks

ivanthehunter wrote: »

Are you sure

No, but miriam-webster and the BBC are.

On the issue of a cock up, The original form of shooting is older than the English language and there are hundreds of everyday phrases that are so ingrained into English that we don't even see the double meanings anymore..

The meaning of cock as being slang for the male member predates modern english. So its "double meaning" has never been lost.

Humour reaches across all boundaries and ages

And yet fart jokes stop being funny after about four seconds when your age hits double digits.

PS this is not an attack on moderation it is only a response to a random post.

Last warning Ivan, quit pushing. We've had to delete far too many of your posts and waste far too much time on your stuff over the last few days. I've no compunction about banning you for a lot of small little things that add up, any more than I'd have compunction about banning you for one large thing. You're constantly trolling in here and it's gone past the stage where it was tolerable.