References to cartridges as "bullets"

What does get to me is bullets as "boolits"

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the term "boolits" was coined by the cast bullet shooters and it annoys them when the uninformed use it to describe jacketed bullets.
most of the people using the term boolits know exactly what they are talking about

Many years ago, a forestry professor was trying to show us the importance of using Latin names for trees. There was an incident, apparently, of a landowner ordering the removal of a nice stand of jack pine so he could plant bull pine. Both are slang names for Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa Pine). The young pines may have a different bark appearance, but essentially he reset his harvest rotation clock out of confusion.

I believe it would be better if we could try to use a common language on the shooting forums. Perhaps we can never change local custom, or the habits of our friends, but it is probably better if we don't confuse ourselves as part of asking and answering questions.

My personal ???? term is "tips". None of the misuses bother me, but this one is just simply baffling.

Yes, it is irritating. As is the whole clip vs. magazine debacle. What is gaining on that short list of irritating use of incorrect terms is cailber vs. cartridge/chambering. Still having a hard time with accuracy vs. precision.

And when people call revolvers pistols and when when people misspell words in their posts, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

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The term pistol is far older than revolvers and automatics. Indeed, Sam Colt referred to his 1836 creation as a "revolving pistol". Not sure what the preceeding flintlock revolvers were referred to as. No doubt the term pistol was used to describe them as well.

Nothing said by the uninformed gets to me, its not their fault that they do not know the correct term.

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Isn't it? Ignorance is usually the fault (and responsibility) of the ignorant.

It is easy to forget, but the nomenclature of firearms is complex. On top of that, we have all been subjected to hearing incorrect usage on television and movies for decades.
By the way, why are they called shotgun "shells" and not shotgun "cartridges"?

I feel just a little bit sad for those that let little, unimportant things like nomenclature get under their skin. Life is too short to worry about what somebody else calls something. (And just a little bit "snobby".)

longdayjake said:

Mark Twain once described the shimmering of light on the Mississippi River as a river-boat captain would see it. A river-boat captain would watch the ripples to attempt to spot hazards or sand bars in the river. After a while all the river-boat captain would see on a river were potentially dangerous hazards in the ripples. Everyone else could look at the shimmering of the ripples and see something beautiful and inspiring. The captain could no longer see beauty on the water.

The point is, there are other ways of looking at guns and ammo than through your trained and educated eyes. All of them have worth of some kind. There is nothing wrong with educating people but don't get annoyed because someone sees it different.

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Very well said Jake. We as gun owners need to embrace what we have in common, not tear apart our community because of grammar and subjective terminology. If such small things in life bother some so much, I wonder how they deal with major issues.

I feel just a little bit sad for those that let little, unimportant things like nomenclature get under their skin. Life is too short to worry about what somebody else calls something. (And just a little bit "snobby".)

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And I feel a little sad for those for whom details are unimportant and think discussions about those details is "snobby".

Details are unimportant UNLESS you want to sound knowledgeable about the subject, then they become paramount. Getting all upset because a neophyte uses the wrong term and then generating a 55+ response thread about it seems to me to be "preaching to the choir" and little "strutting" by many responders. Just respectfully correct the user and don't try to hold them up to ridicule because of their unintentional gaffe.

olderguns2 said:

i,ve been around guns for over 40 years , and i know the terms but if there is someone who,s really anal about it, i can,t help pushing their button
like one guy at my old range, he would get so mad he would just turn red in the face if someone did not use the right words,
so of course when i was shooting close to him i had to say loudly to my wife ( let me get the bullets & load up the clips then we,ll start

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rolfmao!

Bullets vs. cartridges doesn't bother me very much unless its in the context of reloading because then it legitimately gets confusing if we are referring to the projectile or the finished product.

And the clip/magazine only bothers me when its someone who is pretending like they know what they're talking about and then uses "clip", "assault clip" for example. Genuine slip ups or just not knowing the difference isn't that big of a deal.

eye5600 said:

All you people who take great exception to what you perceive to be the misuse of words might ask yourselves if you know all the inside lingo in other sports. Every term used in golf? Everything detail of skiing? Every part of a sailboat?

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Right, but we don't go down to the golf stadium and throw down niblick, mashie, or jigger to look cool and try to fool them into believing we know what we are doing on their turf.

Isn't it? Ignorance is usually the fault (and responsibility) of the ignorant.

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That's a mighty ... mighty slippery slope. Ignorance while the "fault" of the person is by no means a measure of judgement which is what you are very strongly implying. Because I'm sure a scholar of toy trains could make you look like an imbecile when you're out with your daughter buying toy trains. Someone who's spent their entire lives walking the wilderness in New Hampshire may very well be annoyed at you running into them in your "laymaniness" when you do nature walks and someone who's spent their entire life studying rhetoric probably does cry when they read half this forum.

Let's hope they're not as harsh in their judgement as we are.

Oh yeah ... moar data ...

Right, but we don't go down to the golf stadium and throw down niblick, mashie, or jigger to look cool and try to fool them into believing we know what we are doing on their turf.

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No, but we may log on to their forum and say:

"Hey, new Golfer here.
I just bought my first set of clubs, but I'm missing the one with the big head. Which one of those should I get?"

And we have the reasonable expectation to get a reply like this:

"Those are actually called a driver, and at your skill level the lowest priced name brand one you can find is probably enough."

Instead of this:

"It's called a Driver and by the way you need to seriously learnt he lingo before you even touch foot on the course."

Getting all upset because a neophyte uses the wrong term

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Who is "all upset"? We're having a friendly discussion among peers, a "guild" of shooters if you will. In which it is quite common to have discussions like this where we talk about the uninitiated. Nobody is passing judgement or working up a hangman's knot. Nor has there been any talk of publicly humiliating someone for not knowing proper terminology. All in good fun, maybe YOU should try not to take it so seriously???

Details are unimportant UNLESS you want to sound knowledgeable about the subject...

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Hogwash! Details are everything and it has nothing to do with showing off or otherwise impressing others. Details are what keep us up at night. If you really think details are "unimportant", you're probably not a very serious shooter.

I'm sorry but your logic is flawed. If your statement were true then peas and string beans would be fruit.

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It's not flawed at all. Look it up. A Jalapeno is a fruit. Botanically a Pea and String Bean are also a fruit since the pods contains a seed.

The point was, we're all wrong about something. As long as they aren't trying to take it away from me it doesn't really bother me.

Hogwash! Details are everything and it has nothing to do with showing off or otherwise impressing others. Details are what keep us up at night. If you really think details are "unimportant", you're probably not a very serious shooter.

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if we go shooting together...and i forget the ammo in the car, and i ask you "hey, can you get the bullets from the car?" .....are you going to know what i am asking for....or are you going to stand there confused.......

.....if you come back with the ammo......then details are not "everything"

If you really think details are "unimportant", you're probably not a very serious shooter.

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Ad hominem if I ever saw one.:banghead:

By the way, I will put my experience and general firearm knowledge up against anyone, and, in some areas, I may even show some pretty detailed proficiency.

For some reason, a Sailor demanding I refer to a wall as a bulkhead comes to mind. Even though he knew EXACTLY what I was talking about from the get go. Details aren't necessarily unimportant, but somebody who worries EXCLUSIVELY about minute details doesn't have enough to worry about, in my experience. I'm what you call a "big picture" kind of guy.

...and dont even begin to question how serious of a shooter i am.

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And now the posturing begins. Lighten up. I wasn't directing that at you anyway. But if we go shooting together and you ask me for "bullets", I may come back with ammo but I will give you a hard time about it.

Do we not sit here, sometimes for hours on end and debate about the finer DETAILS of guns and shooting? Please, we froth at the mouth to discuss details that would be completely unknown or unimportant to the uninitiated. Like the difference between the grip angle on a 1911 vs. a Glock. Differences between different types of bluing, different woods, wood vs. synthetic, polymer vs. steel, sights vs. optics, fixed vs adjustable sights, 9mm vs. .45ACP, .38 vs. .357, etc., etc., ad nauseum. The higher your interest in ANYTHING, the more you get into the finer details. Details, details, details.

And now the posturing begins. Lighten up. I wasn't directing that at you anyway. But if we go shooting together and you ask me for "bullets", I may come back with ammo but I will give you a hard time about it.

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why?.....if you knew what i asked for, and you were able to get it without confusion or incident.....why bother giving someone a hard time....other than to act like a snob with an inflated ego.

Do we not sit here, sometimes for hours on end and debate about the finer DETAILS of guns and shooting? Please, we froth at the mouth to discuss details that would be completely unknown or unimportant to the uninitiated. Like the difference between the grip angle on a 1911 vs. a Glock. Differences between different types of bluing, different woods, wood vs. synthetic, polymer vs. steel, sights vs. optics, fixed vs adjustable sights, 9mm vs. .45ACP, .38 vs. .357, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Details, details, details

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technical details are one thing.........nomenclature is another....

why?.....if you knew what i asked for, and you were able to get it without confusion or incident.....why bother giving someone a hard time....other than to act like a snob with an inflated ego.

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Because that's what friends do and I only go shooting with friends!!! If your friends call you a snob for giving them a hard time about something, you need new friends. If you call your friends a snob for giving you a hard time about something, they need new friends. L-I-G-H-T-E-N U-P-!-!-!

technical details are one thing.........nomenclature is another....

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Details are details. Lord have mercy, I've never seen so much defensiveness.

Because that's what friends do and I only go shooting with friends!!! If your friends call you a snob for giving them a hard time about something, you need new friends. If you call your friends a snob for giving you a hard time about something, they need new friends. L-I-G-H-T-E-N U-P-!-!-!

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you see, you tell me to lighten up.....yet you are the one giving me crap for calling them "bullets"..........i dont see what you are getting at.

I give up.

Do we not sit here, sometimes for hours on end and debate about the finer DETAILS of guns and shooting? Please, we froth at the mouth to discuss details that would be completely unknown or unimportant to the uninitiated

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True, but what bugs me is that nothing new has come up in these discussions/debates for years. Just rehashing the same old remarks.

When we hear something like this from someone else, new shooter, non-shooter, friends, or relatives and we decide to correct them, who does that correction benefit? Is it because we're helping learn or are we doing to show our own detailed knowledge about it?

Do we not sit here, sometimes for hours on end and debate about the finer DETAILS of guns and shooting

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Yes we do. We are enthusiast and by correcting each other we learn from each other. This is acceptable, albeit painful sometimes, because we aspire to learn as much as we can about this fine sport. Details are important to us. Not everyone has the same level of interest that we do. The scope of the OP's post wasn't necessarily directed to the gun community. It wasn't necessarily directed toward someone pretending to know what they were talking while using the incorrect terminology. It was left open to anyone that used the terminology incorrectly.

It annoys me when people say bullet instead of ammo or cartridge. Kyle on Top Shot season 2 said it once and I wanted to slap him

Magazine =/= Clip (unless you're talking about an M1 Garand in which case IDC lol)