What firearms "terminology" makes you grit your teeth?

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DoubleMag said:
It's gun POWDER , not PROPELLANT. I think it's an early appeasement-word dreamed up by someone:feet: in the industry, to placate the newz media; powder is baddd, we ''propell'' the bullet...since we are propelling the bullet, we are gooddd...

Propellant reminds me of a word cooked up by someone with a long pinky fingernail used for coke:ninja:.
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Meh. One could argue that we haven’t been using gunpowder since it stopped being black and smoky. Gun powder is just a subset of propellant. I can’t see getting all worked up about that. But that’s just me. Your mileage obviously varies. So be it.
 
Again, the engineer in me...
"A propellant is a chemical substance used in the production of energy or pressurized gas that is subsequently used to generate propulsion of a vehicle, projectile, or other object."
So it is, from an engineering and chemical standpoint, correct.
Of course in common usage it's easier to just use 'gunpowder' unless it's related to something self-propelled like a rocket or those old weird pellet guns that used oil and pressurized air to create a diesel effect to cause an explosion.
 
Shottie doesn't bother me, but then it is used quite a lot in South Africa. I've heard it occasionally here in the UK too.
In South Africa a revolver might be referred to as a "rollie" where the r is rolled in a gritty, legitimate Afrikaans style.

One thing I don't like is how radiologists describe gunshot wounds in their reports here in the UK. They will often describe projectile fragments as "bullet shrapnel"
 
I guess stuff like this doesn't bother me very much. I can't help but laugh at some of the Mall Ninja's speaking sniper talk. I mean most of them would not know a mil if one walked up and bit them!

A lot of the terms that we despise are actually common in other countries or cultures.
 
What irks me most is when someone uses a term someone else has issues with and the offended person makes a big deal about it. If you know what they meant why be confrontational?

By the way, Sovblocgunfan, Dan and Jane always looked perfectly natural to me like that. No doubt they used Cone Head Boolits in the clip of their fully semi automatic HD assault pistol to defend the Daughter Unit's Honor when flat heads came calling.

-kBob
 
Pat Riot said:
Many have covered the “irritating” terms that bug me so I won’t beat them into the ground mentioning them again, but one term I have been hearing lately by Americans is “piece of kit”.

“That’s an interesting piece of kit” when referring to an accessory or anything to do with a gun or anything really. If one says that and they are from Great Britain I figure it’s just their slang, but when an American says it I want to scream colorful expletives at them.
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Well we have had "kit bags" since the 40's in the military. They are generally used to hold parachute equipment and flight gear.
 
I don`t pay much attention to what people call a thing as long as I can understand what they mean. If I don`t know what they are referring to I ask. There are however three words that make my eye roll back in me head, those words are "cop killer bullets"

Watching a recent new TV show about a recent crime and they say " suspect went into a gun shop and bought armor piercing cop killer bullets".
Ammo was hand gun ammo.
 
As long as they aren't "correcting" me or trying to educate me with their incorrect terms I couldn't possibly care any less.
If the magazine is a clip or a dinglehopper......so be it. Usually the guy preaching terminology is the "tacticool" guy emptying their mag into a shotgun pattern sized group at 10 yards in my experience. Who seen duty in 7 wars but is only 20 years old..... My grandpa was at Normandy. My uncle was In Korea and Vietnam. My wifes uncle is a retiring state trooper. All three call a mag a clip. All three call a semi-auto an auto (as did JMB) and anything over a rimfire is a high powered rifle.
 
I don't get bothered. I don't even understand why people do. Seems silly to me. As long as we can communicate what possible difference does it make. The one thing that really amuses me though is how often the most pedantic are actually wrong and think current slang is correct. The propellant post is a good example of this. In 1910 the difference would have gotten you firearm blown up. Gun powder has slanged its way back into preponderance even though it is technically wrong.
 
JohnBiltz said:
I don't get bothered. I don't even understand why people do. Seems silly to me. As long as we can communicate what possible difference does it make. The one thing that really amusesi me though is how often the most pedantic are actually wrong and think current slang is correct. The propellant post is a good example of this. In 1910 the difference would have gotten you firearm blown up. Gun powder has slanged its way back into preponderance even though it is technically wrong.
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It is about coy. Coy is just plain aggravating and need to be eliminated entirely. Using a term like “boolit” is coy. No excuse for that. Standards, man. Standards.
 
JohnBlitz,

"Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile." is from World War One , The Great War, so "kit bag" was already in use before WWII.

Some say it was in reference to a shoulder bag such as has been used by Euro folks since way back (at least the Roman Legions)to hold the items a soldier might need everyday and right away without having to dig through his carefully packed back pack such as his MESS KIT and small items of personal useful everyday value.

Kit has become a military substitute for the biblical term "stuff" as it appears in the KJV old testament stories of King David's time as a freedom fighter in the wilderness (or bandit if you choose).

No joke.

-kBob
 
Terminology others use is just another piece of information I use to ascertain our continuing and future interaction.

“Running”. If you say you’re “running” cargo shorts, or “running” anything that isn’t a machine, you’re a hopeless human and I will literally walk away immediately - no matter who you are or why we were talking.
 
crestoncowboy,

Back when I was in college using up that old GI bill I carried "stuff" in either a gas mask bag ( and got called Sirpico) or a map case and caught flak from youngsters that had never been anyplace but Momma's and college. It did however keep both my hands free for things more important than toting books and crap. I also think of a belly pouch as a Sporan a kilt wearer might have. My current "kit Bag" or "possibles Bag"actually is one of my wife's old purses that is of brown canvas (OK I did pick the threads free on the embroidered flower on the flap) and has a broad long shoulder strap.

-kBob
 
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