[280PLUS]

confirm or deny please,,,

for the record though, i'm 99.9% sure its baloney and i told the person so

but they insist its true,,,:rolleyes:

here we go:

" a .50 bmg round passing within 6 to 7 inches of you causes a vacuum effect in the air that will wound you."

or words to that effect,,,

supposedly this came from somebody that just finished "infantry school"

whatever that might be...not sure of what branch of service...

baloney,,,right??

i almost feel stupid for even posting it but hey,,,you never know

:D

[SDC]

Yeah, baloney; if it did that, the guys who shoot .50 at paper targets wouldn't have a .50 cal hole to patch on a paper target, they'd have a 6 or 7 inch hole to patch. In flesh, however, I think you'd have a 6 or 7 inch temporary cavity with no problem.

[mete]

That story has been around for a while , different cartridges are mentioned. But it's just an urban myth. But the 50 BMG is a very nice round.

[Justin]

I would imagine that so long as the bullet was supersonic it might cause some hearing damage. A couple of times when I've been a pit pig at a high power match, you had to wear hearing protection, supposedly from the crack of the bullets travelling overhead.

[280PLUS]

i got to shoot 1 round out of a grisley a few months back

very cool,,,

i want one but the wallet says no,,,

:D

[bogie]

When it goes through the brick wall, and misses you by 6-7", the chunks of brick and mortar will mess you up righteously.

[Lancel]

In Beirut, a .50 BMG round passed right between another soldier and I as we were talking. The round impacted a few feet past us. Not the slightest injury to either of us.

Though I do have a great image of the other guy going to port arms as he slowly sat down, an astonished grin going from ear to ear, saying "That almost hit me".:)

Larry

[280PLUS]

i'm sure glad the guy on the other end of that .50 couldn't shoot!

:eek: :what:

:D

[Badger Arms]

Maybe he could shoot. He'd probably heard the myth too! Lucky for you, Larry! :what:

[Jim K]

A lot of baloney originates with military instructors. An instructor told my group that the ammunition we were issued (.30 ball) was "training ammo", and that troops in combat were issued black point "combat ammo" (true, AP was issued in combat). "Training ammo", he informed us, had just enough power to punch a hole in paper, after which the bullet fell to the ground.

Jim

[cordex]

Lancel,
I'd have eaten dirt and gone back for seconds.

Did you yell "Neener neener neener! Missed me, missed me, now you've got to kiss me!"?

[VG]

In Beirut, a .50 BMG round passed right between another soldier and I as we were talking. The round impacted a few feet past us. Not the slightest injury to either of us. Lancel - KY-TN border, eh? Isn't that where Old Abe, "The Pukin' Buuzzard" lives?

Garryowen

[Harry Tuttle]

the tale i heard told was that a round from an Abrams tank
fired down a city block, sucked infantry out into the street
where small arms fire then finished them

;)

[Mr Jody Hudson]

Heck, that's NUTHIN...

Out here in the Kuntry, We jist take a regular old 12 gauge shell, fill it full of black powder or flash powder, then tap it down real hard with a hammer to make room to pour melted lead down on top of the powder where we hammered it down into the shell. This shoots a load with enough power that --- the guys who use this load put thier own heads into orbit...

Them flyin heads git supersonic and the sonic boom of the head blowin off is right after the shot goes off. Don't even need the shotgun... shell don't usually last long enough to git it inta da gun... so they say... We don't neeeeeeed no stinkin 50s.:what: :neener:

[Lancel]

VGIsn't that where Old Abe, "The Pukin' Buuzzard" lives?
Yep, his profile is real popular around here. :D
Larry

[280PLUS]

" "Training ammo", he informed us, had just enough power to punch a hole in paper, after which the bullet fell to the ground. "

it should,,,as long as theres concrete or something like that behind the paper,,,

:rolleyes:

and i'll have to keep that abrams info for next time i'm wheelin' my tank down the street,,,

:neener:

funny, i was just talking to my uncle who did a tour in the army around 1950 as an instructor,,,

he said that within his 2 years active he taught

1. recruits in boot camp

2. hand to hand

3. artillery

and

4. nuclear and biological survival type stuff

i said, "gee, you covered a lot of ground in 2 years."

he said, "they would give you the material and all you had to do was learn it and pass it along"

meaning they weren't experts on the subjects they were teaching

so i'm imagining thats how some of these little tidbits of misinformation get their origins?

could be the older guys having a little fun with the noobs too,,,

but that never happens...

;)

except maybe for the time i told a brandy new annapolis butter bar at knock off time that i needed to leave that pile of rust and scale there on the deck

cause it would rust first and prevent the newly scraped deck from rusting until i could paint it tomorrow

and he bought it hook line and sinker,,,

he graduated 5th in his class

:evil:

now whats all this about a pukin' buzzard???

[Sunray]

"...Not the slightest injury to either of us..." I'd bet the 'pucker factor' went up considerably though.
These stories just prove that not even Army instructors know squat about firearms. Their sum total of their knowledge is the BS they've been fed over their whole careers. Like a parkerized rifle must be oily to the touch. Any armoured type would waste a main gun round on sucking the PBI out of doors etc. etc. Takes a 16 in naval gun for that.

[Mike Irwin]

Lancel,

Who was on the sending end of that .50 BMG bullet?

[280PLUS]

as a matter of fact,,,i've heard that if a 16" round passes within 6 or 7 inches of you it will suck your shorts right off,,,

:neener:

[kentucky bucky]

That's been an old "joke" around here for as long as I can remember. Any time some one pulled out a big bore gun in a group someone would invariably say " the wind from the bullet would knock you down", or something to that effect. Maybe some dufus didn't know they were just kidding.

[Lancel]

280PLUS: Abe was the first Screaming Eagle.


Mike Irwin:Who was on the sending end ...?
Don't know for sure since there was an assortment of hostile factions. I figured it was probably sent by the Druse Moslem militia.

It may have came from the same machine gun that was later destroyed via a Marine 105mm tank round. (i.e. Use enough gun :))

In reference to your sig line, the French were there too but were unlikely candidates.:D

Larry

[280PLUS]

gee, i learn so much good stuff around here :D

this thread reminded me of a story i read a couple of times (cause it was so good)...

during the civil war the union outfitted a few ships with those great big chowder pot looking mortar guns on the foc'sle (the pointy end) of these wooden ships to use for bombarding shoreline or river forts

they would be moored side by side and lob mortars over and into the forts.

the person sighting them would do so from the crows nest on the mast about 70 feet up

the account from one such "lucky" individual said not only would the mast snap like a whip each time the mortar was fired but that he could FEEL THE BREEZE of the adjacent ship's rounds as they passed within a few feet of his position

:what:

i found it in a campfire book dated 1891 but if you ever see reference to a "mortar flotilla" check it out,,,great read!

:)

oh, just remembering later,,,the lucky individual was the CAPTAIN

so if we have any naval captains out there,,,there's a little something for you to think about...

:eek:

[VG]

280, I caution you that calling the eagle on the 101st ABN patch "The Pukin' Buzzard" must be done in jocular fashion.

[280PLUS]

so jocularity was in force and remains so,,,

;)

otherwise this thread will most likely slam shut,,,

:what:

[50 Shooter]

Don't worry 280, when I was in the 101st we called it the pukin buzzard and the chokin' chicken. It was all in jest and the screamin' eagle was when someone burned into the ground from a fatal hook up. There was an instructor there when I was there back in the 80's that was doing an aussie out of a helo. He didn't survive his screamin' eagle.

[280PLUS]

called 'em "bouncers"

cause they did,,,

:eek:

now,,,why anyone would jump out of a perfectly good airplane,,,

:D

[Sleuth]

Other BIG ONES I have heard:

"If a (then new) M16 hits you in the little finger, it will rip your hand off"

"Any hit from a .45 will stop them"

"The .45 is effective because the bullet is tumbleing end over end when you shoot it."

and the beat goes on....

[JOE MACK]

Hah! Sputnik's orbit didn't decay, I took it down with my .50BMG!:neener:

[VG]

These stories just prove that not even Army instructors know squat about firearms. Their sum total of their knowledge is the BS they've been fed over their whole careers.
Then again, when the instructor, or at least senior instructor, is an E7 with for example a 101st Airborne Division combat patch, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, and maybe a Silver Star for bravery, the fact that the man who is instructing spent two or three years of his life keeping alive in combat, accomplishing the mission and bringing his soldiers home does tend to lend some credibility to what he is telling you about the weapon system at hand.

The biggest lie I ever heard in four years in the Army wouldn't even move the meter compared to some of the things spouted as gospel truth on these forums.
http://images.lamer.net/bsmeter.gif

Lancel, the reason people jump out of perfectly good airplanes is that there is no such thing. But getting out of a helicopter is almost always a good idea, for as they say in Air Cav, "Helicopters don't fly - they beat the air into submission."

[Lancel]

:)
Don't know why some folks disparage "jumping out of perfectly good aircraft". There are worse ways to travel, my hats off to those brave souls in WWII that arrived at the battlefield in a crash-landed glider.

That brings us back on topic of a near miss causing a wound: I can see how a jet aircraft breaking the sound barrier may have given rise to the idea. Don't know how big a bullet needs to be to cause damage that way. I just feel that if someone is shooting F-16s at me, I'm definitely outgunned.

Larry

[280PLUS]

"my hats off to those brave souls in WWII that arrived at the battlefield in a crash-landed glider."


mine too,,,

my hat's off to all you folks past and present who've had to endure the rigors of combat,,,in all its many forms...

i was a lucky swabbie who may have gotten aimed at a few times that i know about (and a few that i don't) but never actually fired at...

m

and you .50 owners better quit shootin' down them satellites!!

:D

addendum,,,

i'm taking the big computer down and off the net for a while

which means i'll be relegated to the slow computer and the (shudder) dial up

and this is ALL due to the wonderful SBC/YAHOO "upgrade" BTW

so if i aint around for a few days, you know why

later

m

[BrokenPaw]

Maybe he could shoot. He'd probably heard the myth too! Lucky for you, Larry! He definitely could shoot! Statistically speaking, he hit both of them!

[Elmer Snerd]

From http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?threadid=11039:

Violence Policy Center Claims .50 Caliber Rifles Can Shoot Down Satellites

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) released another new report calling for strict regulation on the .50 caliber rifle. The VPC's new report, "Hotter Than a Heat-Seeker, More Devastating Than a Death Ray", claims that .50 caliber rifles can shoot down U2 spy planes, damage military satellites, and may have played a role in the recent unexplained crash of the space shuttle Columbia.

"These are extremist weapons of nigh-inexplicable power," explained the VPC senior analyst Tom Diaz. "We've fabricated - er - found evidence that this extremist super-weapon, which is shockingly under-regulated, may have fallen into extremist terrorist hands and played a role in the tragic Cold War downing of U2 pilot Gary Powers. These extremist rifles can swat aircraft from the sky just like hunting birds, and pose a great risk for our unprotected International Space Station."

"Look, I'm really quite at a loss for how to deal with these ridiculous claims," began exasperated Fifty Caliber Rifle Association spokesman Johann Brett. "You cannot shoot down a large airplane, let alone a satellite, with any caliber rifle. In World War II, fighters equipped with many heavy machine guns and cannons put hundreds of rounds of incendiary ammunition into slow-flying bombers and they often still survived. No one has ever been killed by a criminal with a .50 caliber rifle. They cost thousands of dollars and weigh more than two bowling balls, but in the end they're just rifles, not super-weapons. And anyway you don't hunt birds with a rifle, you need a shotgun."

Diaz dismissed Brett's response as biased gun lobby propaganda. "These gun industry extremists have long hidden the truth about the extremist weapon's power," he insisted. "For example, there are indications that the asteroid belt was produced by a stray .50 caliber round from a gun extremist's rifle impacting on what was previously a perfectly bucolic and peaceful world. And we suspect that the planet Alderaan, Princess Leia's homeworld, disintegrated under the extremist wrath of an extremist's extreme .50 caliber bullet."

For his part, Brett described the VPC's claims as "lunacy". "The asteroid belt was not caused by the .50 caliber rifle," he insisted. "It took a moon-sized Death Star to destroy Alderaan, and anyway that was a movie, not real life."

"I can't understand why the press considers this constant stream of fantastic,concocted reports credible and prints them," Brett fired back. "The VPC is an anti-gun organization with a million-dollar annual budget from the Joyce Foundation, no actual academic researchers, and a tiny staff of propagandists. Why do you print this insanity?"

"Extremist extremist extremist extremist gun lobby extremist," countered Diaz. "Anyway, the New York Times prints anything we write, so it'll get printed." Diaz noted that the VPC has sponsored new bills to ban the .50 caliber rifle in numerous states. "This threat to public safety cannot go unchecked," Diaz asserted. "The .50 caliber rifle must be banned to reduce crime, or fight terrorism, or, you know, whatever."

Legislative battles involving the .50 caliber rifle are expected to continue throughout the next coming years.

from the Simon Jester project - bringing levity to the insanity!

[cameroneod]

a .50 bmg round passing within 6 to 7 inches of you causes a vacuum effect in the air that will wound you


It would be great if it worked like that. EOD uses the M82A1 for munitions disruption. If this was true itd make our job one hell of a lot easier. :D