Gun related expressions.

[jsalcedo]

Every day we repeat phrases without thinking where they came from.

I got to thinking about gun related expressions like

Lock stock and barrel

Dodging a bullet

Set your sights on _______

Shotgun effect

Riding shotgun

Shotgun wedding

Straight shooter

Under the gun

Flash in the pan

Shooting blanks

Sniping (like on ebay)

Can anyone think of more?

 

[bamf]

I got one more

The whole nine yards

 

[dukeofurl]

"breaking the 180"

 

[KaceCoyote]

son of a gun?

 

[modifiedbrowning]

"pulled the trigger" as in making a decision.

 

[PromptCritical]

Going off half cocked?

A shot in the dark?

Edited to add: DROP THE HAMMER!

 

[glockten]

"Bite the bullet"

"Loaded for bear"

"Gun-shy"

 

[jsalcedo]

I heard on American shooter the expression "sharp shooter"
Came from the target shooters of the late 19th century using sharps rifles.

Good ones keep em coming...

 

[sm]

Lock & Load
Going off half cocked
Flying Ashtrays
Widow Makers

 

[MarkDido]

Shotgun shack

Firing a broadside

 

[454c]

Hotter than a 2 dollar pistol

 

[bfox]

Shooting your mouth off

 

[Double Maduro]

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
(no it isn't dirty, look it up)

Ready on the right.

DM

 

[Stickjockey]

He/she's a pistol.

 

[TonyB]

Head hunter

 

[TerryBob]

I run into an old friend and his pregnant girlfriend and he told me that "The gun went off before I got it out of the Holster".

 

[Khornet]

Also

hair-trigger temperament, too quick on the draw, keep your powder dry, powder-keg situation, he has a short fuse, giving 'em both barrels, shotgun apartment, in the crosshairs, under the gun, going great guns, picked off, incoming, shot in the dark, gunning for someone, hired gun, gunslinger, 'rifling' a football, loaded for bear, loaded situation, long shot, cannon fodder, heavy artillery (as in bring in the power players), and many more.

 

[TarpleyG]

"You can run but you'll only die tired."

Something like that anyway.

GT

 

[Sam Adams]

I'm afraid that all of those expressions are, henceforth, verboten , since they represent the violent, racist, homophobic, chauvinistic way of life imposed on our society by a bunch of dead white males in the past. The penalties range from heavy fines and seizure of your children on the first offense to castration on the second offense to execution and seizure of the rest of your assets on the third offense.

The Language Police
Hillary Clinton, Grand Inquisitress

 

[BerettaNut92]

Firing/shooting from the hip

 

[LevelHead]

OK so I *had* to look up the brass monkey thing.

Meaning
Very cold weather conditions.
Origin
Uncertain origin.

Some references say that the brass triangles that supported stacks of iron cannonballs on sailing ships were called monkeys and that in cold weather, as brass contracts more than iron, the triangles contracted sufficiently for the balls to fall off.

No one has been able to provide evidence that such devices were called monkeys, or even that they existed.

The Royal Navy records that, on their ships at least, planks with circular holes were used to store cannonballs. Also, a little geometry shows that a pyramid of balls will topple over if the base is tilted by more than 30 degrees. This movement is commonplace on sailing ships and it just isn't plausible that cannonballs were stacked this way.

If we discount all of the above and for the sake of argument assume that the contraction of a brass triangle would cause a stack of balls to fall over, science comes to the rescue again. The coefficient of expansion of brass is 0.000019; that of iron is 0.000012. If the base of the stack were one metre long the drop in temperature needed to make the 'monkey' shrink relative to the balls by a millimetre, would be around 100 degrees Celcius. It is hardly credible that amount of change would have the slightest effect. In any case in weather like that the sailors would probably have better things to think about.

I don't know what a nautical version of an urban myth is called, but whatever it is this story warrants its use.

 

[Nazirite]

"Get the lead out Marine"

 

[zahc]

"the whole shootin' match" (used like 'nine yards')

 

[dischord]

His aim is off.

On target

Missed its mark

Had in his sights

Zero in.

Broad side of a barn

Don't give them ammunition.

Blowback (?)

Oh shoot (?)

Itchy finger.

 

[Jim March]

"On the money" refers to lowering the hammer of an SAA onto an unloaded cylinder which often contained a rolled-up $20 bill.