Gun stories (tall tales) from strangers

I wonder if any of them actually realize how easy they are to spot???

I wonder how many of us old guys doing this are just trolling the LGS to pass some fun time BS ing.

CapnMac said:

It's a [not polite] move, but in LGS where I know them, and they know me, I've slid a coin on the counter just to see who notices.

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Would you have to buy a round of guns if they all throw one down?

kcofohio said:

I was led to believe for many years, from the service on, that the Soviets could use our 556 rounds in their rifles. Supposedly, they had an adapter for the chamber that the commie troops carried on them.

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That doesn't work on multiple levels and is something I have never heard anywhere before. The insert wouldn't stay put and the barrel is the wrong size. Using the 5.45x39 doesn't work either since that's smaller than the 5.56.

Havok7416 said:

That doesn't work on multiple levels and is something I have never heard anywhere before. The insert wouldn't stay put and the barrel is the wrong size. Using the 5.45x39 doesn't work either since that's smaller than the 5.56.

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I agree now, but back then I was more gullible and unlearned.
Plus it was the cold war and you know how that was.

Most of the "tall tales" I've heard have had to do with the shooter's accuracy. Apparently, I live in a county populated entirely by sub-MOA shooters.

Of course, I watched one of these sub-MOA shooters miss a 25 foot shot (with a rifle, not a pistol) when trying to administer a coup de grace to a nuisance animal caught in a body trap.

crestoncowboy said:

my Sig branded 226 mags are mec-gar (Italian) or checkmate (American) made. Glock 20 mags are made in austria, or at least were.

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I'm familiar with stuff like that. Tongue was firmly in cheek.

Like most here I've heard all sorts of crap from all sorts of folks making claims about their guns performance or their shooting abilities.

My uncle ...who my father refers to as his sister's brother....that sums up the relationship lol. Is one of those kinda guys who sees since he owns it, it's pretty much the best there is. For example his 84 mustang . Says it's a rare collectable and highly sought after, sure it it's EVERYONE wants a pointed nose fox body convertible. Yep.... My dream car right there.....

Anyways. He would hunt with a 6.5x55 sweedish mauser and a 444 marlin. He claimed that the 6.5 was so fast and flat that my old man's 300win mag wasn't much better at all, and that they shot pretty much the same ....Or the time grandpa was hunting with the .444 and shot through a 4 inch maple and still got the buck. Like the mauser situation, he said 444 is better and had more oomph than my old man's 45-70, and that there is no point to own a 45-70 if you can have a 444.... But he must have been right because whatever he owns IS the best no if and or buts....grant it don't make a lick of difference 6.5v 300 wm or 444 vs 45-70 at the ranges we hunted. Most shots were under 50-75 yard, dead is dead. But it was just the fact his were the best because they were his.....

At least he's a good Hunter nearing 60 years old, goes out every weekend during rifle and has bagged 4 deer his whole life. Too bad his amazing rifles can't find the critters for him. He was one miserable SOB when I bagged a 10 point as my first buck and he had to bring his tractor up to help me get it back to the house. Didn't even congratulate me......ahhhhh family gotta lovem

Deus. I apologize, it can be hard to pick up on someone being facetious via text.

Carry on

No worries. Was just playing along with the thread.

Suburban cop in suburban gun store:
"The .44 Magnum is not a good duty weapon because the bullet doesn't stay in a man long enough to hurt him. Deputy Joe shot a crook with a .44 and he just ran off, but it slowed the bullet down enough that it killed an old man in his rocking chair a block away."

Jim Watson said:

Suburban cop in suburban gun store:
"The .44 Magnum is not a good duty weapon because the bullet doesn't stay in a man long enough to hurt him. Deputy Joe shot a crook with a .44 and he just ran off, but it slowed the bullet down enough that it killed an old man in his rocking chair a block away."

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If that's the case, why not just throw rocks at the perp?

cw308 said:

They are out there and I'm a nut magnet.

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LOL. I know the feeling all too well!

Captcurt said:

I get a kick out of people describing their shooting abilities and their choices of targets. The targets vary by region. When I worked down south the preferred target was a cigarette pack. "I can hit a cigarette pack at 100 yards all day with my rifle." Oil cans were popular in 60's. My favorite was when a friend stated that he could hit a Skoal Can at 30 yards with his bow. This was a guy who nearly always made a Texas heart shot on his deer. I helped track several of them. When he made that statement I had to gouge a little. I said, "I guess you shot that last one in the arse because it didn't carry it's Skoal can on it's shoulder."

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Among airgun shooters, it's, "an aspirin tablet at 50 yards."

An archer here was claiming a postage stamp at 20 yards.

Jim Watson said:

An archer here was claiming a postage stamp at 20 yards.

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Maybe he had a book of stamps.
Sorry, couldn't resist.

Jim Watson said:

Suburban cop in suburban gun store:
"The .44 Magnum is not a good duty weapon because the bullet doesn't stay in a man long enough to hurt him. Deputy Joe shot a crook with a .44 and he just ran off, but it slowed the bullet down enough that it killed an old man in his rocking chair a block away."

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Yea, I heard the one about magnum rifle bullets that "zip right through" a big game animal "doing very little damage." If you take that logic far enough, if you got a bullet going at light speed, it would do no damage at all.

Grumulkin said:

Yea, I heard the one about magnum rifle bullets that "zip right through" a big game animal "doing very little damage." If you take that logic far enough, if you got a bullet going at light speed, it would do no damage at all.

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I heard the same thing when compound bows were getting much better and faster in the late 80's through the 90's. "Zipped a deer" was the term used, the implication being the arrow passed trough the deer to fast and caused no damage. I regret never asking for an explanation of how that was possible, would have been entertaining I think.

My favorite is the fellow who wanted a .22-250 for hunting rabbits. Instead of shooting the rabbit with attendant damage, one shoots between the ears. The ears, being the most sensitive part of a bunny, transmits the shock wave and kills the rabbit without harming the meat. :rimshot!:

Many of the strange stories I've heard come from serious misunderstanding of various factors. Like those who are convinced bullets can 'rise' and have no idea of trajectory. Or something their 'daddy' told them being Holy Writ, like handguns are useless at more than fifteen feet. Another of my favorites is the misunderstand of the 'tumbling' bullets shot by the M-16 (or current version). I was told in all seriousness by a fellow Marine - ahem - that the 'bullet' fired by the M-16 tumbles in flight, in order to create a serious wound. I knew he had pulled butts (operated and scored targets) on the range, so I mentioned all the holes in targets at 300 yards were point on, without being sideways. Without blinking an eye, he informed me they were timed to do that. Bazinga!

I loved in grade school when kids would come in the day following the first day of rifle season. On the bus in the morning, kids talked about their 6 or 8 points. Incredibly, on the afternoon bus ride, their dead deer grew an extra 2-6 points and the distances at which they shot the deer also increased!

I got an NCO long term P.O.ed at me because he was telling some Newbies the "Commies can use 7.62 NATO in their AKs" line and I called him on it. He then insisted he had used 7.62 NATO in an AK himself. I then pulled out a round of M43 7.62x39 I kept as a good luck charm and asked how a gun chambered for that round would get a 7.62 NATO round in its chamber. As he was holding a 7.62 NATO round himself it was kind of obvious he was telling "fibs"

Some have suggested the 7.62x39 guns being able to use 7.62 NATO rounds stemmed from the commonality of the numbers "7.62" I think it comes from something of an extrapolation of something real. Com-bloc 82mm mortars actually can use US 81mm mortar (when that was a thing) ammunition. Both they and the US even developed firing tables for using US ammo in the over sized 82mm tubes. Accuracy is not as good and velocities and range are less than with the correct rounds in the correct tubes.

Now no doubt someone will accuse ME of telling a tall tale.

I suspect the stories of Type 99 7.7mm rifles using .30-06 came from the practice of some US shooters unable to find 7.7 cases forming and trimming such from .30-06 a thing that even the NRA approved of at one point.

Still I do not know how many times I heard from 1967 to last week that "M16 bullets tumbled through the air" I even had one guy point at targets on a movement range (the old heavy card board green kneeling man target) that had key holed bullet strikes and exclaim "SEE!" and no amount of explaining that those were shots that had hit the ground and skimmed back up would convince him that was not proof of tumbling bullets.

Had a guy that told me his unit had special M-60 GPMGs that used .50 BMG ammo, on regular .50 BMG belts yet.....he is local and last I heard sold real estate.

-kBob

My own tall tale, completely true. Sounds outrageous unless you think through the physics.
I was taking a class and we were shooting steel targets. One of my shots (.45ACP) struck the steel at the perfect angle, rebounded straight back and smacked me in the center of the forehead above my safety glasses. It was coming slow enough for me to see it but too fast to dodge it.

JohnKSa said:

That part was obviously made up. In addition to the part about getting sent to college by Rickover. The SSB claim was curiously specific and technical--enough to make me curious.

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That's probably the only part that is accurate. Which is not to say her dad invented it.
Unfortunately the culture in this company was such that had I questioned her story I would have been subject to disciplinary action.

1911 guy said:

My own tall tale, completely true. Sounds outrageous unless you think through the physics.
I was taking a class and we were shooting steel targets. One of my shots (.45ACP) struck the steel at the perfect angle, rebounded straight back and smacked me in the center of the forehead above my safety glasses. It was coming slow enough for me to see it but too fast to dodge it.

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How badly were you injured?

Just a bump on the forehead. I was more shocked that it had happened than I was hurt.
The bullet came to a complete stop on the target and what came back was simply rebound energy. No harder than if someone had thrown it.