Gun superstitions/phrases

Being "quick on the trigger" can apply to a variety of situations.

"The .243 is too light for elk."

"A three fiddy seben maganum will go raht thru a three twenny seben Chivy injin block."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hardtarget View Post
One I like.
The phrase "the whole nine yards" to mean you "got it all done" comes from WWI fighter pilots meaning they shot all their ammo. The machine gun was fed with a 27 foot (9 yards) ammo belt. I hope that is really true.

I also like "flash in the pan".

Mark
I heard the "9 yard" thing was based on the capacity of concrete trucks of the time with nine yards of the slurry being a full load.

I like your explanation far better.

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As I recall, .50 linked came 100rnds to a steel box. When I served, that is what they used as the ammo lid can be removed and belt fed in directly.
Casing headstamp is around 0.8"? fudge in length for links and that is MUCH less than 9 yards.
Aircraft may have larger boxes, I do not know for sure.

Concrete trucks are still use and being referred as 9yd loads. they do make larger trucks to carry more.

"It ain't the bullet with your name it, it's the one addressed to OCCUPANT."

"the whole nine yards"

I kind of lean toward the definition in the linked article about the square-rigged sailing ships; a "yard" being the horizontal spar the sail was hung on, and three of them each on three masts.

Full sail would then be "the whole nine yards".


Where the hell did "more fun than a barrel of monkeys" come from?

"Assault rifle/weapon" Machine gun term used by nazis later adapted by the left in the 90's and applied to just about any non bolt action longarm without a wood stock. "High capacity".....

I have heard it said that a sniper rifle and a hunting rifle are NOT the same. i'll be gunning for ya.

"Give 'em what for!" came from the Revolution. I can't recall the preacher's name, but when a certain battle was raging, the patriots were running out of paper for the wads necessary to load their flintlocks with. The preacher went into his church and came out with a bunch of hymnals, and since a guy named Watts wrote most of the hymns in the hymnals, the preacher, as he was handing out paper from the Hymnals was saying, "Give them Watts, boys, give them Watts!" "Give 'em what for," is derived from that.

Woody

Here's one we've been discussing in another thread - "Saturday Night Special." Yeah, I know it comes from the anti-gun crowd, but it is unmistakable.

Woody

bangswitch said:

I kind of lean toward the definition in the linked article about the square-rigged sailing ships; a "yard" being the horizontal spar the sail was hung on, and three of them each on three masts.

Full sail would then be "the whole nine yards".


Where the hell did "more fun than a barrel of monkeys" come from?

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I am also inclined towards the square-rigged ship origin. SO MANY of our colloquial terminology came from square-rigged sailing. It is in our DNA....a by-product of our heritage as a British colony.

I think "Lock, Stock and Barrel" is a gun related.

Woody

bangswitch said:

I kind of lean toward the definition in the linked article about the square-rigged sailing ships; a "yard" being the horizontal spar the sail was hung on, and three of them each on three masts.

Full sail would then be "the whole nine yards".


Where the hell did "more fun than a barrel of monkeys" come from?

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http://www.toysrus.com/product/inde...ID2872353:TRUS&eESource=CAPLA_DF:2297997:TRUS

Can't imagine it's much fun to play with, though. So, anything more fun, would be a wide variety of banal activities.

Lock, stock and barrel, shot in the dark, take a shot, shotgun wedding, she's a pistol, run and gun.

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A flash in the pan (meaning the priming powder in a flintlock ignites, but the main charge doesn't go off.)

To go off half-cocked (meaning to suddenly do something dangerous when thought safe.)

Sure as shooting (meaning the outcome is a certainty.)

A loose cannon (referring to a naval cannon coming loose from its lashings and rolling back and forth as the ship rolls.)

On the other hand, a Parthian shot refers to archery -- the Parthians were horse archers, who could shoot backward when retreating, doing a lot of damage to their pursuers.)

[Lock stock and barrel] refers to the major parts of a flintlock (or wheellock or matchlock), so it means the same thing as "the whole 9 yards."

On the other hand, a Parthian shot refers to archery -- the Parthians were horse archers, who could shoot backward when retreating, doing a lot of damage to their pursuers.)

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And since they were shooting while retreating, the later corruption to "Parting shot" is still accurate.

I heard it was bad luck to bring a knife to a gunfight.

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Or a pistol to a machine-gun fight, if you are BJ Blazkowicz.

In all seriousness, superstitions are retarded. Gun or otherwise.

Whacked said:

Aircraft may have larger boxes, I do not know for sure.

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The guns in WWII bombers did not have ammunition boxes hung off the side of the gun as commonly seen on tanks, etc. There were flexible tracks that guided the belts of ammunition to the guns from boxes mounted near the guns in the aircraft.

I am not sure what the capacity of the aircraft boxes are, but the boxes are larger than the 50 caliber metal storage boxes.

Back to the thread's subject...

"Bite the bullet."

P-51 Mustang ground crew loading ammo in the wings.



rc

rcmodel said:

P-51 Mustang ground crew loading ammo in the wings.



rc

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look at all the kills.

Never play Russian roulette with a auto loader ...

.44magnum "It will blow your head clear off"

And since they were shooting while retreating, the later corruption to "Parting shot" is still accurate.

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Yep. Although the retreat was often the prelude to a counter attack, as Marcus Licinius Crassus found out to his cost -- he was killed and his legions wiped out.

From what I have read "Saturday night special" had a racist origin. It seems it IS used to describe a cheaply made gun but there is more to the story than quality. Google "Saturday night special" to find the complete phase as it was coined. (You will have to wade thru a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd – Saturday Night Special references to find pertinent info)
Dallas Jack

There's a system of DNA sequencing called "shotgun cloning." It gets it's name from the somewhat random fragments of DNA produced that are pieced together to figure out the total DNA strand.