Gun stories (tall tales) from strangers

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SamT1 said:
One of the biggest bad asses I know is a man that was the type writer guy in Vietnam. Something happened to their typer and they had tryouts and he made the cut. He claimes that’s why he’s alive.
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I had a co-worker buddy that was a bona-fide Vietnam Vet. He served as a clerk in Saigon. Said he was issued an M-16, put it in his locker, and the next time he touched it was when he took it out to give it back. Only action he saw was paper cuts. One of the more honest guys I met. Always said Vietnam was good to him in that he learned to love rice.;)
 
Then there was the Maine game warden on a TV show I used to watch who asked a hunter how far away he was from an animal he shot that got away after being shot with an arrow. When he was told it was real close the warden said the problem was that the arrow didn't have time to accelerate.
 
To steer this thread back on track a little, back in BT at Ft. Sill, there was a Drill Sergeant who told us that 5.56 bullets tumbled right out the barrel and the air friction eroded them into balls by the time they hit the target. I s**t you not, a SSG in the US Army told us this with a straight face and to this day I truly believe he was sincere about it. As a 17 year old recruit with an aversion to even more push-ups, I wisely refrained from correcting him, however.
 
A relative of my wife told me that when I shortened the barrel of an old .22 rifle to 17" to make a camping/backback rifle, that it would not shoot straight because the rifling had been cut. (It actually would shoot dime-sized groups at 25 yards.) But no, he believed if you cut a rifle barrel at the wrong point in the rifling twist, the bullets would not stablize. He did not need to see me demonstrate it on a target. He knew and did not need to be shown.


RedlegRick said: I once heard a guy claim that .308 Winchester was just a 30-06 'short' and you could chamber and fire it safely, ...

entropy said: I found 3 cases at the range one day that proved to me that it could be done ...

And I heard that the US Navy used .30-06 M1 Garands converted to 7.62 NATO (.308 Win) by inserting a chamber spacer and jamming the spacer in place with a proof load. Sometimes the spacer would get loose and be ejected with a round, and the next .308 Win rounds fired in the gun would come out looking like .30-06 with the neck trimmed way back to the shoulder of the case. (I could say who, where and when I heard that story, but I'd have to kill myself first to maintain secrecy and that hurts.)

All I will say is, it can be done, by mistake, but not safely. And definitely not as a recommended practice.
 
When I lived in Henrietta Texas I would have to drive into Wichita Falls every morning. Officer Stevens would park behind a bunch of tall bushes at the intersection of Hwy 79 and Hwy 281 giving him perfect view of both highways in both directions for a good couple miles without being seen until after he already had you tagged with his instant on radar. If you were doing 56... you got a ticket! I think half the money from fines went directly into officer Stevens pocket.

A few houses down from me Bobby was tagged 4 times in 3 months and received a summons to appear in court to review if he should have his drivers license revoked. The evening he got the summons in the mail he was drinking beer with his buddies who where ragging on him about the tickets, the summons and officer Stevens. Bobby didn't take to well to the ragging from his friends and finally got to the point where he went inside, grabbed his .22 rifle and took off in his pickup promising to teach officer Stevens a lesson.

On my way into work I would slow down for officer Stevens' few miles of highway as usual but noticed a really foul smell and officer Stevens was no longer using his favorite speed trap. I was BS'ing with my neighbor and mentioned how foul officer Stevens stretch of highway smelled after which my neighbor relayed to me Bobby's woes and his promise to teach officer Stevens a lesson. Apparently with the few beers in him and the rifle in hand Bobby went out and shot a few skunks, put them in a trash bag then threw the trash bag in the thick bushes that office Stevens used for concealment. Sure enough for the next 6 months or so we had free reign on officer Stevens' stretch of highway with no signs of officer Stevens!
 
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I can tell you that if I ever set foot in Texas again they will immediately put me on Death Row with no trial due to the number of unpaid speeding tickets I left there!
 
My favorite tall tale...I was looking for a used Ruger Charger to modify. I’d say “build,” but we all know that’d be tall tale itself! I went to a LGS (all of them actually with no luck) and was looking over their stuff. Used. New. No Chargers. The owner asked if he could help find anything, and if they didn’t have it they could order it. (Yes, thanks. I can order it myself for cheaper and have it sent to my regular very low cost FFL.) I said I wanted a used Ruger Charger, or maybe new, and was met with a puzzled look. I said it’s a 10/22 pistol, basically. The lightbulb goes on in just one of this simpleton’s eyes and he says his buddy has one of those in 300 Mag. Cool! Must be one of those new 300 Winchester SUPER SHORT Magnums. You betchya! He started telling me how much that little pistol rocked, I grimaced, did an about face and started walking away. “What’s your problem buddy?” Silence...
 
One I hear all the time is "If you shoot a full choke, everything is either a clean hit or clean miss." Sorry, but the physics of that doesn't work.

Matt
 
In our small town we have a 101yr old, WWII vet, nicest guy ever, A 70 something Vietnam vet who still feels bad about the reception when he got back,,,what he did and saw over there.....his back is shot and he has ongoing problems with the VA, several other ‘nam vet hang out at the Community Center..
In past years I knew a guy who landed and Normandy and survive, he had some tales,,,another guy landed at the Pacific islands,during II,,,,,,,went on to be a newspaper reporter. ...Another guy who passed on, told about the hell he survived during WWII,.....was stationed at a supply depot in Arizona, with no AC>
 
The most ridiculous aspect of her story was that it was so super secret that she couldn't take a medical discharge but she had no problem telling the whole story to me?
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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.
 
MikeInOr said:
I can tell you that if I ever set foot in Texas again they will immediately put me on Death Row with no trial due to the number of unpaid speeding tickets I left there!
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I got a letter from the State of Virginia, while stationed in Germany, stating that I wouldn't be able to get a drivers license or vehicle registration in that state due to an unpaid ticket. Ha!
Fast forward 3 or 4 years. I was driving semi up I-95, when in a nightly stupor, I blew past the open scales. Pulling over, and fully expecting the full force of the law. The unpaid ticket dangled in my mind. After waiting several minutes for the flashing lights, nothing. I slowly pulled away and didn't relax until I was out of Virginia. (Sorry, nothing about guns in this post. :oops:)
 
Grumulkin said:
Years ago when the AR-15 was the new gun for Viet Nam I was told if one was hit in the arm with a bullet out of one, it would take the whole arm off.

This is partially true. As first fielded the M-16 bullet was only marginally stabalized and terminal balistics showed it could tumble when it hit soft flesh. There have been numerous pictures and reports of a relatively minor hit, say in the hand, opening a wound all the way up an arm. During the M-16 fix, they changed the bullet weight, rifiling twist, and powder along with chroming the chamber and bbl.

An interesting story about the Viet Nam era M-16 fix, by someone who was on the periphery of the problem, is located at:
http://www.jouster2.com/Sagaof16Part1.html
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RedlegRick said:
To steer this thread back on track a little, back in BT at Ft. Sill, there was a Drill Sergeant who told us that 5.56 bullets tumbled right out the barrel and the air friction eroded them into balls by the time they hit the target. I s**t you not, a SSG in the US Army told us this with a straight face and to this day I truly believe he was sincere about it. As a 17 year old recruit with an aversion to even more push-ups, I wisely refrained from correcting him, however.
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I unwisely corrected a Drill in Basic about the M16's development. My arms got some development from that. Not having learned my lesson, I set a new record for disassembly and reassembly of the M-60 in AIT (76Y, Armorer School) . My reward? Holding it out at arm's length by the front sight and buttstock until everyone in the class finished.
 
Some guy I worked with swore, from 10 yards away, he could throw a truck key into a F-150's keyhole. Didn't seem too keen on demonstrating to the 8-10 or so folks standing around when he made the claim. Of course, he was a ranked world martial arts competitor, had struck out a rather famous MLB batter (even told him what pitches were coming), and so on....

Keeping this gun related. I was told my .30-06 wasn't enough gun for black bear. I think the majority of people with opinions on calibers appropriate for being "loaded for bear" have never seen a bear in the wild....I type this while looking at a black bear's skull, taken by that very .30-06....

A guy I knew insisted the M1 Carbine took the same shell as a M1 Garand, but it was just miniaturized. I even had a loaded en-bloc clip on hand to show him a cartridge wouldn't chamber, but alas....

I have seen a pile of 20 gauges maligned for missing ducks and doves and pheasants and such..."should've brought the 12"....nah, you probably should have led the shot a bit more.

Just like any sport or hobby, hunting and shooting can attract some interesting opinions.
 
I worked with a guy that claimed he “caught a 30-06 bullet in my teeth once” we immediately began to ridicule him and he clammed up. After a few more days of ridicule and hazing he came up with a story. He supposedly shot a deer, the bullet went through it and ricocheted off of a piece of a disk that had broken off when they planted the field. Apparently ricocheting exactly 180° back at him hitting him in the teeth, where he “caught” it.

That ol’ boy some whoppers, but that was one of the best.
 
The local indoor range is the new catch all for all the "high speed, low drag snake-eaters" of dubious fact. The guy working there always fills me in on the joker of the week.

One of these guys always comes in with a ballistic vest on (only a tank top on under it regardless of the weather) and a duffle bag thrown across his shoulder...or at least he did until he was banned.

The guy watching the counter is a retired LEO and armorer (whom I heard about this guy from). Firearms are permitted uncased as long as they are holstered on your person. They do check ammo as they don't want steel core stuff tearing up the back stop. However, this "operator" proceeds to show the guy working the counter his edc piece. It's a Glock 19 carried in a cheap nylon holster with trigger guard cut off...and the dingus removed:what: He claimed that you don't need that safety if you use the one between your ears and removing the guard is fine. it helps him get rounds down range faster.

He was promptly told to leave and never come back. I'm sure hes had an ND by now.

Then there was the local youth that was so gung-ho to join the Marines. Not particularly the sharpest knife in the drawer, and very prone to spreading yarns told by soldiers like the guy committing suicide in the port-a-potty with an M249 by jamming the trigger somehow and letting the belt empty under his chin leaving a mess of mammoth proportions.

He washed out but was hoping to get into contract work. I also think he earnestly thought that the Blue Helmets were going to come for our guns the moment Hillary took office:confused:

Not really a gun-brag, but I felt bad that he really wasn't cut out for what he so wanted to be.

Now my nephew, I love his honesty. He joined the Core after high school. Bright young man who is officer material, imho. After basic and some other training I got to see him while he was on leave and asked him how he liked it so far.

He said that he really loved what he was doing but was glad to be done with basic. He would be proud to do any function he asked to do and fight on any front. But right now his job is go around the country with a literal bag of money and hand out some sort of petty cash/bonuses or some such and get his college paid for. Hes OK with that, too.
 
Lyle Wyatt said:
My favorite is "well this rifle doesn't group very good at 100 yards but when it gets past 300 the groups start to tighten up".
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There is a tiny bit of truth here - some loads do not stabilize until past 100 yards, so.... :cool:
 
If I had a firearm for every time I heard a military BS story, I would have an armory that would make Charlton Heston's look like a quaint collection.
 
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