More Gunshop Tomfoolery

[OregonJohnny]

Boy, you know you're a new reloader with inventory frustrations when you read the original post, and the only thing that comes to your mind is...

"SO, DID THE SHOP HAVE ANY PRIMERS?!?!?"

 

[jakemccoy]

Boberama, I was a split second from spraying Raid on my computer screen. Big, fast spiders are the worst.

 

[ants]

Let's pretend a German machine gun fires so fast it can put 3 bullets in the barrel:

First bullet travels down the barrel because there is tremendous pressure behind it, let's say 40,000psi, but only atmospheric pressure in front of its nose. So the bullet travels forward and gets half way to the muzzle. Pressure behind the bullet is dropping to maybe 30,000psi.

Second bullet starts its journey down the barrel. Remember, First bullet is still in the barrel, with maybe 30,000psi behind it. Second bullet now seals the barrel, with 40,000psi behind it. But it has 30,000psi in front of it! It doesn't travel very fast, does it? By the time the second bullet is half way down the barrel with 30,000psi behind it (and 30,000psi still in front of it because the barrel is sealed and First bullet hasn't cleared the muzzle) and Second bullet virtually stops. Equal pressure on both sides of Second bullet, as long as the first bullet has not cleared the muzzle.

Third bullet now starts its journey with 40,000psi behind it. But Second bullet is virtually stopped. This can't be good.

Of course, inertia will keep all bullets moving. There probably won't be a barrel obstruction. All bullets will clear the muzzle, no doubt. The point is that you cannot have 2 or more bullets in the barrel at the same time without suffering velocity loss. Ballistic acceleration depends upon lots of pressure behind the bullet.

 

[JellyJar]

Oops!

Or all that extra pressure and heat causes the breech to blow!!:banghead:

 

[steelhead]

Probably a good thing that it resulted in a lost sale.... Since he probably would have shot himself in the foot later that day.

Can't tell you the number of people who have told me that their Grand Daddy was Gen. Patton's personal tank driver in the war.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

The unfeasible "I was in the military and I did XYZ" are annoying enough, but the "my granddad/uncle/dad" are worse because the narrator might be convinced that it's the truth, rather than the former where he knows he's lying to try and impress someone.

Plus if you catch a "my granddad/uncle/dad" in something clearly impossible, they have the defense of "umm, maybe I got the number wrong and it's not the 82 Marine Division, but he was a sniper and helo pilot and door gunner and underwater demolition expert irregardles."


I can't wait to hear all the "my uncle was in Iraq/Afghanistan" stories in about 10 years. I'm just surprised that I haven't run across more folks claiming to have been themselves, who then can't name a single (plausible) unit they've been in or nomenclature for any gear they've used.

 

[Jim_100]

That was me in that shop when you called my Grandfather a liar! Now all you guys are going to pile on? Hell he was there!!

Just kidding.

 

[DaveBeal]

Second bullet starts its journey down the barrel. Remember, First bullet is still in the barrel, with maybe 30,000psi behind it.

There's a more fundamental problem with the customer's "three in the pipe" theory. How do you open the breech and insert the second round into the chamber without releasing that 30Kpsi of pressure? (I'm not ridiculing you, Ants - just the customer.)

Of course, if you could do it with a third round (without blowing yourself up), you'd probably end up with three bullets stuck in the barrel, proving the customer's assertion.

 

[twofifty]

I'll raise you a Green Beret

For some, life is an unending pizsiing contest: if your Pa was a designated marksman, I'll raise you a Green Beret. These folk are tiresome at the best of times; some are outright fraudulent.

Yes, it's interesting to hear that someone's gramps or dad served in this war or fought in that action, or killed so many Japs with his bare hands - but what these servicemen did does not make the storyteller a Green Beret or even a brave man. Valor is not something that is necessarily passed from generation to generation, it is a quality that is earned through circumstance and force of character.

So many BS stories: you'd think that for every soldier serving in the supply chain or pushing CONUS paperwork, there were 10,000 front-line Rangers and Green Berets.

 

[1911Tuner]

but the "my granddad/uncle/dad" are worse because the narrator might be convinced that it's the truth, rather than the former where he knows he's lying to try and impress someone.

Grandpa probably wasn't a liar. He was most likely a scared kid in the Ardennes hearing that German buzzgun raking his position and remarked how fast it was...and another scared kid in the same hole said the heard from somebody that it had 3 bullets in the barrel at the same time...and they both believed it. You know how scuttlebutt is. It spreads faster than a dose of the...ummm...never mind.

 

[effengee]

My story of customer service...

I worked at an auto parts store about 10 years ago, and once had a guy try to tell me he was a Marine Sniper that had used his "specially designed hand-built .50 sniper rifle to place a round, about a thousand yards away, between two Fedayeen Guards' heads while they leaned in to light their cigarettes from a single match, thereby ripping their faces off with the sonic concussion caused by the specially designed sniper bullets."

Hand to God, I couldn't make this up if I tried.

I was behind the counter and he was a paying customer who had recently bought an engine for his weekend drag car through me. He came around alot and 9X10 would buy about $50.00 worth of car stuff...
The guy wasn't the typical boastfull type, nor had he ever before said he had served. Needless to say, I didn't want to embarass the guy in front of everyone in the store, but I couldn't help but blurt out:
"You actually missed them both and yet the bullet ripped their faces off?"
He looked me in the eye, and with a perfectly straight face, said:
"It was a FIFTY CALIBER!"
Like I was some type of misinformed child.
I calmly asked him to step outside for a smoke-break under the premise that I wanted to know more about his rifle. Once we were out of earshot I told him in the nicest way possible that he shouldn't tell stories around me about firearms doing things completely outside the realm of physics and facts. I told him that I have fired several different .50 caliber weapons, and also had several friends who have ACTUALLY served in the Marine Corps that would be more than happy to help me make him understand that one does not lie about the Beloved Corps.

He kind of shrugged it off, mumbled something about having PTSD, and after that, would wait in the aisles until I was busy with other customers before he'd ring out...

 

[Blakenzy]

If the breech opens before the bullet exits the barrel, the you have a situation very similar to a case head faliure. There is a reason firearm designers spent a lot of time coming up with breech locking mechanisms on self loading weapons.

 

[HGUNHNTR]

This is how so many rumors get started and propogated, too bad.

This is kind of along these lines. Every "bring back" gun from WWII was from a Nazi officer, never a peon, always from an officer. Kinda makes me wonder who was doing the fighting.