Muzzle Brake? Muzzle Break?

[sm]

I dunno folks...

...here in the South I have had mussels break just by stepping on them...

Excuse me, need to pare a pair of pears...

 

[Mal H]

We're going way too overboard with this, but I might as well slide over the gunwale with the following:

From the Random House Unabridged Dictionary:

Armory - 1. a storage place for weapons and other war equipment.
2. a building that is the headquarters and drill center of a military unit.
3. a place where arms and armor are made; an armorer's shop; arsenal.

Arsenal - 1. a place of storage or a magazine containing arms and military equipment for land or naval service.
2. a government establishment where military equipment or munitions are manufactured.
3. a collection or supply of weapons or munitions.
4. a collection or supply of anything; store: "He came to the meeting with an impressive arsenal of new research data."

*******************************************
From the Oxford English Dictionary:

Armory (armoury) - (archaic definition deleted)
2. an armed force.
3. a place where arms are kept, an arsenal.
4. the workshop of an armourer; a place where arms are manufactured.
5. the craft of the armourer.

Arsenal - 1. a dockyard.
2. a public establishment for the manufacture and storage, or for the storage alone, of arms and ammunition. (1579)

********************************************

Once again, but in different words - the two words can be interchanged without loss of meaning.

Tory, it's not clear if the listing in your post is your definitions of the words as you understand them or whether they are quoted from a dictionary. But, as I noted in a follow-on post, you do follow up the list with the following which appears to be from a dictionary and which contradicts your definition:
"arsenal >noun a store of weapons and ammunition." So that would mean "store of weapons" would be the first definition of arsenal from your dictionary. True??

 

[sm]

<raises hand>

...but...but the Internet Liberal Media defines Arsenal as having more than one firearm.

You want me leave now - right?

 

[Tory]

In a similar vein,

The School of Zero Tolerance and Enlightenment defines "GUN" as anything which vaguely remembles or is used to simulate a firearm; i.e., GI Joe accessories, T-shirts, chicken strips and using one's thumb and fingers.

Under this "analysis," if I stick out my 3 middle fingers and go "Bang!" I have made a "duck's foot" boarding pistol.

And I'll accept that arsenal and armory may be used interchangeably.

 

[Steve Smith]

Gauss and DeGauss

Many people do not know that Mr. Gauss and Mr. DeGauss were arch enemies from birth. Mr. Gauss was German, of course, and Mr.DeGauss was French. Every single thing Mr. Gauss ever tried to do in his life was nullified by Mr. DeGauss.

 

[PaladinVC]

Thanks for the help, everyone, and for the incidental fix on "breech". I've been using that wrong, too.

Now for a tough one. That green glowy stuff they put in night sights (nyte-sytes, for the birdmen among us) -- that's tritium, which is some kind of isotope of hydrogen (I think. I majored in philosophy, so this is what I remember from PBS specials). Is that pronounced "trishium" or "trittium"? And what exactly is it, anyway? Is it shooting gamma rays into my left butt cheek all day?

While we're at it, and at the risk of violating the terms of these forums (fora?), what's that gizmo on the hub of my rear bicycle wheel? Is it a "derailer" or a "derailure"?

I see nobody has addressed the "nuclear" vs. "nookyular" issue, either.

 

[Chipperman]

Some EPA info on Tritium:
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/tritium.htm

Some from Idaho State University:
http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/tritium.htm

I have heard it pronounced both ways, and heard people profess they are saying it properly.

My personal bias is toward "Tri' dee-um"

 

[45crittergitter]

Text of a letter I recently sent to all the gun mags I had an email addy for:


Gentlemen:

Just a list of things for your editorial use.

Peeve #1: I am thoroughly disgusted by the never-ending allegation of some of your advertisers, and yes, even some of your staff, that fluting a rifle barrel somehow magically “adds rigidity.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. When you cut flutes into a barrel, it naturally becomes LESS STIFF. (Stiffness is the proper term.) Yes, a LARGER DIAMETER fluted barrel may be stiffer than a smaller, unfluted one, but it will never be as stiff as the same barrel before the flutes are cut.

Peeve #2: It’s muzzle BRAKE, not a muzzle BREAK. I don’t want a broken muzzle. (And I’m not sure I want a braked one.)

Peeve #3: There is no such thing as measuring a weight of something by volume, i.e., 100 grains (of blackpowder) by volume. Sorry, can’t be done. If you are measuring volume, it is volume, not weight or mass. If it is a substance with a more or less consistent density, one may easily calculate weight from the volume, but one is still measuring volume.

Peeve #4: Optics typically do not “gather” or “collect” light! Scopes, binoculars, etc., only transmit light, with varying degrees of efficiency.

Peeve #5: Dictionaries notwithstanding, the term “civilian,” from the word “civil,” refers to one who is nonmilitary, i.e., civil, or relating to civil, rather than military law or affairs. Non-military law enforcement personnel are civilians, as are all non-military individuals.

Sincerely,....

 

[Aguila Blanca]

And just this morning I bought a copy of one of the gun rags (I think it was American Handgunner, is that the one edited by Roy Huntingdon?) in which a "knowledgeable" contributing editor (one of their regulars) described a pistol as having a Partridge front sight.

Honest!

 

[JohnKSa]

The sad thing about the current state of grammatical & spelling editing is that there's no longer any one person who's clearly to blame for the mistakes!

It's possible that the author spelled it right but the spell-checker auto-corrected the "mistake".

Now, here on the forums, it's another story!

 

[Vern Humphrey]

And just this morning I bought a copy of one of the gun rags (I think it was American Handgunner, is that the one edited by Roy Huntingdon?) in which a "knowledgeable" contributing editor (one of their regulars) described a pistol as having a Partridge front sight.

No doubt he found it growing on a pear tree.

 

[Darth Ruger]

...but armory is used more often than arsenal in the US.

That also depends on who is using the term. If you ask someone what guns he owns, he'll tell you about his collection. If that same person is in the news for some reason, the news reporters say he owns an arsenal.

 

[Darth Ruger]

Peeve #1: I am thoroughly disgusted by the never-ending allegation of some of your advertisers, and yes, even some of your staff, that fluting a rifle barrel somehow magically “adds rigidity.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. When you cut flutes into a barrel, it naturally becomes LESS STIFF. (Stiffness is the proper term.) Yes, a LARGER DIAMETER fluted barrel may be stiffer than a smaller, unfluted one, but it will never be as stiff as the same barrel before the flutes are cut.

I've always wondered about that. How do they know a fluted barrel is stiffer than an unfluted one? Has anyone ever taken two identical barrels, fluted one, and tested them both for vibration? Or put them in a vise and slowly bent both of them to see which one 'brakes' first?

 

[45crittergitter]

They don't know that, Ruger, and they can't know, because it isn't so!

Oh, and it ain't "Huntingdon."

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Another pet misuse just cropped up on another forum. A gentleman wrote something about a set screw backing out and his pistol "loosing" its zero.

Wrong. A LOOSE screw causes the sights to LOSE zero.

 

[45crittergitter]

Yeah, that one's so darn common, even I gave up on it, Hawk.

 

[BruceB]

I have done solvd one of the grate mistereeze of the gunn langwage.

The qweschun in my mine for yeers has bin:

"Ware do all the missing "n"s from the word 'varmint' go????"

In a blase of lite, it hitt me.... peeple who hate to sea thins go to waist pick them up and stik thim inta the word "turret", thus making their favorite and much-used turm, "turreNt"..... which drives me up the cotton-pickin' wall. It appears on this Board today.

We deal in technical procedures and equipment, and for Heaven's sake it behooves us to get the terminology CORRECT. Not only does this make the text easier to read (and comprehend), but it also helps eliminate possible misunderstandings which may well have serious consequences.

I'm forever trying to keep from LOSING my cool, and hanging LOOSE here at THR! Some days, it can be tough....