The word Cartridge and Bullet.

[Bazoo]

I say bullets in reference to loaded cartridges. I also say cartridges.

Example, pick me up a box of 22 bullets while you’re out. That’s a fine batch of cartridges I loaded last night.

If someone is so fickle to be upset that I say bullets instead of cartridges, then they aren’t welcome to join me on the farm for some plinking. Instead, they can drive their happy rumps down to the pay range in town.

 

[CopperClad]

The technical, correct term; then the colloquial general usage terms.

Correct word usage is important.

 

[film495]

when I hear the word bullet, I think of a speeding train and the lone ranger. cartrdige makes me think of a small clostrophobic space ... even worse is some day I think hipsters will use the term cartrdige to mean magazine, like it is an ink jet cartrdige. you insert the cartridge, the cartrdige holds the bullets... it hurts, but I'll bet you a dollar some day ..

 

[.455_Hunter]

The worst offenders...

"bullet shells": often used by the media and other non-firearms individuals to describe fired cartridge cases.

"bullet heads": theoretically the actual projectile of a loaded cartridge.

"boolits": a descriptive term for a cast projectile (generally non-factory) used by individuals with insufficient family tree branching.

 

[airfoil]

I might get clipped for this, but...on this subject, let me subject y'all to my take, (I'll get a round to it)...catridges has too many letters...I call 'em rounds.

 

[PapaG]

I did buy two bags of Armscor bullets at the local Big R farm store and they are actually, from the manufacturer, labeled " bullet points".

 

[PapaG]

Local paper has reported police finding "expended bullet casings" as well as unexpended casings".
I'm afraid this could become one of those 26 page "terms that make you cringe" threads so I will stop here. Years in the business has given me way too many examples.

 

[dranrab]

When people ask what caliber rifle to get, they are most often asking about specific chambering rather than caliber.

 

[aaaaa]

When people ask what caliber rifle to get, they are most often asking about specific chambering rather than caliber.

I don't know rifles, but in handguns I think a 38 Special is 38 chamber and .357 caliber bullet? Is that what we are talking about here.

 

[3850remhep]

A cartridge is a loaded shell with a bullet seated in place, it there to hold the powder in until the primer is struck so as to send it.

As I learned long ago, words matter and clarity counts. Choose your words carefully.

When someone says they're out of bullets, they're likely reciting a line written by a screenwriter who is as clueless about ammo as is the actor.

Try calling your primary rifle a gun in the USMC and be prepared for the D.I. to set you straight and see to it you get plenty of extra physical training.

 

[3850remhep]

I might get clipped for this, but...on this subject, let me subject y'all to my take, (I'll get a round to it)...catridges has too many letters...I call 'em rounds.

It's actually cartridges, and wouldn't ammo have fewer letters than rounds?

 

[Bazoo]

I’ve seen folks call all ammo “shells”. I only can shotgun shells “shells”.

 

[WestKentucky]

Cartridge to me brings the image of a round sitting on the press having just had the last reloading operation completed.

Bullet similarly brings up an image of hot lead fresh from the mold.

 

[LaneP]

I might get clipped for this, but...on this subject, let me subject y'all to my take, (I'll get a round to it)...catridges has too many letters...I call 'em rounds.

This. Though I can't refer to a cartridge as a "bullet", the term cartridge can seem a little clunky. In the Corps we called it "ammo" or "rounds".

 

[airfoil]

How many ammo's ya got? How many rounds are left...right?

 

[aaaaa]

How many ammo's ya got? How many rounds are left...right?

I just bought 300 rounds of 38 Special ammo.

Rounds is the count. Ammo is the collective. You never hear this:

How much ammunition do you have?

300 ammos.

Rather the response would be 300 rounds.

Bullets can be used for rounds (or cartridges) as a synecdoche:

Synecdoche: "A figure of speech in which the name of a part is used to stand for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword)."
https://www.wordnik.com/words/synecdoche

I use synecdoche often, such as when my wife can't find me and is calling out my name, I might respond, "I am in the toilet," not that I am actually standing in the bowl, but that I am in the bathroom, toilet being the synechdoche for bathroom.


Incidently, bullet, cartridge, and other gun terms are defined in post 6 in this thread:
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...bbreviations-acronyms-and-terminology.370999/

Bullet - the projectile which is expelled from a firearm's barrel at firing

Cartridge completed assembly, comprised of a case (the central component), primer (for ignition), powder (primary energy source) and bullet (projectile). The cartridge is placed into the chamber and confined by a breech device for firing.

 

[CherokeeGunslinger]

A cartridge is the thing that contains the thing that makes the thing do the thing. You know... The thing. The thing, man!

The bullet is the part of the cartridge that makes the person explode into a million tiny pieces because the bullet is an armor-piercing JHP grenade. Ban them, man!

All you need is a double-barrel shotgun...

 

[aaaaa]

A cartridge is the thing that contains the thing that makes the thing do the thing. You know... The thing. The thing, man!

The bullet is the part of the cartridge that makes the person explode into a million tiny pieces because the bullet is an armor-piercing JHP grenade. Ban them, man!

All you need is a double-barrel shotgun...

Or a large caliber derringer, and no more than two assailants (unless some of them are lined up so you can take out several with one armor piercing bullet).

 

[CherokeeGunslinger]

Or a large caliber derringer, and no more than two assailants (unless some of them are lined up so you can take out several with one armor piercing bullet).

Now you're thinking, sonny... Who needs them 30-round AR-16s, anyway? You don't need no 30-round clip to hunt deer, and all it takes is one bullet to get either the deer or the burglar.

Okay, I better stop. I don't want to become reliant upon Rogaine and fudd hats.

 

[.45Coltguy]

I believe the OP has accomplished exactly what he intended. Got some good laughs out of this thread.

 

[orpington]

This thread ought to be required reading in every Creative Writing course offered at the college level. Otherwise, most of these folks grow up never handling a firearm, and thus, everything becomes a “bullet”—be it an actual bullet, a round, a cartridge, brass, etc, etc. You wouldn’t believe how often over the years I have read the word bullet written when these other words were more descriptive and necessary. Makes one’s blood pressure rise.

 

[Pudge]

You all know the difference between less and fewer, right? I went shooting so I have less ammo. I went shooting, so I have fewer rounds. Either way, I don't have as many cartridges or bullets, because I went shooting.

 

[Metal God]

I try to keep it in context and consider who is saying the words and there understanding of the topic or what that understanding “should” be . Here in the reloading section I expect the proper terms to be used and will helpfully correct if one is using the wrong verbiage .

If talking with random people that use bullet as a general definition of both the cartridge or projectile . I except there term and conduct the conversation appropriately with out correction but will use the correct wording in my sentences.

I don’t like it when know it alls correct me when we all know what is being said In similar instances . So I try not to do the same when I fully understand what others are saying .

 

[rust collector]

Whoa, it's been many years since I have heard of the synecdoche! Thanks for the memories.

Precision in terminology seems to be an endangered aspect of our culture. Some people apparently feel threatened by it, others are put off, and a sizeable contingent are busily creating and promoting completely different meanings for entry in the urban dictionary. Like it or not, the meaning of old and familiar words changes over time. We can steadfastly resist, interpret as best we can, or roll up our sleeves and add to the confusion. Writers cannot even agree on the Oxford comma, so likely no help from that quarter.

I do try to use the right term, but often must resort to context to determine if "bullets" refers to rounds, cartridges, projectiles, Coors Light cans, music chart trends, items in a list, trains, or dagmars (a term like synecdoche that is fun to drop into conversations).

 

[PWC]

All here know the difference.

How a cartridge came to be loaded with "heads" I don't understand either.

However the New Mexico DA working on Baldwin's, "Rust" investigation doesen't know the difference. She had her investigators verify that a period Colt handgun loaded with "bullets" would fire when the hammer was pulled back (but not cocked) and released. I can see charges of death by misadventure coming because the woman director killed, had the gun pointed at her and was watching in a monitor to set up the film shot, told him to release the hammer just like "the script called out".

How the gun came to be loaded is another matter......