Black Powder Linguistic Pet Peeves

[Coot]

When I was an instructor at Dam Neck, VA, we described the courses as being in "an acronym rich environment".

 

[Cpt Flint]

The one that I like is JAWS. Junk Acronyms When Speaking.

 

[toot]

For someone who questions acronyms, then uses the acronym "BP" in a context that could confuse it for blood pressure or black powder????

Obviously toot meant blood pressure.

thank you, yes I did. some people think it means BACK PAIN. have a great Holliday.

 

[toot]

FUBAR is the only one that makes sense to me.....

how about SNAFU!?

 

[toot]

KISS!!. keep it simple stupid! for those of us that were in SAM'S MILITARY!

 

[Josephg]

Start spoof:
Vernacular used by people who shoot front stuffers?
Yeah, I couldn't care less unless somebody doesn't like it.
Then maybe I could care less.
Well, OK, except for maybe people who started calling muzzleloading bullets "conicals". Those goofy nitwits almost two centuries ago obviously lacked a proper education or else they wouldn't have started that.
End spoof.

This post got my attention. So I looked up "conical" and that's not exactly correct. Conical would more accurately name the tip of a truncated cone shaped bullet. So I've decided not to be a nitwit and start using the correct word for the projectiles I shoot in some of my rifles. This last summer I shot sugarloaf bullets in my slug gun. They were to long to be called picket balls and most closely ressemble a sugarloaf. The word sugarloaf was often used in the old days so It's historically correct. Man do I feel better now. Yes I do!

Start spoof End spoof?

 

[Pete G]

What's wrong with calling it a bullet ?????

 

[Josephg]

What's wrong with calling it a bullet ?????

Because there's a difference in the shapes. I've shot matches where a bullet or round ball were not allowed. Only sugarloafs. Also known as picket balls, picket bullets. Not more than two diameters in length. I have no idea where "conicals" came from. I used to use it because I heard others use the word.

 

[VADSLRAM]

My BP is 6 lbs over 2f.....or 2lbs over 4f. Depending on which cabinet door you open.

 

[Tb54]

Geez, not in my house. It stays down and it better be down when herself goes in there. It is my one concession to putting up with my guns, kayaking, motorcycle riding, bad behavior in general and occasionally bourbon sipping.

Don

Told my wife after the umpteenth time she ‘reminded’ me, “... ok, I’ll just pee in the sink”. Not another word about it was ever heard again, until my daughter got older. Oh well....

 

[BadDaditood]

I was taught bullets are jacketed, “boolits” are cast lead?
I also thought frizzen was goofy, yet it replaced hammer, steel and feather?
No need to mention cock, that hasn’t changed...

Merry Christmas!!

 

[Grenadier1758]

Actually the term for cock has changed. For matchlocks and wheel locks it was the clamp. Then in the time of the snaphaunce it began to change to the cock as it seemed to mimic the actions of a rooster pecking for food.

 

[hawkeye2]

Anyone that comes by my place and calls them boolits won't be staying for coffee.

 

[Nazgul58]

I have always objected to "boolits" as well.

Use proper spelling for crying out loud. Must be the nuns at the Catholic grade school I went to, they did not tolerate misspellings.

Don

 

[nkbj]

This post got my attention. So I looked up "conical" and that's not exactly correct. Conical would more accurately name the tip of a truncated cone shaped bullet. So I've decided not to be a nitwit and start using the correct word for the projectiles I shoot in some of my rifles. This last summer I shot sugarloaf bullets in my slug gun. They were to long to be called picket balls and most closely ressemble a sugarloaf. The word sugarloaf was often used in the old days so It's historically correct. Man do I feel better now. Yes I do!

Start spoof End spoof?

"Conical" got started way long time ago and like so many words, once started got used for other things. And that makes me think of something else... bullet. I don't know how the term "bullet" got started and gee golly, now I've got something else to go find out about!

Got it!
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=bullet

 

[B P Arn]

I was taught bullets are jacketed, “boolits” are cast lead?

No; jacketed bullets are called jacketed bullets. Cast bullets are called cast bullets.

People who came here from certain foreign countries might call them jacketed boolets or cast boolets, but even then, they still spell it correctly, and if their accent improves enough, they will call them "bullets".

 

[Griz44Mag]

I have always objected to "boolits" as well.

Use proper spelling for crying out loud. Must be the nuns at the Catholic grade school I went to, they did not tolerate misspellings.

Don

"boolits" was the term originated and used as the name of the forum that has made casting lead projectiles the popular hobby that it is today.
They have done as much (or more) for lead casters as this forum has done for traditional muzze loaders.
It is a wealth of information for all things related to shooting lubes, casting projectiles, alloys, molds - you name it.
In addition to round ball, you will find a wealth of information on anything made of lead that gets spit out of a barrel.
The topics run deep on every piece of hardware used for casting, sizing, capping, hardening, loading or remotely related.
Go ahead and object - it's a forum a lot better know than most others in the shooting biz....
This forum has 18k members with a few dozen that are truly active., castboolits has 51k members with thousands of them actively participating.
If you cast - take a trip over there and see what castBOOLITS has to offer.

 

[Maven]

Before there was the Cast Boolits site, there was Shooters Talk, which was also devoted to cast bullets and reloading CF cartridges. However web censorship in those days (ca. 1998) was such that using the word "bullet" or "bullets" was taboo and hence the term "boo lit" was substituted. It was also "cute," as was the term "j-word" for a jacketed projectile. (Funny thing, the Cast Bullet Association never used either of those terms.) I personally don't care for either and pretty avoid them when I post on those sites.

 

[B P Arn]

Yep; jacketed or cast, "bullets" is the correct term. "Boolets" is fine when you are in Mexico. Boolays" I suppose, in France.

 

[tenngun]

Humans writing with an alphabet tend to go with o phonetic spelling. Over the years we have changed the pronunciation of many words in English. However we hung on to old spellings.
Our alphabet was invented for Latin then hammered in to a mold to fit Germanic language and the Romance language that descended from Latin.
It didn’t fit real well. How do you use a set of letters to record a sound that doesn’t exist in the language the letters were made for?
English sucks. Celtic-Latin-Anglo Saxon-Nordic Viking-French Viking-all messed up to a point where we don’t know if we should
cast a horse in lead or lead it to get a drink.
So who decided that it was bullet and not boolit?
Who decided you throw a ball through a door?
In reading test it has been shown that most of us can read easily through paragraphs of misspelled words.
Used to camp with a guy who did a real good French frontiersman.
He spoke English well but you wouldn’t know it till you heard him forget and he spoke too soon.
I was making some jokes at French spelling around the fire. In my best Bill Tyler accent I said ‘whar is thar a z in rendezvous? Ron-de Voo, taint no z in it’
As smooth as glass he came back in his best Claud Rains ‘There is zee tents and zee traders all zee shoot-tears’.