[HN Gopher] Bullets: Sizes, Calibers, and Types (2020)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Bullets: Sizes, Calibers, and Types (2020)
        
       Author : poundofshrimp
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2021-10-24 19:03 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.pewpewtactical.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.pewpewtactical.com)
        
       | ur-whale wrote:
       | From an engineering perspective, I've always found fascinating
       | how complicated ammo taxonomy is and how weird the various units
       | used are.
       | 
       | I get the historical aspect that led to this giant mess, but ...
       | at the end of the day, there's not that many parameters to define
       | what a bullet is and does.
       | 
       | In particular, wrt physical dimensions, my - probably naive -
       | take is that (radius x length) seems to go quite a long way in
       | describing a bullet.
       | 
       | Anyone more knowledgeable care to explain why things are so
       | complicated and haven't been normalized / simplified over time?
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | I was once called an expert in external ballistics, this may
         | have been an overstatement but I did spend quite a lot of time
         | writing simulations for the ballistics of various bullets.
         | 
         | There are three phases that are important for bullets: what
         | happens inside the barrel, what happens outside the barrel, and
         | what happens when it strikes the target.
         | 
         | There are a lot of parameters effecting that characteristics of
         | all three. (not just 2 dimensions of size)
         | 
         | Shape, muzzle velocity, reliability, ease of manufacture, etc
         | etc. are all quite important.
         | 
         | There is also long history, a gun is a thing that can be around
         | for decades; you can't so easily throw away the past and start
         | over. There is also a strong consideration for the design
         | process. Fulfilling a set of requirements can conflict with the
         | desire for standardization. Also when standardization is an
         | idea, using an existing standard rather than making a new one
         | has been the pragmatic response.
         | 
         | NATO though has done quite a lot in standardizing American
         | rounds. There are many almost-equivalent NATO standard rounds
         | with things like metric measurements instead of the more
         | historical American measurements.
         | 
         | But also, things are just complicated. When talking about an
         | airplane you might as well say that length and wingspan might
         | "go quite a long way" in describing it. I mean, in some sense
         | sure, but a very long way from fully describing one.
         | 
         | There's a book "American Rifle" which goes through quite a bit
         | of the history of the development of guns in the US.
        
         | akerl_ wrote:
         | What would the upside be in "simplifying" it? At present,
         | there's a known set of standard ammo sizes in use, and millions
         | of guns in existence that use them.
         | 
         | Sure, the nomenclature is weird, with a mix of imperial,
         | metric, and just plain weirdness, but it doesn't seem to be
         | negatively impacting anything.
        
         | bjt2n3904 wrote:
         | > there's not that many parameters to define what a bullet is
         | and does
         | 
         | There's a surprising amount of parameters that define what a
         | bullet is and does. Consider this article, which describes the
         | difference between secant and tangent ogives.
         | 
         | From an engineering perspective, long range shooting is
         | FASCINATING!
         | 
         | http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2011/03/tangent-vs-secan...
        
         | sigstoat wrote:
         | > In particular, wrt physical dimensions, my - probably naive -
         | take is that (radius x length) seems to go quite a long way in
         | describing a bullet.
         | 
         | that doesn't describe much of a bullet, and nearly nothing
         | about a caliber.
         | 
         | you can take a look at the SAAMI specs and get a sense of what
         | goes into such things.
         | 
         | https://saami.org/technical-information/cartridge-chamber-dr...
         | 
         | the popular name of a caliber is exactly that, a name, and
         | describes the caliber about as well as "John" describes a human
         | being.
        
         | paisawalla wrote:
         | I think this is yet another area where large budgets and low
         | accountability creates "innovation" primarily in how to spend
         | public money. Large police and military budgets create
         | incentives for manufacturers to innovate away from the standard
         | and introduce "high performance" proprietary form factors.
         | 
         | In some cases a new round size/weight does actually produce
         | better performance for the desired application. In many cases,
         | IMO, those advantages are academic and achieved in highly
         | controlled environments, _i.e._ they are nullified by the high
         | variability of other factors, in real world situations. I am
         | just an enthusiast and not any kind of professional though.
        
           | sigstoat wrote:
           | > Large police and military budgets create incentives for
           | manufacturers to innovate away from the standard and
           | introduce "high performance" proprietary form factors.
           | 
           | extremely few of the calibers out there have ever seen
           | military/LE use, and fewer of them started out with
           | military/LE use.
        
         | 0x7E3 wrote:
         | For the bullets themselves, in addition to the diameter and
         | length you've got mass, material and shape (round nose, hollow
         | point, ballistic tipped, etc.).
         | 
         | For the cartridge as a whole you're also going to be concerned
         | with powder capacity, shape (necked?, rimmed?), and to a lesser
         | extent material.
         | 
         | These are just a few examples and all are significant.
        
         | collegeburner wrote:
         | Because there's a ton of organic growth over more than a
         | century and a shitton of holdovers. Think of it like really old
         | legacy systems in computing.
         | 
         | Like look just at naming: old stuff was often named based on
         | caliber and the number of grains of powder back in black powder
         | days. Like the .45-70 is a .45 bullet and had 70 grains of
         | black powder in a standard load. But then this carried over
         | when they named the .30-06, which had a .30 bullet and 6 grains
         | smokeless. Some handgun rounds are "ACP" because they were
         | developed for new (at the time) auto-loaders instead of
         | revolvers. Now cartridges are mostly named by caliber.
         | 
         | Then there's stuff where cartridges were slightly tweaked, like
         | for NATO. .223 is mostly the same as 5.56 and .308 is mostly
         | the same as 7.62, but the latter are both NATO rounds re-named
         | and changed a bit from their predecessors. Oh and by the way,
         | .308 rifles can typically fire .308 or 7.62, it's not safe to
         | fire .308 from a 7.62 rifle though. Oh but for .223/5.56 it's
         | the other way: You can fire .223 from a 5.56 chamber but not
         | vice versa.
         | 
         | Every country developed its own rounds for a long time, just
         | look at the number of 9mm cartridges there are. Different
         | bullets, different nomenclature, etc.
         | 
         | There's a ton of variety in how you make a bullet, even beyond
         | "broad" varieties like hollow point vs jacketed vs semi-
         | jacketed vs wadcutter vs semi-wadcutter... or the actual metal
         | composition of the bullet, jacket, etc.
         | 
         | Different rounds are also loaded differently, you can have some
         | under-pressured for subsonic if you're running suppressed,
         | there's usually some variation in what's "standard" and bodies
         | like SAAMI and CIP are voluntary and typically define max
         | pressure only. Plus there are overpressure (+p) and over-
         | overpressure (+p+) rounds...
         | 
         | Lots of complexity from over 100 years of a lot of people
         | developing their own ideas than merging them only sort of.
        
         | nataz wrote:
         | You have to go one layer deeper and think beyond the projectile
         | (bullet) and include the cartridge (bullet, accelerant, primer,
         | case).
         | 
         | Basically how fast some thing shoots (how much accelerant) is
         | just as important as what you are shooting (bullet
         | characteristics).
         | 
         | Each of those variables also have weight and dimension
         | penalties which determine how much you can reasonably carry.
         | 
         | An interesting relatively recent example is the development of
         | small caliber armor piercing rounds. NATO needed something to
         | deal with the rise of body armor. Same requirements, two
         | different solutions to get there in the fn 5.7 and hk 4.6x30
         | (simplifying enormously here). Basically these are engineering
         | and manufacturing challenges.
        
           | collegeburner wrote:
           | For anybody who hasn't heard of them and wants a rough
           | overview of the differences, the 5.7 and 4.6 mostly work on
           | being smaller-caliber at higher velocity. 9mm parabellum
           | usually has muzzle velocity anywhere between 1000 and 1500
           | ft/s where 4.6 is closer to 2300 ft/s. The 5.7 is closer to
           | 2800. They're also usually steel core.
        
             | ggreer wrote:
             | I'm pretty sure all the steel core 5.7x28mm is considered
             | armor piercing handgun ammo and is therefore limited to law
             | enforcement.[1] I've never seen steel core versions of it
             | sold at any gun store.
             | 
             | 1. https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/open-letter/national-
             | jan20...
        
               | collegeburner wrote:
               | Sadly yeah, it's one in a massive list of stupid laws but
               | FOPA states anything that "may be used in a handgun" if
               | I'm remembering the wording right. I believe they
               | submitted the duty round for the NATO RFP tho and that's
               | steel penetrator. If i remember right blacktip .223 is
               | similarly banned because of AR pistols, you can basically
               | only get AP in full rifle rounds (.30-06) or something
               | like .50 BMG.
        
       | neither_color wrote:
       | This is a nice overview of common types but I still don't
       | understand the "why" of some of their names, such as the
       | difference between a .38 and a .380 (It's the same number!)
        
         | ptomato wrote:
         | the full name of .38 is .38 Special, and the full name of .380
         | is .380 ACP. IIRC, .380 ACP was so named to distinguish it from
         | an earlier related design, .38 ACP. In common use, if somebody
         | says .38 they're referring to .38 Special as that's by far the
         | most common cartridge with .38 in it, and if they say .380
         | they're definitely referring to .380 ACP, though it's also
         | sometimes referred to as 9mm Browning.
         | 
         | ETA: and in the case of both these rounds, .38" is actually the
         | approximate diameter of the _case_ not the bullet; the diameter
         | of .380 ACP bullet is 9mm, and the diameter of .38 Special is
         | .357".
        
         | collegeburner wrote:
         | Because there's a lot more than caliber that matters. If you
         | think about it, a .45 ACP is close in caliber to a .50 BMG. But
         | there's hella powder behind a .50 and not so much behind a .45.
         | The bullets themselves make a big difference also, there are at
         | least a half dozen you can read more about here:
         | https://gunvault.com/types-of-ammunition/
         | 
         | If you think having 2 cartridges that both have .38" caliber
         | bullets is confusing, take a look at all the 9mm ones. Just in
         | the ones that are actually called 9mm and not just caliber
         | equivalent, there's 9x19, 9x25 mauser, 9x57 mauser, 9x39, 9mm
         | winmag, 9x18 makarov, and a ton more I can't remember. Some of
         | those are rifle cartridges, some handgun. They have different
         | bullets with different characteristics and different bullet
         | lengths and different bullet weights. And the shape of the
         | cartridges behind them, the guns they fire from, and the amount
         | of propellant each one has is all different.
        
       | hellbannedguy wrote:
       | Second pop-up wants an email.
       | 
       | (I've noticed a lot of cheap stuff on Craigslist. I'm pretty sure
       | they are placed their to collect emails. There's one in the bay
       | area yesterday. It was a mill, and a lathe, for $100. And yes--I
       | emailed him. In the back of my mind, maybe they just wanted it
       | gone?)
        
       | drewm1980 wrote:
       | Guns are like COVID... but cool.
        
       | swayvil wrote:
       | "Stopping power". "Wound channels".
       | 
       | Movie frames featuring sainted action heroes, gun out-thrust.
       | 
       | Now don't get me wrong, I own a gun. But still.
       | 
       | Also, I hear that birdshot is actually better for home defense
       | because it doesn't go through walls so much.
       | 
       | And can you imagine firing a shotgun inside your house without
       | hearing protection? Goodbye ears.
        
         | collegeburner wrote:
         | Do you have a problem with those terms? If it makes you feel
         | better "stopping power" is at least half a meme these days,
         | from all the old fudds talking about "muh stopping power" with
         | their .45 1911s. And yeah a bullet makes a wound channel? This
         | stuff is just as relevant of you're hunting or similar.
         | 
         | And no, birdshot may not stop a big person. Hurt like hell but
         | often won't kill. I personally don't have a shotgun for home
         | defense though, 9mm hollow points in a PCC do the job fine.
         | 
         | Anybody who's not an idiot wears ear protection when shooting
         | but a few shots won't damage your ears much. But yeah a 9mm
         | handgun is significantly less bad for these reasons. Thank the
         | feds though, it's damn hard to get suppressors without tons of
         | paperwork which would otherwise make this less of a problem.
        
           | rsyring wrote:
           | > But yeah a 9mm handgun is significantly less bad for these
           | reasons.
           | 
           | 9mm handgun is usually louder than a shotgun:
           | https://earinc.com/gunfire-noise-level-reference-chart/
           | 
           | > Thank the feds though, it's damn hard to get suppressors
           | without tons of paperwork which would otherwise make this
           | less of a problem.
           | 
           | Paperwork isn't that bad and online retailers help a lot.
           | It's annoying, expensive, and you have to wait a long time
           | after purchase to get it, but it's not really "hard" IMO.
        
             | collegeburner wrote:
             | Huh never seemed like that, go figure. Tbh i usually shoot
             | 9mm from a PCC so that may have skewed my impression.
             | 
             | I consider a shitload of paperwork, months of waiting, and
             | the $200 tax stamp to be pretty bad. More importantly,
             | navigating that paperwork is hard for somebody kinda new to
             | guns, even though it's better these days esp. with the
             | internet.
        
               | nataz wrote:
               | And just a quick safety note, a 9mm round can absolutely
               | cause long term hearing damage with just one shot,
               | especially if fired indoors and unsurprised. Lots of
               | variables in play here, but the answer is to always wear
               | hearing protection.
        
         | trutannus wrote:
         | Former gun owner myself as well back when I lived in the
         | sticks. Would carry on walks in my "yard" because of injured,
         | hungry, or otherwise dangerous wildlife.
         | 
         | > Movie frames featuring sainted action heroes, gun out-thrust.
         | 
         | This is the sort of thing that gives firearm owners a bad rap.
         | Especially those who advocate for self-defense rights. Everyone
         | already thinks firearm owners are gung-ho cowboys with itchy
         | trigger fingers. The majority are not.
        
           | 0x7E3 wrote:
           | > Movie frames featuring sainted action heroes, gun out-
           | thrust.
           | 
           | >This is the sort of thing that gives firearm owners a bad
           | rap.
           | 
           | You're not wrong, but I do think it's unfair and a little
           | odd. After all software engineers are almost exclusively
           | depicted as engaging in unethical and outright criminal
           | activity in pop culture, regardless of whether they are the
           | 'good guys' or 'bad guys'. Many beginning training materials
           | focus on things that are implied if not outright trumpeted as
           | giving you the ability to commit illegal and immoral acts.
           | 
           | We certainly don't (well someone probably does, but we
           | shouldn't) consider that as a reflection on all software
           | engineers.
        
             | trutannus wrote:
             | > After all software engineers are almost exclusively
             | depicted as engaging in unethical and outright criminal
             | activity in pop culture
             | 
             | Right, I agree for sure. I think the reason why we don't
             | consider this a reflection on software engineers is that no
             | politician has thought using freedom to engineer software
             | as a wedge issue in a campaign. It's absolutely unfair and
             | a little odd. But, after all, I've yet to see a political
             | wedge issue arise that _isn 't_ unfair, and viewed as a
             | little odd by other cultures.
        
         | ethbr0 wrote:
         | I mean, it's a bit difficult to compare and contrast various
         | bullets without talking about stopping power and wound
         | channels.
         | 
         | You could use euphemisms or be more technical, but in the end
         | you're comparing a thing made to transfer kinetic force and
         | create a hole, on its ability to do those things.
         | 
         | And yes IMHO, a pump action 12ga birdshot reduced-recoil load
         | w/ a standard slug at the end of the magazine is hard to argue
         | against if we're honestly talking home defense load.
        
           | lifeisstillgood wrote:
           | Ok so UK resident here. Oddly able to own a shotgun (not
           | pump). what is a standard slug? I presumed birdshot would
           | mean the "slug" (big metal thing fired out end of gun) would
           | be replaced by the "birdshot" (tiny metal balls designed to
           | spread and so make hitting bird (plus lots of other things)
           | easier.?
           | 
           | Sidenote: It's unlikely in US as there seems to be a
           | political objection to collating gun stats but are there any
           | stats on threat models in "home defence"? I presume the main
           | one is armed burglary but am interested in how often, where
           | gun is kept vs where it was needed etc etc
        
             | alricb wrote:
             | Normal shotgun rounds are filled with a number of pellets;
             | the smaller the pellet, the more you can fit. Birdshot:
             | small pellets in large number, Buckshot: large-ish pellets
             | in small number. A slug is a massive (18.5 mm diameter for
             | 12 gauge) single projectile used in a shotgun shell.
        
             | robbedpeter wrote:
             | Every time a firearm is used in a situation involving
             | police, such as home defense, the data is recorded. It's
             | not always shared, though. Gun use in defensive situations
             | seems to happen about a tenth to an eighth as often as
             | criminal use. This includes gang related shootings, which
             | account for 15% of the total, and there are issues with
             | ascribing intent and motive, so the data has a lot of
             | confounding factors. It's so bad that it's nigh on
             | impossible to make any useful conclusions.
             | 
             | The best bet in self defense is to find a competent
             | professional trainer. Someone with long military or law
             | enforcement experience that isn't an asshole. If you're
             | really into it you can get the same training that Keanu
             | Reeves got and turn yourself into John Wick. That's a hell
             | of a party trick.
        
               | NoImmatureAdHom wrote:
               | >>Gun use in defensive situations seems to happen about a
               | tenth to an eighth as often as criminal use.
               | 
               | I think you mean instances where a shot is actually
               | fired? I believe there are 40-50,000 self-defense uses
               | per year in the U.S., a nation of ~330,000,000, though
               | that does not necessarily mean a shot was fired [0]
               | 
               | 0: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf p. 12
        
           | ggreer wrote:
           | I strongly discourage shotguns for home defense. Shotguns
           | have high recoil, making them a poor choice for inexperienced
           | shooters. Spread is minimal at typical room distances so you
           | need to be just as accurate as with a rifle or handgun. Most
           | importantly, people tend to short stroke them in panic
           | situations. If you want a long gun for home defense, a semi-
           | automatic rifle is a much better choice.
           | 
           | That said, you probably want to be able to aim a gun while
           | potentially having a free hand to use a phone, open doors,
           | turn on lights, grab loved ones, etc. A handgun allows you to
           | do all of those things and have higher magazine capacities
           | than a shotgun.
        
           | drewm1980 wrote:
           | What's the slug for?
        
             | akerl_ wrote:
             | There's a decent cargo cult following for some level of
             | magazine/tube-based escalation of force, where you have
             | some sort of lower-impact ammunition loaded first, followed
             | by higher-impact ammunition. In this case, the pitch is for
             | birdshot at the front, followed by a slug.
             | 
             | The issue is that in practice, once you pull out a gun
             | you've fundamentally altered the state of the world between
             | yourself and your assailant, and they have no way to know
             | that you've stacked your magazine/tube like some kind of
             | Dragon Ball Z power escalation where you'll take 5 episodes
             | to get to your Full Ultimate Potential.
             | 
             | In practice, you're better off just making a choice between
             | wanting lower or higher impact projectiles. Increasing
             | complexity in a high-stress / fast-paced scenario isn't a
             | great plan.
        
               | drewm1980 wrote:
               | What scenario are you expecting to happen, and how will
               | your specific choice of shotgun rounds factor into that?
        
               | ethbr0 wrote:
               | Well, the implied assumption is that you probably don't
               | want to kill someone breaking into your house. Though
               | given the home defense crowd...? :/
               | 
               | Given that a shotgun must cycle through its magazine in
               | order (although you could eject unfired rounds), the
               | second assumption is that by the time subsequent rounds
               | are fired, the situation has escalated.
               | 
               | E.g. If you bury a load of birdshot in a wall or
               | someone's skin and they're still threatening you, you
               | likely want to escalate (instead of repeating same). And
               | from the counter-point, you probably don't want your
               | initial choice to be killing someone vs not firing.
               | 
               | As Dick Cheney demonstrated, catching a shotgun shell of
               | smaller pellets usually isn't lethal, as they
               | individually don't have enough penetration to hit vital
               | organs. Or, same, but in sheetrock.
               | 
               | On the other hand, as parent argued, it's adding
               | complexity to an already stressful situation and does
               | make a lot of assumptions about shooter and attacker
               | intent.
        
               | akerl_ wrote:
               | I have no intention of prowling my house like Mr Nobody
               | chasing down invaders. To meet me and my shotgun, a
               | burglar has to have broken into my home and also actively
               | entered the room I'm in, after I've called 911 and
               | shouted to them that I've done so and am armed. If they
               | decide to still try to come see me, I'm not actively
               | looking to kill them but I am optimizing for fastest
               | incapacitation. I'm only qualified to make this decision
               | for myself, but it's about as much respect for life as
               | seems possible in the circumstance.
        
               | akerl_ wrote:
               | If I'm loading a shotgun for for home defense: somebody
               | has broken into my home.
               | 
               | As per my comment above, how I load my shotgun is mostly
               | based around my willingness to inflict harm on somebody
               | who has broken into my home. If I'm trying to limit
               | impact, bird shot is lovely. If not, just load the whole
               | tube with buck shot or slug or similar.
               | 
               | But trying to pre-plan an escalation of force via the
               | shotgun tube ordering is a fools errand.
               | 
               | Police have an escalation of force via visibly different
               | tools. A suspect can see the difference between a stick
               | and a taser and a gun. And a cop can choose to draw any
               | of these in any order. Stacking the tube locks you into a
               | specific sequence that you have to remember and that your
               | assailant can't know.
        
               | lamontcg wrote:
               | Fucking around like that seems like a great way to kill
               | someone when you don't have justification for it when
               | you're just trying to scare them. Filling it with
               | buckshot seems dramatically clearer as to what its
               | purpose is for and under what circumstances it should be
               | used.
        
               | akerl_ wrote:
               | I think we're agreeing? The entire premise of my comment
               | is that trying to get clever with tube stacking injects
               | more chaos and risk into an already chaotic and risky
               | scenario.
               | 
               | EDIT: To clarify, in general I also agree with the point
               | you seem to be making that guns are dangerous and trying
               | to make them seem less so by loading so-called "less
               | lethal" ammunition makes it easier for the user to forget
               | that. But if somebody wants birdshot, they should at
               | least just load the whole tube with birdshot and accept
               | that their load has different ballistic properties than
               | buckshot.
        
           | smiley1437 wrote:
           | I couldn't believe what a shotgun _blank_ could do:
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/elpAaZs_U9k?t=200
           | 
           | (TL;DW - blast a hole in a metal plate, explode a pineapple
           | from a few feet)
        
       | giantg2 wrote:
       | I actually thought this might be about bullets in documents, like
       | different styles and fonts.
        
         | kkdaemas wrote:
         | Wait, it's not about game development??
        
       | nataz wrote:
       | I think hn and tech culture in general is sleeping on the rise of
       | popular gun culture.
       | 
       | Even with some significant headwinds on social media, gun culture
       | influencers have huge audiences, slick media production, and run
       | the gambit from highly technical to meme fueled gif parties.
       | 
       | It's a long way from the old stereotype of an old white Vietnam
       | vet waxing poetic about 1911 .45s.
       | 
       | Something else that has been interesting to watch has been how
       | much video game culture acts as an on ramp to gun culture. The
       | influence that games like modern warfare have on the real life
       | gun community is fascinating. It makes sense since there are way
       | more call of duty players than actual high speed operators, but
       | still...
       | 
       | If you think about it, it makes sense. Unlike a lot of other gear
       | orientated technical fields, it's almost impossible for people to
       | regularly employ their toys outside of a range setting. Everyone
       | and their brother wants short barreled ARs, but how many people
       | are actually clearing rooms. Same goes for recce rifles. How many
       | folks out there on patrol? It's the equivalent of the guy who
       | buys a land cruiser with a roof top tent and hood mounted jack,
       | but just drives it to the mall on the weekends (and yet look how
       | much the overland community has exploded over the past few
       | years).
       | 
       | This is very much an underserved hobby driven by culture and
       | entertainment. It's almost entirely disconnected from actual
       | military needs/requirements/drivers. I think there is a lot of
       | growth in the industry, surprised it doesn't come up more often.
        
         | cronix wrote:
         | > Even with some significant headwinds on social media, gun
         | culture influencers have huge audiences, slick media
         | production, and run the gambit from highly technical to meme
         | fueled gif parties.
         | 
         | As I read that, I heard the words and voice "If you've ever
         | been ..." bounce around in my head. It's the start of a phrase
         | uttered by a very popular YT gun channel on youtube before each
         | video.
        
           | nataz wrote:
           | For those curious, Garand Thumb.
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/FlHsVQDbyx4
        
             | collegeburner wrote:
             | Lmao didn't expect to see flannel daddy here of all places.
             | 
             | Other good channels y'all might enjoy:
             | 
             | Gun Jesus' Forgotten Weapons is very historical:
             | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrfKGpvbEQXcbe68dzXgJuA
             | 
             | Brandon Herrera mostly posts gun memes:
             | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTrSsPMmZavLbc3Ex7VhjDg
             | 
             | Hickock45 is mostly just shooting:
             | https://www.youtube.com/user/hickok45
             | 
             | Military Arms channel is more on the educational side:
             | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ-qxagOkAmCEP-Tu6YliUQ
             | 
             | Larry Vickers is great. The AFT recently raided him and
             | took most of his cool stuff, and he's got cancer so
             | probably not many new videos, but nice backlog:
             | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0zNoCMMiPEAst0JrwUht0w
             | 
             | Paul Harrell is very informative:
             | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QH13V2o68zynSa0hZy9uQ
        
               | cronix wrote:
               | Demolition Ranch:
               | https://www.youtube.com/user/DemolitionRanch
               | 
               | You just never know when the question "how many toilet
               | seats would it take to stop a 50 cal round" might pop up
               | at a fancy dinner party.
        
         | bjt2n3904 wrote:
         | > I think hn and tech culture in general is sleeping on the
         | rise of popular gun culture.
         | 
         | 2020 saw a significant rise in first time gun owners. The NSSF
         | estimates 5+ million.
        
         | collegeburner wrote:
         | Yeah fudds haven't made up the bulk of the gun scene since the
         | 90s really.
         | 
         | I hope that since people in video games can use use a wide
         | variety of weapons we get some push back against banning
         | specific gun types. Opening the MG registry would be really
         | good and maybe this is a way to encourage it, same for removing
         | suppressor and SBR regulations.
         | 
         | Btw there is some intersection between the two, a lot of the
         | guys behind the 3d-printed gun movement are moving to
         | decentralized technologies for chat, video hosting, etc.
         | because the gun-grabbers running mainstream platforms don't
         | like them.
        
           | JKCalhoun wrote:
           | _Fudds._ When I hear that I hear  "n*-lover" or some other
           | term meant to exclude anyone that isn't extremist/fanatical.
        
             | collegeburner wrote:
             | Uhh that's not what it means the way I've ever heard it
             | used, sorry if you got that tho. How I've heard it and use
             | it, it's for 2 groups:
             | 
             | 1. People who don't care about stopping gun-grabbers as
             | long as they can keep their .30-30 henry or remington 870
             | or whatever, because "nobody needs one of them plastic
             | guns, they're for killing people!"
             | 
             | 2. People who are generally ignorant/out-of-date/willfully
             | uneducated. The "muh 2 world wars, stopping power, I use a
             | .45 cause they don't make a 46" boomer-tier stuff. The "22
             | is the deadliest caliber because it tumbles around inside!"
             | people.
             | 
             | Edit: yeah, as 'nataz pointed out it's from Elmer Fudd.
             | I'll tell you that most of the racist people I've met in
             | the gun scene are fudds. The ones you'd call "fanatical"
             | don't give a shit who you are as long as you're pro-gun
             | and/or anti-govt.
        
               | JKCalhoun wrote:
               | Your #1 is exactly what I am referring to.
        
               | collegeburner wrote:
               | Ok then I'll disagree with your implication that anybody
               | who cares about more than old hunting arms is
               | "extremist/fanatical". I have no problem with having a
               | term to refer to people who only care about _their_
               | rights to own _their_ arms. Also what did you mean by
               | "n*-lover" and how do you think it relates to ppl who
               | want more than hunting guns to remain legal? Tbh that
               | makes it sound like you're flaim-bating.
        
               | JKCalhoun wrote:
               | There is a dismissiveness from the extremists toward
               | those who own guns but believe in regulating guns. As
               | though if you claim to be _one of us_ you can 't also be
               | nuanced and believe the "other side" have merit as well.
               | 
               | Bump stocks. I think they should remain illegal. I'm a
               | fudd.
               | 
               | Fully automatic, military weapons should probably remain
               | heavily regulated. I'm a fudd.
               | 
               | This is what I'm describing.
               | 
               | Dick Metcalf as editor of _Guns and Ammo_ magazine
               | suggested in an editorial that maybe some gun regulation
               | is a good thing. He was out after that.
        
               | collegeburner wrote:
               | Yeah, fair description. Still think your calling us
               | "extremists" is comparable or worse tho. It's more that
               | "one of us" is more "people who think the government has
               | no business regulating guns" than "people who own guns".
               | 
               | I disagree, bump stocks are largely a gimmick and
               | automatics are "military weapons" because they've been so
               | limited for the populace. I don't see the problem with
               | "fudd" to describe people who care only about their guns.
        
               | JKCalhoun wrote:
               | Gun owners that think we should regulate AR-15's,
               | probably don't in fact own an AR-15. So "caring only
               | about their own guns" doesn't point out any sort of
               | hypocrisy.
               | 
               | "Extremists" is not the word I wanted to use, but I
               | didn't know a better one.
               | 
               | No regulation on any guns at all. Period.
               | 
               | I don't know a good name for that take on gun ownership.
        
               | collegeburner wrote:
               | > Gun owners that think we should regulate AR-15's,
               | probably don't in fact own an AR-15. So "caring only
               | about their own guns" doesn't point out any sort of
               | hypocrisy.
               | 
               | Nahh it's perfectly fair because there are gun owners who
               | don't own an AR but think they shouldn't be banned. Same
               | as how I don't wanna buy a hooker but still think
               | prostitution should be legal. Or same idea as "I don't
               | agree with what you're saying but will defend your right
               | to say it."
               | 
               | Not sure why you can't just say "gun rights advocate"
               | cause that's what it is. Saying it's extreme is just as
               | much a value judgement as "fudd". And for somebody who
               | fit the stuff I described above, I don't know any good
               | name other than "fudd" for that take on gun ownership.
        
               | rsj_hn wrote:
               | Curious, which gun de-regulation measures were publicly
               | supported by gun control advocates?
               | 
               | Or for that matter, what "reasonable" abortion
               | restrictions were supported by pro-abortion advocates?
               | Somehow all the abortion restrictions turn out to be
               | unreasonable, and all the gun control restrictions are
               | always reasonable.
               | 
               | I don't follow these debates too closely but put them in
               | the "culture war" bucket, rather than the "public policy"
               | bucket.
               | 
               | The object is to defeat your enemy, not to make optimal
               | public policy. Facts and figures are recruited to make
               | the other side look bad and worthy of contempt, not to
               | determine which policy is most effective.
        
               | namdnay wrote:
               | I think everyone agrees that you shouldn't abort at 8
               | months..
        
               | rsj_hn wrote:
               | Nope, do you remember the "partial birth abortion
               | debate"?
               | 
               | The pro-abortion side basically argues that if you can
               | find a doctor that says you need it, you should be able
               | to get it even at 9 months. And they also insist that
               | psychological harm to the mother is enough of a reason to
               | get it, it doesn't need to be risk of physical injury.
               | And that you can go to as many doctors as you want until
               | you find one that will agree. Many abortion clinics have
               | such doctors on staff to meet the legal requirements of
               | medical consultation.
               | 
               | Or about the "post-birth" abortion debate, in which an
               | abortion is botched and the baby delivered? The pro-
               | abortion side wanted to allow the child to be left on a
               | table and not provided with life sustaining care (or even
               | food/milk) to die in the hospital.
               | 
               | The anti-abortion side insists this is infanticide, which
               | gets the other side really angry, since they are not the
               | ones killing the child, they are just refusing to provide
               | care and letting the infant die on its own.
               | 
               | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47066307
               | 
               | Interestingly, in the ancient world, people would leave
               | new borns on the side of the road if they didn't want or
               | couldn't care for them. There are lots of stories about
               | these castaway infants - Moses being put into a basket
               | and sent down the river are an example of this genre.
               | Also in Venice (my favorite city) there was a _scaffetta_
               | , shaped like a lion's mouth, where you could slip an
               | unwanted infant, and it would be raised in one of the
               | Catholic orphanages. Vivaldi was a conductor for a girls'
               | school in such an orphanage -- the _Four Seasons_ was
               | first performed by orphaned and abandoned girls.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospedale_della_Pieta
               | 
               | Of course the majority of normal people believe in some
               | regulation and some rights. They view these issues as
               | complex and morally ambiguous. But not activists, and
               | certainly not activists in a culture war.
        
               | 0x7E3 wrote:
               | His example for comparison was rather distasteful, but
               | you did reinforce his point. It's name calling with the
               | intent to insult. And while many people present valid
               | information and construct good arguments while doing
               | that, casually insulting your opponent, or worse
               | uninvolved bystanders is bad manners.
               | 
               | You can just say 'racist', or 'person who relies on
               | outdated ballistics information'. No need to have one
               | derogatory term to lump the two in together and then
               | sling in around casually.
               | 
               | People say that 22lr is the 'deadliest caliber' because
               | it is the caliber that has ended the most lives in the
               | United States, that being because it is by far the most
               | common. The original source for that was a study done in
               | ~1970 but there have been others to back it up since.
               | 
               | I'm not going to go so far as to say that _no one_ ever
               | has said that .22lr is more lethal than any other
               | caliber, but it is the exact opposite sentiment of "I use
               | a .45 cause they don't make a .46" so it's not likely to
               | be a person from that group saying it.
        
             | nataz wrote:
             | Whoa there.
             | 
             | I think it comes from the cartoon character Elmer fudd, and
             | stands for someone who is part of the traditional
             | sporting/hunting culture as opposed to someone approaching
             | it from a broader and more modern "self defense", 2A,
             | entertainment (video game/movie) influence.
             | 
             | Those cultures do overlap, but there is definitely some
             | friction between them at times.
        
               | JKCalhoun wrote:
               | That's not the way I've heard it used. In the contexts
               | I've seen it you are a Fudd if you believe, for example,
               | that the American public should be allowed to own guns,
               | but not AR-15s, AK-47s.
        
               | nataz wrote:
               | True, but you have to remember that until relatively
               | recently, the idea of owning a 556/223 AR platform was
               | pretty far out of the mainstream.
               | 
               | People who liked guns hunted, and or owned things in
               | calibers that overlapped between hunting and the military
               | (think .308). They had revolvers, or full metal frame
               | pocket pistols for self defense.
               | 
               | The standard today would be something like a glock 19
               | (plastic frame, 19 rounds of hollow point, small size)
               | carried concealed in an appendix holster. Now often with
               | a red dot sight and a rail mounted tactical light. There
               | are dozens and dozens of AR (using the term very broadly)
               | manufacturers out there today, pushing everything from
               | systems designed for suppressed cqb (think short barreled
               | suppressed .300 blackout) to long range precision
               | shooting (ar-10/6.5 cm).
               | 
               | These kind of options, and the hobbies/communities they
               | enable, didn't exist at the consumer level even 10 years
               | ago.
               | 
               | The inflection point seems to be the sunset of the
               | assault weapons ban, but it took quite a bit of time for
               | this stuff to become mainstream.
               | 
               | The old guard supported by a base of hunters and sport
               | shooters is aging out, and not growing anywhere near as
               | fast as this new generation. The needs (and opinions) of
               | someone out on regular elk hunts range pretty far from
               | someone who wants a firearm for self defense.
        
             | bendbro wrote:
             | Lol, I'm going to miss these 2016-2020 outbursts.
        
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