Trendy gun jargon

D

dyl

New member
I don't like office jargon words.
I watch too much youtube gun videos.
I don't like gun jargon words.

Some jargon words are an attempt to make it sound like you've done more than you actually have, or somehow have done it better than using a more appropriate word. And then youtubers who have seen those videos start using the same words and say it more and more and use actual descriptions less and less.

What are some gun jargon words you have seen floating around out there? If we are aware of them, we can scoff at - I mean avoid them.

So far I've seen:
You have to actually know how to really "run the gun"
You have to get your "master grip"
 
With any pursuit comes the Cliché jargon. I find it entertaining.
"This thing is a tack driver. Bug holes all day long, as long as I do my part"
 
CalmerThanYou said:
With any pursuit comes the Cliché jargon.
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I respectfully submit that there's a difference between cliché and jargon. A cliché is just a phrase that's so over-used that it becomes boring. Jargon is "insider baseball" -- technical or pseudo-technical words that typically are only understood by those "in the know."
 
"You have to actually know how to really "run the gun"
You have to get your "master grip""

I have never heard, nor do I understand, either of these bits-o-jargon.....and I've been shooting for about 45 years, done some military time, and have worked (and still do) in 2 different gun shops. "Jargon" can simply be foolish crap that one person says/uses to try to impress others.
 
You'll find insider jargon in most all industries or hobbies.

The old British gun makers were really into making up jargon to account for something, such as "solder glass" which is the glassy residue left after silver soldering.
They invented any number of obscure terms no one outside the trade knew the meaning of.
Most British trades of all sorts are rift with jargon no outsider can understand.
Most American trades also have specialized jargon.

Often this is just a shorthand way to describe something, but more often it's a way for people to make themselves "in" people.
You see this everywhere.
The modern version is in the computer field. As example......
"RGB" to describe a color monitor. Why not just say, color monitor?
"Mouse" for a pointing device.
"CPU" for a processor.

Truth is there are usually much more sensible, everyday terms to use for specialized jargon, but they don't make you a part of an "in crowd".
As a watchmaker/clockmaker, and gunsmith I know any number of jargon terms for things, but I tend to use ordinary, everyday terms.

With other professionals when I use ordinary terms they often seem to be offended I'm stepping outside the "in" crowd terms.
They seem to enjoy using "in" jargon and mystifying people so they can seem more mysterious.

I tell people that for almost any jargon term there's an ordinary everyday term that fully explains it so anyone can understand.
For some "in" people that's a problem.
 
I don't see a problem with any of the above. I may not like or use the term, but I don't see the problem.
It's still people that love guns, talking about it in a way that they think makes sense.

For a very, very long time, guys that 'riced out' their Hondas were looked down upon and made fun of by muscle car and classic car guys. They were refused entry into car shows, humiliated if entry was allowed, and never had any chance of being recognized for their work.

But in the late '90s and early 2000s, a few people in influential positions started pushing the point home that they're still car guys. They're doing what they can with what they have available, in order to personalize and improve performance of their vehicles.
At the end of the day, no matter what your personal opinion may be of the Honda being rebuilt by the guy across the street, he's still a car guy wrenching on vehicles otherwise considered to be too difficult to mess with.

Now, most muscle car guys have just as much respect for an 9-second Honda Civic as they do for a 9-second Nova.


I may still cringe when I hear, 'clip for my Glock,' 'loaded about fifty bullets,' 'bought some bullet heads,' etc.; but we're all still gun guys.

Why ostracize, when we all need to work together?
 
Smoke pole.....

That term just irritates me more than the term - trousers.... I don't know why that irritates me - but it does...probably something from my childhood....
 
In my line of work it would be the word "biometric" being used to describe all quick access safes.

This generation buys on a cool factor without thinking that James Bond had Q to make sure everything worked properly. ;)
 
"platform".
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Ouch - guilty as charged...

In my defense though - I can't think of any other term to use. :confused:

I use that term when referring to different guns that use the same caliber - A S&W small J frame .357 mag as opposed to a S&W K, L and/or N frame .357 mag.
 
I don't think of "mil spec" in the firearms industry as anything other than advertising lies. For example, Springfield Armory still sells a 1911 they call "Mil-Spec." It isn't mil spec -- there are a LOT of things about that pistol that don't conform to the Ordnance Department prints and specs for the M1911A1.

IMHO, "mil spec" isn't jargon, it's just BS.
 
I was hunting with the old smoke pole the other day as it was muzzleloading season and I couldn't use my tricked out AR platform. After harvesting a deer with the old cap lock round ball chucker, I smoked some steel targets with my trusty roscoe.


Edit to add: Maybe next week, I'll cap some paper with my blaster. It's a nine.
 
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I have always heard "Drive the gun" not "run the gun". Perhaps they mean different things.

I don't watch much YouTube gun videos. When I do watch one the presenter is normally over a certain age. I find that those under a certain age tend to put so much profanity in their videos as to be near incomprehensible and losing their message.

Also there is so little content of value. An occasional review might be handy but I'd rather just go the shop and handle and look at the gun myself. It is the only way I will know what trigger pull feels like and what the sight picture is for me. Sometimes watching them shoot stuff is handy, but only so much. Without knowing exact conditions it is tough to relate it to other things.
 
Some badass bearded operators chilling with their tactical front stuffer platforms:
220px-The_Crimean_War%2C_1854_-_1856_Q71648.jpg
 
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