On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:14:18 -0500, cavelamb himself
wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:02:21 -0500, Brian Whatcott
wrote:


On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:25:22 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:


On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:22:04 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:


On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:50:53 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:


Never mind the rag heads, I'm surprised that the 'mericans who's
buying power for foreign (Chinese) goods has decreased by about 30%
aren't cleaning the muskets and casting bullets.

Muskets use balls, not bullets which are elongated and need spin to
make them fly right, and have to be shot from rifles. The balls are
.75 inch, bigger than 12 ga and hit like a 12 ga deer slug. Deadly is
the word for them. And yes, Bush should be hanged.

Casady

Yes, well you are technically correct however I thought that writing
"cleaning their muskets and casting their balls" might be a bit
confusing. "Casting their BALLS....."

Being a nit picker I should point out that muskets varied in caliber.
.75, .72, .69 and .58 were all common bores at various times.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)


Hmmm...this must be a nit-pickers' benefit!
Bullets can be round or cylindrical (OED definition)

Brian W


I suppose if you want to be dictionarily correct a bullet is "A
projectile that is fired from a gun". However, in the trade the word
"bullet" is normally used to describe a cylindrical projectile while a
round ball is call just that.

Sort of like a mouse being one thing to a computer geek and another
thing to my maiden aunt.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)


And "ball" amunition fired from a "rifle" is ???

Simply an arbitrary name assigned to a specific type of ammunition.
i.e., a "solid" bullet (please note the inverted commas, I do know
that a "solid" bullet in this case is made from two components).

No different then calling that gizmo attached to your computer a
"mouse".


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:20:47 GMT, Brian Whatcott
wrote:

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:48:29 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

/snip/
Never mind the rag heads, I'm surprised that the 'mericans who's
buying power for foreign (Chinese) goods has decreased by about 30%
aren't cleaning the muskets and casting bullets.

Hmmm...this must be a nit-pickers' benefit!
Bullets can be round or cylindrical (OED definition)

Brian W
***
I suppose if you want to be dictionarily correct a bullet is "A
projectile that is fired from a gun" /snip/
Bruce-in-Bangkok

Hehe...I thought it was *you* who wanted to be
lexicographically OK when you said
clean muskets, cast bullets....

...or was that someone else? :-)

Brian W

Nope, I said that I thought it would sound funny to say "cleaning the
muskets and casting balls". Casting BALLS? Who's balls? Casting where?
Does it hurt?

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:02:48 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Nope, I said that I thought it would sound funny to say "cleaning the
muskets and casting balls". Casting BALLS? Who's balls? Casting where?
Does it hurt?

I attributed the use of bullet, to the fact that ball doesn't parse
right.

I Just thought it wouldn't hurt to offer a few facts, Lots of history
been made with muskets. The Mexicans at the Alamo had muskets.
The US Civil war was the first major use of rifles, I believe. Until
the invention of the Minie ball [so called, it was really a bullet]
rifles were too slow loading to be popular with the military.

Casady

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:47:55 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:02:48 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Nope, I said that I thought it would sound funny to say "cleaning the
muskets and casting balls". Casting BALLS? Who's balls? Casting where?
Does it hurt?

I attributed the use of bullet, to the fact that ball doesn't parse
right.

I Just thought it wouldn't hurt to offer a few facts, Lots of history
been made with muskets. The Mexicans at the Alamo had muskets.
The US Civil war was the first major use of rifles, I believe. Until
the invention of the Minie ball [so called, it was really a bullet]
rifles were too slow loading to be popular with the military.

Casady

Go on all day if you like. I was a gunsmith for a while and used to
shoot muzzle loaders when I was a kid.

By the way, supposedly a "Brown Bess", I assume still a flintlock, was
used at the battle of Shiloh, in 1862. This is a weapon went into
service in about 1722. Now that is longevity.

According to what I've read the extremely heavy losses in the War
Between the States, at least in the early battles was due to using
"musket" tactics against troops armed with the new rifled muskets.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)