Why you should hold the butt against your shoulder (was: Re: [SGVLUG] hp tech support! - take this!!!)

[Michael Proctor-Smith]

On 7/12/07, Dustin Laurence <dustin at laurences.net> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 11:45:10AM -0700, John  Jefferson Lowry IV wrote:
> >
> >    I  have never bought the argument that it does more damage.
>
> I think common hunter's knowledge is sufficient to disprove that.  A
> .223 (== 5.56 NATO) is underpowered for anything much larger than a deer
> while a .30-06 (ballistically about equivalent to .308/7.62 NATO) is
> suitable for all American big game except Alaskan brown bear (and I
> assume the similar-sized polar bear, though I've neverheard it
> mentioned).  The only thing I might wonder is whether all that extra
> energy is wasted on human-sized targets so the practical difference is
> small.
>
> I imagine the point was more that you can only kill someone so dead, so
> why use a big-game round on people? :-) And, it might be, that 5.56
> creates more expensive wounded casualties that a 7.62 round would have
> killed.  I like the other explanations better, though, the logistical
> one above all.
>
> > ...The AR-15,
> >    the  civilian model of the M-16, is an amazingly accurate gun. Firearm
> >    novices  can  hit  stuff  consistently  at  300m  in  an  afternoon of
> >    practice.  I  think  that  more than anything else is why the military
> >    went with it.

> Sure it's accurate, but I think that's mostly the fact that recoil
> spoils most people's aim.  If you're used to larger calibers a .223 is
> essentially recoilless.  I don't recall shooting .308 but it should be
> similar to a .30-06, and most people that pack that much gun and above
> probably can't do their best shooting with it.
>
> Here is some footage of people firing more gun than they can handle:
>
> http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/Quite_a_kick
>
> :-)
>
> Some of those looked like they'd not even snugged the butt up against
> their shoulder, which would really suck.  That was in the prank section
> so I'm guessing some of those guys didn't know what they were firing?
> When I was a kid I got suckered into firing a .270 once and felt a bit
> like that. :-)

So lesson here is to never fire a .577 T-Rex ever. But that video is
an example of why the video that started all this was not a guy
fireing a .50cal.

> I like .30-06 much better but I guess it's pure nostalgia--the short
> .308 case is pretty convenient for a lot of actions.  My caliber choices
> appear to be exceedingly eccentric: my old deer rifle is a 7x57 Mauser,
> which is a great cartridge with a really unlucky case length (hits
> almost like a .270, kicks better than a .243), and I'd dearly love to
> have a lever-action .45-70.  Now *there* was a man's cartridge. :-)
> They're expensive, though.
>
> Dustin
>
> --
>     "Intolerance?  The *truth* is intolerant." -- le Faux
>
> The small binary attachment on every message I send is my PGP digital
> signature, not a virus.  If you don't know what that is, you can ignore it.
> If you do, my keyserver is pgp.mit.edu.
>
>