This is my Boom Stick!!!

[Jenny Lynn]

Ranger Hung Low,
Nice rifle, have to share with you that as I looked at it I could just imagine the boom sound it makes, maybe they need to call you "Boom Daddy" now, I'm sure you'll enjoy your new toy.

Have a safe 4th, Jenny

[panthersix]

Dearest Jen,

That's not a rifle hon, it's a shotgun. One is for spanking and one is for fun!

Needs a shorter barrel and just a hand grip, then it'd be perfect!

PS

[Jenny Lynn]

Ranger Hung Low,

ah oh my lack of firearm knowledge is showing

Ok teaching myself the difference between a rifle and a shotgun, also pushing out 100 with feet elevated too.

from wikipedia:
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves ("rifling") cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile (for small arms usage, called a bullet), imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the orientation of the weapon. When the projectile leaves the barrel, the conservation of angular momentum improves accuracy and range, in the same way that a properly thrown American football or rugby ball behaves. The word "rifle" originally referred to the grooving, and a rifle was called a "rifled gun." Rifles are used in warfare, hunting and shooting sports.

Typically, a bullet is propelled by the contained deflagration of an explosive compound (originally black powder, later cordite, and now nitrocellulose), although other means such as compressed air are used in air rifles, which are popular for vermin control, hunting small game, and casual shooting ("plinking").

In most armed forces the term "gun" is incorrect when referring to small arms; in the military, the word "gun" means an artillery piece or crew-served machine gun. Furthermore, in many works of fiction a rifle refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, even if the weapon is not rifled or does not fire solid projectiles.

Rifles traditionally fired a single projectile with each pull of the trigger. Modern assault rifles are capable of firing in bursts or fully automatic modes, and thus overlap somewhat with machine guns. In fact, many light machine guns (such as the Russian RPK) are adaptations of existing assault rifle designs. Generally, the difference between an automatic rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight and feed system; rifles, with their relatively light components (which overheat quickly) and small magazines, are incapable of sustained automatic fire in the way that machine guns are. While machine guns may require more than one operator, the rifle is an individual weapon.



A shotgun (also known as a scattergun and peppergun[1], or historically as a fowling piece) is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug. Shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5.5 mm (.22 inch) bore up to 5 cm (2 inch) bore, and in a range of firearm operating mechanisms, including breech loading, double, pump-, bolt-, and lever-action, semi-automatic, and even fully-automatic variants.

A shotgun is a generally a smoothbore firearm, which means that the inside of the barrel is not rifled. ok now I know (rifled = rifle) Preceding smoothbore firearms, such as the musket, were widely used by armies in the 18th century. The direct ancestor to the shotgun, the blunderbuss, was also used in a similar variety of roles from self defence to riot control. It was often used by cavalry troops due to its generally shorter length and ease of use. However, in the 19th century, these weapons were largely replaced on the battlefield with breechloading rifled firearms, which were more accurate over longer ranges. The military value of shotguns was rediscovered in the First World War, when American forces used 12-gauge pump action shotguns in close-quarters trench fighting to great effect. Since then, it has been used in a variety of roles in civilian, law enforcement, and military applications.

The shot pellets from a shotgun spread upon leaving the barrel, and the power of the burning charge is divided among the pellets, which means that the energy of any one ball of shot is fairly low. In a hunting context, this makes shotguns useful primarily for hunting birds and other small game. However, in a military or law enforcement context, the large number of projectiles makes the shotgun useful as a close quarters combat weapon or a defensive weapon. Shotguns are also used for target shooting sports such as skeet, trap, and sporting clays. These involve shooting clay disks, known as clay pigeons, thrown in various ways.

Off to learn more on rifles and shotguns. Jenny

[panthersix]

sawed off shotguns are illegal, for more education on the entertainment value of a shotgun, watch the movie "army of darkness"

[Jenny Lynn]

Now that's a coach gun!

TC204, now I know what a Coach bag is :D