HAha! Nothing much. But are Artillery Guns or "Guns"?

Militarily speaking, a "gun" is a crew served weapon. That means it takes more than one person to put it in action. Thus, rifles and pistols are not "guns".

And now, boys and girls, you understand the meaning behind the old gag, "This is my rifle and this is my gun, this is for fighting and this is for fun". The "gun" in that lymric being the male appendage and unless you wanna go blind or have hair on your palms like your mom tells ya, it takes more than one person to fire that gun too.

Thanks for clarification DUde!

Originally Posted by Charge 7

Militarily speaking, a "gun" is a crew served weapon. That means it takes more than one person to put it in action. Thus, rifles and pistols are not "guns".

And now, boys and girls, you understand the meaning behind the old gag, "This is my rifle and this is my gun, this is for fighting and this is for fun". The "gun" in that lymric being the male appendage and unless you wanna go blind or have hair on your palms like your mom tells ya, it takes more than one person to fire that gun too.

Ahem, I am loathe to even bring this up to an old artillery man but my son insisted Charge... He asks if water cannons fall under that catagory too as he is able to shoot his at will with no assistance and so far no hair on the palms.

Well, I don't think so! I think his fall into the category of Power Toys?

Thank you CHARGE7.

Friggin kids these days...
*walks off muttering to self*

Originally Posted by Charge 7

Militarily speaking, a "gun" is a crew served weapon. That means it takes more than one person to put it in action. Thus, rifles and pistols are not "guns".

A rifle differs from a gun in 2 respects. First of all, a rifle is usually (but not always) a direct fire weapon that fires a projectile on a relatively flat trajectory. This is achieved as a direct result of the 2nd difference: the ratio of the barrel length to the calibre of the weapon. If it exceeds a certain ratio (which I have forgotten and cannot find at the moment) it is a rifle, and as a result, the 16 inch battleship guns and their smaller cousins are actually rifles. In fact, many sources call the armament of battleships 14 inch rifles, and technically, they are correct. Other rifles include anti-aircraft artillery, tank guns, anti tank guns, etc

Howitzers are not rifles even though their barrel length is increasing (42 calibres in the case of the latest 155mm howitzers, iirc) due to the fact that their trajectory is anything but flat, howitzers are designed to drop a round vertically or as close to vertically as possible.
Hope this helps.

Dean.

H.E. Quick Charge 7.... LOAD!

Dean, I assume you meant that post for zander as again, I'll point out that as I've spent decades in artillery, I know all that.

bulldogg, yeah they call them water "cannons" and there are shot "guns". Neither of those were named by the military, and as I said, "Militarily speaking...."

Now this cannon, persay (IG), is fired by my two month old at diaper changes... does that make a difference?

Originally Posted by bulldogg

Now this cannon, persay (IG), is fired by my two month old at diaper changes... does that make a difference?

only to he or she who receives the round...

Dean.