The aim of this website and chat forum is to bring hunters and shooters of similar values and ethics from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean together. Easier said than done. Not only are there two completely different historical cultures and languages at play (Afrikaans and American), but marked differences for the same words and terms between the American language and the common interactive medium of English come into play . A distinct difference in the way these are spoken and understood in South Africa and the USA exists. This is quite apart from the different way these words are written. The different definitions attached to words and terms in English and American often are the cause for temporary confusion. A few examples will follow shortly . :-) - and here I must immediately interrupt myself as we speak - with a relevant characteristic of the kind of word understanding I refer to: Approaching Fort Worth, Dallas from London the American Airlines cabin chief announced: " Ladies and gentlemen we'll be landing at Fort Worth, Dallas temporarily, please ensure your seat backs are upright and all tables stowed." Thinking I may be on the wrong flight I asked the passing attendant if I would have time to get off the aircraft if the landing will be only temporarily, and what about my baggage? After a few queer looks I eventually came to understand that temporarily in America means " within a short while from now ". O.K.... In English temporarily signifies: " FOR A VERY SHORT DURATION ", or " to put a temporary hold on something . On a British Airways flight you will hear the announcement: "... we shall be landing at London Heathrow shortly... ." There is a thick dictionary full of these. Then there is the American gun religion which, over and above the normal differences in definitions referred to above has built its own completely alien set of meanings to otherwise commonly accepted terms in the study of physics. The dogmas of the behaviour of bullets, and rifle barrels and chambers - and notably the influences of the geometry that case walls and shoulder angles have on how accurate or not a bullet will behave at 100, 200, 300 yards and further is enlightening to the heretic soul that had been schooled by a different science and physics master. Experiencing the US hunter's inalienable faith in the killing ability of kinetic energy was my first initiation into the number of dogmas of this US-unique religion. Across the Atlantic in Africa KE is a measurable value in joules of potential heat which builds up when a body containing mass obtains movement (kineses). When the attained speed of the body is lowered for whatever reason this energy-due-to-kineses is translated back into joules of heat energy into the CARRIER of the energy-due-to-kineses. In the USA gun religion this potential heat energy is indicated in thousands of foot.lbs, adding a weight and tangible dimension to what is a simple scalar entity. Because of this incorrect vector measurement given to a scalar entity US gun writers in forums and gun magazines to this day declare that " the two tons of energy" of his whatever magnum rifle will kill anything that walks this earth. Bullets manufactured in the USA, according to gun writers do not absorb the abovementioned translation of heat when the bullet is slowed by impact, but the dogma is that it can in fact EJECT that ton of kinetic energy away from it with tons of force - as something tangible with very powerful, devastating and deadly consequences. Bullets in Africa kill kudu by mechanically cutting off the heart's pumping ability thereby starving the brain of oxygen. When the same Hornady Interbonds are shot in the USA they kill the game by ejecting some amount of the kinetic force out of the slowed bullet into the beast which kills it in some mysterious fashion. Then about launcher dynamics: across the Atlantic the terms resonance and harmonics have mostly beautiful responses in musical instruments, and sometimes catastrophic responses in structures after an input of shock had been executed on it. Tap a musical tuning fork onto its balled hammer once. After the single input of shock had been removed the two prongs in reaction to the input resonate at a certain harmonic frequency which is audible to the human ear. It is the harmonic response, or simply put, the POST SHOCK harmonics of that particular piece of equipment. Take forks with progressively longer prongs and after each single tap the prongs will resonate at a lower note which comes from a different harmonic response that the new length of the prongs possess. The harmonics and their resonance at that particular frequency is a responsive vibration AFTER the cause of the rapid displacement had been removed. A bullet on its way to a kudu in Africa, whipping through a rifle barrel whip-torques the barrel in a very rapid shock to one side and either up or down. Once it has stopped its displacement of the barrel by divorcing itself from the barrel, and goes along its way to kill the kudu, the barrel's harmonics then cause the muzzle to re-actively execute some crazy (photographed and plotted) gyrations before coming to rest. Barrel harmonics have zero influence on a bullet in Africa because the bullet is not inside the barrel anymore when the harmonics start to react. The bullet is the shock force that pushes the barrel away but once the force is out the muzzle the barrel's "harmonics" let it resonate in some way. Some beautiful plots of barrel harmonics exist and will be related in the Technical category. In the US gun religion the dogma has been proposed and enforced by gun writers that no matter what the term harmonics means in general physics, believers have to harbour and protect The Faith that when it comes to shooting, the term harmonics refers to the disturbance of the barrel while the bullet is inside the barrel, and does not refer to the harmonic reaction to the disturbance after the culprit of the disturbance has left. In this here heretic internet publication the physical facts of bullet behaviour can only be presented as just that - facts - and facts do not know about the emotions of harmony (or discord!) of either faiths or feelings. ;-)
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