Thank you for your efforts to dampen down the hysteria and hyperbolic libel.  We will all sleep so much better with our American neighbors from the other side of the aisle being treated with understanding.  Change begins at home.  What have you done for peace today?  Oh, right - nothing.

Rifling does nothing other than stopping it from tumbling. But a rifling-stabilized oblong bullet does have a superior ballistic coefficient and lower drag for a given mass.

Yes - 19th century Whitworth rifles were capable of hitting standard targets at ranges out to 2,000 yards - quite an accomplishment for the time, and a tribute to Whitworth’s precision, and oddball hexagonal “whistling” bullets and rifling.

The main reason that “guns shoot 10 times farther” - although that’s actually not true, since sniper shots in the 19th century routinely were made at 600 to 900 yard distances - is not the change from muskets shooting ball to rifles shooting ball or Minie ball. It is the advent of smokeless powder and metallurgy…

That’s because this is a discussion about the historical use of guns in battle - the rationale for muskets vs. rifles is the topic. FAR more rounds are expended annually by Americans in hunting, zeroing, and target practice than in warfare.

The American “Minie ball,” however, was actually Harper’s Ferry Armory superintendent James Burton’s improvement on Minié’s design. Burton discarded the base plug and deepened the bullet’s base cavity to achieve the same result. On firing, the under-bore-size conical projectile expanded into progressive-depth (deeper…

No, not exactly. The rifling was known to provide an advantage in accuracy. The issue was that loading a rifle took longer and too much effort in the days of muzzleloaders, reducing rate of fire. As a result, rifles were often relegated to sniper and Zouave units, who fought differently from infantry. Rate of fire in…

Actually, they operate at temperatures up to and a bit past 1000 degrees C, not F. When they are too cool - around 400 C, or a bit over 700 F, they don’t work, so the first few tenths of a second after a pedal is depressed is like no brakes at all. Then they kick in, and can go to 1200 C, or ~2200 F during braking -…

Bloody Hell! Edd was the whole point! Who needs a car show about buying an old car and then selling it? The shop, and the intricacies of repair, the hints, the history of a marque (the episode on the mini was great) - that IS the show. Mike going around buying bits and camping it up is NOT. Velocity is becoming a…

Nope, THAT kid isn’t going to be his customer. EVER.

Hah! Tell it to the wounded in Watts or in Oakland . . .

What the hell is this? Planned Parenthood kills thousands of children a year, abortion is legal everywhere but the Vatican, this woman attempts to do this to herself and she’s in jail? By that standard, Planned Parenthood should be carpet bombed! Horrible that the child is disfigured. Why the hell didn’t she just go…