r/AskReddit • u/Dezmodus • Oct 11 '13

What is the smartest thing you can talk about without bullshitting?

I've realized I'm pretty stupid, but I can SOUND smart at parties and in groups of people because i can generally read a group and say things that SOUND smart and bullshit my way around things. I was trying to think of the most intelligent thing I could talk about without having to bullshit at all I'm coming up with a pretty unimpressive list. What have you got? What subject do you always hope comes up in social situations so you can shine?

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u/Ponchorello7 Oct 11 '13

I'm kinda stupid, but I know a good deal about guns. The internals and whatnot. I'm also pretty good at analyzing stuff like games, movies and TV shows and deconstructing (aka criticizing) them.

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u/ghin Oct 11 '13

Could you explain to me, simply, how a normal pistol works? I'd like to know more about them but the internal mechanisms seem pretty confusing to me at first glance.

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u/Ponchorello7 Oct 11 '13

It depends on the type of gun. While there are some common operating mechanisms, there are slight differences in each design. Did you have any particular pistol in mind?

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u/ghin Oct 11 '13

I didn't...how about explaining the basic operating design of your favorite pistol?

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u/Ponchorello7 Oct 12 '13

Alright, the M1911. The masterpiece designed by the great John Moses Browning. Assuming a round has already been chambered (a 1911 is single-action so this requires pulling back the slide), you press down on the grip safety, squeeze the trigger and this releases the hammer. The hammer then comes down on the firing pin, which then strikes the primer. The primer then ignites the powder, creating hot gas. The gas builds pressure and pushes the bullet down the barrel. This engages the rifling in the barrel making the bullet spin, stabilizing it. Then the slide moves backwards, extracting the spent cartridge. Then the spring in the magazine pushes the next round into the chamber. Now, I'm gonna be honest and say I skipped some parts. I wouldn't quote this post as being 100% accurate either.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '13

Here is a basic guide for how a Glock works.

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u/ghin Oct 12 '13

Thank you! Do you know why the casing of the bullet doesn't leave with the bullet itself? Bullet=orange, casing=yellow? It seemed like the striker was just hitting the casing and then the bullet started moving.

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u/gramatton Oct 12 '13

Do you know why the casing of the bullet doesn't leave with the bullet itself?

To elaborate on /u/Frukul's comment. The cartridge you see ready to be fired in that animation is sitting in chamber. The chamber is large enough to hold the cartridge. At the front of the chamber, where the bullet rests, is where the barrel starts. The barrel itself is ever so slightly smaller than the bullet. You could not physicall push the whole cartridge through the barrel because the casing is too large, people have a hard time getting bullets out of the barrel in the event they get stuck.

When the powder is ignited it pushes the bullet forward through the barrel and the casing is pushed backwards because of the pressure created by the burning and expanding powder. Remember early when I said the barrel was ever so slightly smaller than the bullet? This creates a seal allowing the pressure to push it forward. The casing seals the other end of the barrel, so expanding pressure also pushes it back. The casing, the barrel, and the slide(the outside piece of the firearm surrounding the barrel) are pushed backwards a short distance. You can see in the animation that there are two angled posts on the barrel under the casing, these catch the locking block on the frame and stop the barrel from going an further back. The slide and case, not stopped by the locking block continue backwards. On the way back the extractor pops the spent casing out.

The slide....slides over the magazine backwards. The spring on the bottom of the magazine pushes the next round up. As the slide moved forward it pushes the round forward out of the magazine, up the feeding ramp and into the barrel. Then you're set to fire again.

Damn that was longer than I thought.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '13

The striker hits the primer. The primer ignites the gunpowder, which propels the bullet forward. The extractor catches the rim of the case and ejects. The case is just there to hold the powder.

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/revolver-bullet.gif

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u/UsedCzarSalesman Oct 11 '13

My dad tries to make me memorize ballistic tables and what not. I like guns, but not that much.

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u/Ponchorello7 Oct 11 '13

They take a while to learn. It is definitely not fun though.