Dale Valade

I nearly spewed Coca-Cola all over the television set as my body doubled over in agony and revulsion at the idiocy which had just flashed across the screen. Grabbing the remote, I rewound the program 15 seconds and replayed it just to make sure my eyes hadn’t been playing a trick on me. No, there was no mistake.

Hollywood has long been antithetical to gun owners in general, but this time the CGI person had really done it. In a scene featuring a rifleman taking a shot, a slow-motion special effect featuring the bullet exiting the barrel and sailing through the air for whatever drama-increasing value had been inserted.

There was just one major problem: The ignorant tech who generated the movie clip obviously had no idea what they were doing. The image of an entire cartridge leaving the barrel was unmistakable to the cognoscenti. Or anyone with even a basic working knowledge of firearms, at that rate.

A cartridge consists of four basic parts: primer, case, propellant and projectile.

The primer is the smallest part, which resides either in the circumference of the case rim for rimfire cartridges or in the center of the case for centerfire cartridges. It consists of a concoction of concussion-sensitive mercury fulminate which, when struck by the firing pin, causes an ignition of the propellant.

The propellant, or gunpowder, is a granular mass consisting of various ratios of flammable elements. These, when ignited, provide the necessary energy with which to cause the projectile(s) to be propelled down the bore of the gun and downrange toward the intended target.

The projectile is a missile or missiles of various mass and metal components which, along with the propellant, are the only things to leave the barrel of a firearm.

The cartridge case or hull is the receptacle that holds the entire assembly together. It can be constructed of brass, copper, steel or, yes, even plastic.

All of the aforementioned appendages when assembled together construct what is known as a cartridge, sometimes known as a “round” or a “bullet,” even though the aforementioned projectile is technically the bullet.

With the invention of centerfire ammunition, the basic construction of metallic cartridges has remained the same. Technology has improved concerning all four components of a cartridge, but the same basic ingredients are still necessary to produce it.

It is my contention that until we are using phasers or blasters like our favorite science-fiction shows, things will likely remain status quo. Oh, we can argue over shapes and sizes, lengths and widths, but the technology will be in use until the next huge breakthrough is presented.

Why do you care? Maybe you don’t, but this is pretty basic stuff. Perhaps if you ever find yourself in Hollywood and get hired onto a film crew, you can write it down on your resume that you know the difference between a bullet and a cartridge. You may be the only one in that town that does.