I keep seeing this term tied in with all the AWB in the media, anyone care to educate me as to how the .223 counts as a "high power rifle" ?

These media people are a joke

It is. You can use them in NRA High Powered Rifle matches. BTW, have they ever defined a Low Powered Rifle?

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Even older, even crankier....

I think this usage dates at least to the 1950s. Probably much earlier. Originally, I think, the term was used to distinguish between a rimfire .22 and a centerfire rifle.

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Georgia On My Mind

They're not exactly in the nerf bullet catagory.
Like anything else that shoots, it can kill.

The other side is selling it's point and to do so they use a simple method. Repeat, repeat, repeat over and over simple but effective words and catch phrases.
The term 'Assault Weapon' is a good example in itself.
'Assault Rifle' was used to describe a very few true military weapons up until the media and a few others decided that anything that even looked like the full&semi-auto military counterpart would be given the Assault Weapon name. Even the NRA condoned the name.


'High Power(ed) Rifle',,aren't they all when it gets right down to it and you're on the receiving end.
Doesn't matter what they look like,,and that's their real agenda.
Ask the uninformed and generally if it has a 'scope,,it must be a High Power Rifle,,just like an TV.
Bad,,really bad for anyone other than the Police or the Military to have such things.
You can shoot miles with them and even bring down airliners..

This is a big opportunity for them (never let a crisis go to waste).

Expect to see the old stock film footage of the exploding watermelon being shot w/a high power assault 'gun' on most every news cast soon.

The 5.56 is generally thought of as an intermediate powered round.....the commercial .223 is a varment round in much of the country....groundhogs and such.

Historically; going back to 1943.......... "assault rifles" were/are select fire ( semi/full auto) rifles firing a "intermediate round" ...... the gun were designed to fit between "battle rifles"(think M-1 Grand or Mauser-98K) and "sub-machine guns" firing a pistol caliber round.

Being old, I remember when they came out with the .223. There was garbage wrote how it was so powerful that if you got hit in the hand or finger with one the compression of the high speed bullet would spurt the blood so fast back to your heart that it would kill you! Anyone else remember reading or hearing anything like that?
Stuff like that had to contribute to public perception and image of the .223 and quasi "assualt" rifles that aint.

I agree that I would not like to be on the business end of a .223 round, but most hunting rifles are .243 or bigger lol

It's just funny all of there scare tactics to try an criminalize the AR and .223, when the gun we shoot deer with goes further and does way more damage

A .22mag is probably just a nasty a round as you can get, and its one of the smallest and a rimfire!

Its all just words used by media to instill fear and conformity in the great unwashed masses unable to think for themselves.

The pen is mightier than the sword, so time to support your NRA!
Chuck

If .223 is so powerful, then why do the M4forgery guys at the next lane look queasy when I break out my Argentine 1909 Long Rifle? Has a very distinctive voice, that one.

Well the 5.56/.223 does have fairly high velocity. Powerwise, it is only so-so.

The unknowing media has come out with some bewildering terms and descriptions that make no sense.

I heard one talking head state that the ".223 round has a velocity of 3200 feet per second. Thet's 3 times the speed of a jet fighter! Why does anyone need a bullet with that much speed?"


I've also heard this "modern assualt rifle' drum beat to death.

No one has mentioned that the AR-15 has been available to civillians since 1963! That's 50 years!

Ah yes, the wonderful 1909! Once upon a time I had the cavalry carbine - beautiful rifle. Is yours the standard (full length) version?

Also, if people get freaked out by bayonet lugs, please don't show them pics of what used to hang on those old Argentine Mausers!

Oh yes, it is the full length monster in a stock with some tiger striping. As for bayonets, some of my Enfields have come with the mighty 1907 piece. Darned thing looks more like a cutlass than a bayonet.

Nice. Those old school service bolt guns are a thing of beauty. Maybe some day I will pick another one up!

I remember shortly after the Sand Hook tragedy hearing one of those brainless, media puppet, field reporters confidently and most distainfully spewing how "The .223 Bushmaster is one of the most powerful high powered assault weapons available today" And that "Loaded with a high capacity 30 round magazine it becomes a weapon of mass destruction, capable of mowing down anything in it's path".

I just buried my head in my hands and thought "Here's the crisis that the gun haters on the left has been waiting for. Less than 48 hours later the White House is already pumping buzz words into the complicit media's playbook for consumption by the mindless masses".

Pretty much whatever we all decide on this thread is irrelevant because the balance of America has been poisoned by the gun haters and .223 has become the face of murder.

It has to start somewhere and the AR-15 is an easy target because it has been used prominently in the 2 recent shootings. Most likely because they are a popular choice of the Media in Movies and TV shows when an Evil Black Rifle is needed for the script.