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I met my friends new roommate today. We've met before, but never really got a chance to talk and get to know each other. This guy seems like the kind of guy who thinks he knows everything about everything. He's a democrat and unless you're a rich man you have absolutely no logical reason to be republican. He's not religious, but is possibly agnostic so he pressures another friend who is a Mormon to drink some beer. Religion aside the guy had a family history of alcoholics and this guy was giving him s**t about it. After the family history came up he started talking about how Jesus turned water into wine so they could party. I can be an a*****e at times, but I try my best not to intentionally offend others because of religion.

Eventually the topic of guns came around. He was spewing garbage about how ar-15s are assault rifles despite what anyone else says. Magazines were "clips" which is a common mistake, but a sign he's not sure what he's talking about. He couldn't even get the cartridge names right. Then when I mentioned the 5.56/.223 he told me the only difference is the powder used.

I hand load. I make ammunition. The classification of cartridge doesn't have anything to do with the powder used. Every cartridge follows a standard set of dimensions so it's a certain size and shape. The bullet type, bullet weight, powder type, and powder weight don't determine what cartridge it is. Take the M1 garand for example. The US battle rifle of WWII it was semi automatic and it fired the military standard 30-06. Today garand owners can have difficulty with reliability. The military standard 30-06 load was called the M2 Ball. It had a 150 grain bullet and a specific powder charge that provided a specific amount of gas pressure and volume. Various factory loads use different bullets and powders so the gas results can vary. Hornady and other brands manufacture 30-06 loads specific for the garand and hand loaders can make loads that follow the M2 Ball specs, but non garand loads can still be 30-06. Something worth noting there is an aftermarket adjustable gas valve you can get for a garand to fix that reliability issue.

I didn't use the 30-06 example because that's a lot of wording and I don't like talking much. I basically just said I know the powder doesn't determine the cartridge designation because I hand load. Nuff said there.

This guy is also a big time computer gamer. He's 25 and his proudest achievement in his life was 3rd place in some world wide HALO 2 tournament. Everyone has their skills I suppose. As he enjoys games I enjoy real guns. He can snipe me from 2.4km in Battlefield 3, but I could probably drop him at 800 yards with an Enfield in real life. I didn't want to say that since I don't want that taken as a threat or a challenge.