Ya know, I see this silliness differently.
The members of this forum used to be much more of the collector community than it is now. There are and have been some extremely knowledgeable collectors here. As collectors, we abhor incorrect names of just about anything. People incorrectly name a firearm, for instance, the incorrect identification takes hold, and then somebody advertises a gun as a certain model, then we discover it's not that model at all. But they argue, yes their Standard Auto is a Mark I . Well, no it's not.
Researching the .45 Colt, the
Long nickname was added by the troops to help avoid confusion. Enough folks heard this nickname for enough years, and it stuck. It's still incorrect, but it's been repeated enough times that folks don't know that it's still wrong. The shooting community just kind've rolled with it.
In gun stores especially, the employee staff is now too often uneducated or inexperienced about guns, cartridges, and all their history. I can very well imagine an also uneducated or inexperienced shooter stopping in to buy some .45 Long Colt, and the employee says no, all we have is regular .45 Colt, And the shooter walks away, stopping at another gun store. He may get lucky, and somebody will explain it to him.
I also cringe, maybe just a little, every time I hear .45LC, but I don't push the issue. That's an issue I will lose. Improper nicknames are also applied to many of our Ruger firearms. Old Model Vaquero and PC9 to describe the new PCC, are just two more examples. Seems innocuous enough, but recently when I needed a part for my old PC9, Ruger insisted there was no such part associated with the PC9, when actually they were looking at a parts diagram for the PCC. Even they are calling the newer PCC a PC9. And the folks at Ruger, also inexperienced, can't understand a difference.
So if a feller makes an enemy to prove he is correct, that is sad. I will still stick to the original terminology. And I will also listen to somebody explaining historical differences.
Oh...One last thing...
This discussion has been repeated for so many decades, it's become a point of humor. In jest, it seems we're expected to correct somebody using the .45LC term. Folks will even say .45LC, just to see if the listener is paying attention.
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