The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It

This sort of thing is worse than useless. If you leave a man alone he will most likely leave you alone, but if you annoy him by banging at him, he may lose his temper and hurt you.

A reasonably long barrel is therefore necessary for a beginner, and a reasonably heavy weight.

The cartridges may have light loads. Unfortunately the easiest pistol of all, to shoot, is now impossible to be had except from a dealer in second-hand firearms. I mean the “Flobert” duelling pistol, formerly made in France and Belgium, shooting bulleted caps of about .2 calibre.

The duelling pistol, in all its calibres, is the best balanced and easiest to shoot of all pistols (see Plates 2 and 5).

The stock is at just the right curve and angle, is large enough for a big hand, and yet does not feel clumsy in a small hand.

By taking the grip of the hand higher or lower, the same effect is produced as in having a gunstock straighter or more bent; one can, therefore, by altering the grip of the hand, find a place to hold which makes the pistol come with the sights aligned on raising it, just as a well-fitting gun “comes up.”

Next this pistol balances perfectly. The length of the barrel does not make it top heavy, as the barrel is fluted, to lighten it forward, and the stock weighted.

Most pistols, automatics especially, are muzzle heavy. There is really no pistol except the duelling pistol which balances properly, and the automatic will have to be altered in this respect before it can become the ideal weapon for rapid shooting.

The ideal pistol is the Gastinne-Renette duelling pistol, which is of .44 calibre muzzle loader or shoots a centre fire cartridge, with French “Poudre J” and a round bullet (see Plates 2 and 9).

This is the most accurate pistol in the world and a number of men have made a score of 12 shots in a bull’s-eye the size of a sixpence, in succession at 16 metres (17 yards 1 foot).

This pistol has very little recoil. If the beginner cannot get a “bulleted cap” duelling pistol the ordinary .44 gallery ammunition duelling pistol will do almost as well.

Now arises the question of expense, as these pistols are expensive.

If economy is necessary, then the only way is to get one of the American single-shot pistols and add wood to the back of the stock, so that the grip comes further back and the trigger is thereby further from the hand and allows the trigger finger to be extended.

Then either cut down the barrel to lighten the pistol forward, or have flutes made in the barrel to take weight of the metal off, and put lead in the stock.

I have described the ideal way of learning to shoot a pistol but of course any single-shot pistol which does not have too heavy a recoil will do to learn with, so as to become a fair shot.

With the long reach to the trigger of the French duelling pistols the trigger finger can be held outside and along the trigger guard (as with a shotgun when walking up birds). With the trigger so far back, as it is in American single-shot pistols, it is difficult to introduce the finger into the trigger guard whilst holding the pistol with one hand, and one gets into the dangerous habit of keeping the finger inside the trigger guard.

I will not describe these various single-shot pistols, as (in my own case) I find shooting them does not do me any good, but teaches a cramped style.

The pistol which is no longer made, but can perhaps be picked up, is a regulation French duelling pistol, full size, which shoots, instead of the .44 duelling charge, a bulleted cap of .2 calibre, with fulminate only, and a round bullet, and is exploded by a cross bar on the hammer which has a flat striking surface. This flat bar strikes across the whole face of the cap, indents itself into the cap, and having an undercut surface extracts the empty cap after it is fired, as the pistol is cocked.

The pistol has no recoil and hardly more noise than an air gun.

The manufacture would be resumed if there were enough demand for such pistols, and in my opinion they ought to be made as they are infinitely preferable to modern .22 calibre pistols.

COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL, POCKET MODEL, CALIBRE .32

CHAPTER XI

You go to it. There is a big bar, with plenty of daylight, rooms with plenty of daylight for games, meals, etc., and then the inevitable dark staircase into a black cellar called the shooting-gallery.

If you cannot shoot in daylight do not shoot at all; you will only ruin your eyesight and never learn to shoot properly.

PLATE 4. COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL .22 TARGET MODEL

Capacity of magazine: 10 shots. Length of Barrel: 6½ inches. Length over all: 10½ inches. Weight: 28 ounces. Finish: full blued; checked English walnut stocks. Sights: bead front sight, adjustable for elevation; rear sight with adjusting screw, adjustable for windage. Distance between sights: 9 inches. Cartridge: .22 long rifle, rim fire (greased cartridges only). We strongly recommend the use of either Lesmok or Semi-Smokeless.

All these artificial-light rifle galleries, to teach the public to shoot, are worse than useless. The Gastinne-Renette Gallery in Paris is an ideal gallery (see Plates 15 and 16).

Learning to shoot is surely more worth while than playing bridge or golf, and who would play bridge or golf in the dark?

Choose, if possible, a range out of doors, or at least in a well-lighted room (lighted by daylight, not artificial light), but if there has to be artificial light, let it be at least as light as in a ball-room.

Next, there must be a safe butt behind the target; a butt which will not only stop bullets which hit or go near the target, but which will stop a bullet which goes wide of the target.

It should be so arranged that if the pistol goes off by accident the bullet can do no harm.

If there is a narrow stall, opening towards the target and high enough at the sides and narrow enough to prevent the shooter turning with his arm extended, it would be a great safeguard, as it will make it difficult for him to turn round and speak to others with his pistol pointing at them.

A thick ceiling will prevent his doing damage if his pistol goes off accidentally into the air, and soft deal flooring will stop bullets shot too low. A hard floor may cause dangerous ricochets.

The beginner is very apt to look only at his front sight and instead of getting it down into the V or U of the back sight, fire with his front sight alone on the target, so great care must be taken to protect against high shots off the target.

Out of doors, a butt six feet high is very little protection as the beginner is almost certain to let off shots over the top.

With the bulleted caps there is, of course, not much danger if a shot goes over the top of a butt, especially if there is a wood, or shed without windows, beyond, to catch the bullet.

Another point is to have a table or shelf in front of the shooter, so that he can lay his pistol and cartridges on it, and if it is of thick wood, it prevents his shooting into his own feet.

When instructing, it is best to stand at the beginner’s left side and be ready to clutch his pistol if he turns it dangerously.

The target should be a white bull’s-eye of about five inches diameter on a black ground, and at six to ten yards’ distance.

The target should be of cardboard, so that the bullets will go through and into the butt—a hard target may make the bullets rebound.

The duelling pistol has a silver bead front sight, and a big U back sight.

The black front sight on most pistols is quite wrong. It prevents quick shooting, and I am in this book teaching quick, practical shooting only. Practice at hitting minute stationary objects with a long aim died out the same as the revolver did.

Formerly, much of the revolver shooting was done at stationary black bull’s-eyes on white targets, just like rifle shooting was done. I always protested against this, claiming that the revolver was meant for quick shooting at moving or suddenly appearing objects, and that extreme accuracy at stationary targets was not its metier.

The war has proved I was right, and now these deliberate shooting exhibitions are used only to show what accuracy a pistol is capable of, like shooting rifles off a gunmaker’s rest. A pistol shot out of a vise can show its capabilities better than any man can hold it.

It was this shooting at black bull’s-eyes on a white target which caused the front sight to be made black so as to show on the white target, when sighted at “6 o’clock” under the black bull’s-eye. This is all wrong. When the black front sight is placed on a dark object, as a man’s coat, it cannot be seen.

The white or silver bead sight on the duelling pistol is instantly seen and is the only practical sight for a pistol.

All this goes to show how worse than useless the old method of revolver shooting was, and I do not intend to revert to it in these instructions on shooting its successor, the automatic pistol.

Load the pistol, put it at full-cock, and take it in your right hand pointing in the direction of the target.

Put it into the beginner’s hand with both yours, the pistol pointed horizontally at the target. Make him grip it with three fingers, his thumb horizontal and slightly crooked downwards along the stock, his forefinger fully stretched along the outside of the trigger guard, and clear of the trigger.

Tell him he must not put his finger inside the trigger guard till he has the pistol pointed enough towards the target to prevent the bullet going in a dangerous direction in case he fires it accidentally.

Then show him how to see his front sight, in the middle of the U of the back sight, and to press the trigger.

This preliminary stage ought for safety to be learned with an empty pistol.

A person who is used to firearms (not necessarily one who is a pistol shot) should stand beside the pupil till the pupil learns the rudiment of safety against accidental discharge, and in aiming.

If there is no such person available then the pupil should be quite alone, two people ignorant of firearms trying to learn at the same time are very apt to shoot each other.

After the beginner can safely load, aim, and press the trigger, then he can begin to learn to shoot.

Load the pistol, stand with the arm fully extended, the pistol resting against the further edge of the table or ledge.

Fix the eyes on the bull’s-eye, slowly raise the pistol, the arm fully extended (keeping the head quite upright). Raise the pistol till the right eye looks through the U of the back sight and sees the front sight in the U at the middle of the bull’s-eye and press the trigger.

Do not stand sideways, stand almost facing, only slightly forward with the right shoulder, the feet slightly apart, knees straight, arms straight. Nothing is worse than to shoot with a crooked or flabby right arm. You will never learn to shoot in this way, and a heavy automatic will hit you on the nose with the recoil.

Stand rigid and upright, the swing of the arm upwards should continue and the shot go off as you come horizontally to the target.

The idea is to fire the shot, just as you deal cards, raise and let off when you are horizontal. Do not poke with your head to see the sights, or find the sights and then hunt for the bull’s eye with the muzzle of your pistol (like the rifle target shots do).

Never let your pistol move an inch further than necessary. To lift it above your head and to lower it is not only dangerous but useless. You ought to raise to the target; not raise above it merely to come down to it again.

That sort of “flourish” shooting (which is the hardest thing to stop in a learner) is as if, when you want to go next door to your neighbour you went all the way down the street and then turned back to reach him. Open your door, step to his doorway and go in. The man who swings his pistol (“brandishes it” as reporters say) is at the mercy of the man who draws and fires in one movement.

You ought, with practice, to be able after a few shots to shut your eyes and as the pistol gets level, fire, knowing that your aim is right.

A fencer raises his foil with a straight arm and lunges. He does not need to aim along the foil. His sense of direction suffices. In the same way if your grip is right you ought to see your sights in line on the bull’s-eye without any necessity of correcting your aim as your pistol comes up, and the whole thing should be done in one movement—raising arm, sighting, and pressing the trigger.

The action becomes as mechanical as putting your spoon in your mouth when taking soup.

This is the whole art of pistol shooting. Keep on, practise, practise and again practise, until it becomes mechanical. Once acquired you will never lose it.

Only fire a few shots at a time, but several times a day. Do not worry about cleaning more than once a day if you have not the time. It is worth while spoiling the pistol if you can just get the knack of chucking your shots into the bull, instantly, with the minimum of time or movement of the pistol, like throwing stones into a bowl.

A good fencer is known by the small circle his point makes when fencing. In the same way a good pistol shot is known by the small circle his muzzle makes when raising it and firing.

I have seen men shoot revolvers at stationary targets, raise their pistol till it pointed vertically at the sky, aiming all the time, and then slowly bring the muzzle down till it was horizontal, and then begin to fish for the bull’s-eye, straining their eyes for nothing and not learning anything of the very essence of pistol shooting which is “lightning speed with accuracy.”

Others “brandish” or “flourish” their pistols and then let off into their friend’s feet.

I always leave the ground when I see men doing this. There is style in every pursuit, and style in pistol shooting consists in economy of movement and time and especially in timing one’s swing, aim, and trigger-pull so that they go together and throw the bullet on to the mark.

At twenty-five metres (a shade over twenty-seven yards) shooting at top speed of 1½ seconds a shot I won the Duelling Pistol Championship at Gastinne-Renette’s in the year 1910 with two scores, one a full score for the twelve shots and the other one point short of a full score, at an invisible bull’s-eye of six by four inches (see Plate 3).

I tell this merely to show what practice will do at this, the Alpha and Omega of pistol shooting.

Just keep constantly practising at this, and all other pistol shooting, with whatever pistol or charge, is merely a variation of it.

I know an extremely feeble old man who for many years each morning has half a dozen shots with a duelling pistol rapid-firing, and although he comes and goes a tottering, feeble old man, he brings up his pistol and hits the bull’s-eye instantly, like a young man, when shooting.

CHAPTER XII

Almost all makers of pistols make the sights of their pistols wrong; the only proper sights are those on French duelling pistols (see Plates 2 and 10).

The reason is obvious; for duelling a man has to snap shoot. All other pistol shooting, with very few exceptions, is very artificial and has been done in deliberate shooting at small black bull’s-eyes just as rifle shooting was spoilt.

I used to struggle with these minute sights at moving objects and rapid fire, and I am sure my record scores would have been much better if I had in those days known of the French duelling pistol sights and if, which is very doubtful, these sights had been passed as “military sights” which was an arbitrary term in England, changing from year to year.

The ordinary pistol sights, as placed even now on the latest patterns of automatics, are the worst that one can imagine.

What one wants is a front sight which shows up instantly against any object; large so that it is the most prominent object in aiming, and a back sight with so big a U in it that you instantly get the front sight centrally in it.

These conditions are fulfilled only by the French duelling sights. The front sight is a silver ball without stalk, as large as and similar to the one on a shotgun.

Shotgun men found this the best sight and shotgun shooting is snap shooting like pistol shooting is or ought to be. Now compare this with the sights on other pistols, especially military ones. They have a high knife blade, black front sight. The target pistols have a microscopic black bead on a very thin stalk which gets bent out of position at the least rough usage.

For a hind sight there is a minute indentation in the bar of the hind sight.

When added to this you are expected to see this microscopic dot, or a problematic part of the knife edge front sight (this latter worn to an indistinct grey by friction) into a slight notch which you would need a magnifying glass to find, and which is much too small to hold the front sight in, and to do all this in a black cellar so dark that you have to light a match to look for a cartridge if you drop it you can easily see that men give up pistol shooting in disgust and want some sport where there is light and air, and in which they do not have to tire their eyes out to look for the front sight and a target at the end of a coal cellar.

Whatever pistol you use, have it fitted with a big silver front bead sight placed close to the barrel, no matter how large it is, if your eyesight needs it large to see instantly in a bad light.

Have the back sight with a big U in it so that you see daylight all round it when aiming with fully stretched arm.

This front sight cannot be altered but the back sight can be made higher or lower to suit your style of aiming. At first you do not know if your bad shots are due to the sights not being suitable for you, or not being properly adjusted, or to your wobbly aim. There is no use going further into the matter now, but later I will show you how you can alter the sights to your own individual peculiarities.

What I want to impress is, that from the very beginning, you should not worry yourself with the sights you find on pistols; get your gunmaker to put on duelling pistol sights before you begin to learn. Tell him you want them for taking a full sight in daylight at twenty yards. Let him read this chapter and he will understand what you require.

Always press straight back on your trigger, do not push it off to the left, or jerk at it.

In rifle shooting the left hand steadies the rifle and prevents this tendency to push off to one side and also in a measure counteracts the effects of snatching or jerking at the trigger.

The pistol has no left hand to steady it. The right hand has not only to aim the pistol, but also to counteract the effect of any jerk, snatch, or push to one side from defective trigger pressing.

It is as well to put in an empty cartridge case and to practise pressing the trigger and trying to have the pistol still aligned on the object the moment the hammer has fallen. Aim and press that trigger at your own eye reflected in a glass and you can see if you pull off your aim.

By doing this you can detect any jerk to the right or left, or up or down.

With an automatic there is a tendency to jerk down so that it is very important not to get into this habit in the preliminary practice with a single-shot pistol.

When you get to grouping your shots well together, you can have your back sight altered so as to put this group into the centre of the object you want to hit, if it does not already go there.

The great thing is to make as close a group of shots as you can; if you group a dozen shots all in a bunch it is good shooting. It does not matter if they are not on the object you want to hit. That is merely a matter of having the back sight raised or lowered to cause the group to go higher or lower accordingly.

Raising the back sight makes the group higher; lowering the back sight makes the group lower.

Putting the back sight over to the right makes the group go to the right; putting the back sight over to the left makes the group go to the left.

You should be cautious however about this lateral adjustment. It is better to correct your tendency to jerk to either side than to make the pistol conform to your bad trigger pressing.

When giving instructions on learning to shoot in an early chapter, I took it for granted that the learner is using a pistol he is reliably informed shoots where the sights are pointed.

A beginner cannot know himself whether the fault is his or the pistol’s when he makes a bad shot, so he gets into a hopeless tangle when using a pistol wrongly sighted.

An expert after a shot or two to find how the pistol is sighted can make allowance for the error in the sights. I saw a man make a marvellous score with a double barrelled rifle. I said to him how well the barrels shot together and he answered, “I had to aim two inches higher and to the left with the left barrel than with the right barrel.” It was the man who was marvellous not the rifle.

When a man begins to become expert he knows when his “let off” has been correct and that, if the bullet goes wide in such a case, it is not his fault, but the fault of the pistol.

The modern single-shot pistol and automatic pistol are almost invariably very accurate, so if the bullet goes wrong when the pistol is “let off” correctly, it is the fault of the sights.

Shots wide to the right or left mean in each case that the sights are not adjusted centrally to the barrel.

The front sight, being a fixture, is very unlikely to be at fault, but the back sight may have got moved to one side.

The back sight has generally a scratch made from its base onto the barrel, and if this scratch does not coincide then the sight has shifted and it must be knocked into place.

When the back sight is central and the bullets do not group to either side of the mark, but where you aim, then fix the back sight permanently and immovable.

A movable back sight is a constant annoyance and I never understand why makers put it so. You shoot badly and after wasting a lot of shots, find your back sight has shifted unobserved to one side. I lost a stag recently owing to the back sight of my rifle getting knocked off, being wedged only in a slot instead of being screwed in.

Have this back sight absolutely central. If you shoot to one side correct your way of letting off. Do not shift the back sight to avoid the trouble of learning to let off properly.

If you do, you will be like a man driving who, instead of straightening his horse’s mouth, puts one rein at the cheek and the other at the bottom bar and makes the horse go worse and more lopsided every day till the horse is incurably crooked.

If you keep on shifting the back sight to counteract your bad let off, you will end by not being able to let off properly.

If you shoot too high all you have to do is to file down the U in the hind sight, a little at a time, until it is right. If you shoot too low, you will have to get a higher back sight put in and file that down gradually till you get it right.

The place to aim at is exactly where you want the ball to hit, seeing the whole of the ball of the front sight in the U of the back sight. Keep on working at the back sight till you arrive at this result.

If in target shooting you aim at the bottom edge of the bull’s-eye, you will require a different adjustment of sights for each size of bull’s-eye.

A two-inch bull’s-eye at twenty yards requires the pistol to shoot one inch higher than the aim so as to put the bullet in the centre of the two-inch disc when aimed at its bottom edge, and if the bull’s-eye is four inches the pistol would have to be sighted to shoot two inches higher at the same distance to hit the centre.

As natural objects are not at all of the same size, and you cannot carry twenty pistols shooting to various heights to choose from, it is best to have the pistol sighted to hit the exact spot you aim at, and then it does not matter if you are shooting at an elephant or a mouse, you can hit the spot.

The tendency to “duck” and flinch at the noise and recoil makes beginners put their shots very low.

The revolver used to make men shoot high, the automatic shoots low as a rule from muzzle heaviness, the wrong angle the stock is placed at, and the uneven blow back (which latter I will explain later).

Single-shot pistols are generally of American make and it is very curious what defects they have in comparison with the French duelling pistol.

To begin with they have a stock too much at right angles to the barrel and much too small and narrow.

Next, the trigger is in the wrong place. The proper place for the trigger is so that you can just reach it with the first joint of the outstretched first finger. Pressing the trigger with the second finger is a ridiculous habit and, with an automatic pistol, results in making the pistol jamb burn the first finger with the ejecting cartridges.

The American single-shot pistols have the trigger so close to the hand that the trigger finger has to curl around the trigger beyond the second joint.

I never could understand how Chevalier Ira Paine, with his big hand, managed to shoot American single-shot pistols.

The trigger being too close not only makes pressing it difficult but makes it so that, instead of straight back, it has to be pressed to the left and sends the bullet to the left.

COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL, MILITARY MODEL, CALIBRE .45

COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL, MILITARY MODEL, CALIBRE .38

CHAPTER XIII

The target is painted over after each series of shots with a mixture of soot and water.

Be sure not to use any size or varnish, as this fixes the black so that the bullet does not knock it off, and so shots are difficult to locate on the figure from the firing point.

With soot and water the shots appear almost white on the target at the spot the soft lead bullet has flattened and dropped down, taking the soot with it.

These iron targets are suitable only for soft lead bullets driven at low velocity.

With a high-power automatic pistol it would be dangerous, as bullets would rebound or glance off long distances if the edge of the target were grazed.

For shooting with powerful ammunition, the target must be of wood, or canvas on a wooden stretcher, with black paper pasted over it. The bullets go through into the butt, which latter must be exceptionally thick or else the last of several bullets striking in one place will go through it.

The pattern of target we used at the Olympic Games at Stockholm in 1912, I do not like. It was much too big and the rings (upright ovals) too distinct. It was like shooting at an ordinary ring target with visible bull’s-eye.

It was a good idea, however, having upright ovals instead of circles for a man target, as a miss right or left is important, whereas a rather high or low shot would still strike a man.

For animal targets, on the Continent, these ovals are placed horizontally, because an animal is longer than it is high; also for running shots a miss in front or behind the bull’s-eye is more excusable than one over or under.

The proper distance to practise at is the distance you can hit the invisible bull’s-eye twice in three shots. As soon as you can do better than this, move the target a few feet further off, or decrease the size of the bull’s-eye.

The idea is to have a target on which when shooting your very best, you may just be able to make the highest possible score.

This is the principle on which the targets are made in all the Gastinne-Renette competitions in Paris.

The highest possible score is not beyond the power of the pistols, if held by a very good shot.

For the Grande Medal d’Or, the holding has to be nearly as good as if the pistol were fixed in a vise, but it is possible to make, as several dozen winning targets made by the crack shots of the world testify.

A target impossible to make a full score on discourages the shooter.

It rather adds to the interest if a hit breaks something; if a clay pigeon, for instance, is put on a nail for a bull’s-eye on a man target painted the same colour, it is practically an invisible bull and it is a great satisfaction to see the pieces instantly fly at a hit, instead of having to examine the target to see where your shots are.

These clay pigeons, or soup plates, or whatever you use, would not do if put against an iron target, as the splash of the bullet would break them even if they were not actually hit.

One can buy an apparatus in Paris which fills rubber balls with water, which make good targets to shoot at either hung up or thrown in the air.

To hit them with a pistol with a bullet when thrown in the air is extremely difficult, and can only be safely tried when shooting out to sea, or against a high cliff.

Single barrel pistols of 28 shotgun bore, 10-inch barrels are made to shoot shot, and these are very good for such shooting and train timing and swing in snap shooting.

At eighty live pigeons at twelve yards’ rise I have got more than half I shot at. One has to be quick, as the pigeon is so soon out of range. No. 7 shot is best for this, but the pistol only shoots half an ounce of shot, and makes a very small pattern.

I will explain in the next chapter how to shoot so as to compel quick shooting without the cumbersome machinery for making a target appear and disappear.

If you count seconds for yourself or have them counted for you, the time varies and one cannot help dwelling on the counting when a fraction more time is needed for your aim to be correct.

The utmost care must be taken, if you have an assistant to go to and from the target, not to point in his direction or to load before he has come back. Even at otherwise well-managed shooting clubs, there is too much carelessness in this respect.

Targets which draw up and down on trolleys are a great nuisance, and yet almost all shooting galleries are equipped with them, and their presence is considered the acme of good gallery equipment in England.

This may be all right for preventing markers being shot, but I prefer an iron man target, life size, standing on his feet in a green field with a suitable background. One can shoot so much better than at a figure painted on a flat background.

You see a miss by the momentary puff of dust where the bullet hits the ground, instead of having to look for a bullet hole in the painted background.

It would be possible to make a target which drops down and rises again from the impact of the bullet.

I have a target in the form of a stag which when you hit his invisible heart, he half rears, then bends his hocks and plunges down on his knees, throwing back his head in the most realistic manner. This stag, stood amongst long bracken and stalked, gives a most lifelike performance.

He is wound up in various places and the shock of the bullet on a buffer releases the movements in succession with momentary intervals.

It was made by a very ingenious target mechanic, who also makes monkeys which run up a tree when hit, parrots who turn a somersault on the branch they are sitting on when hit, a man who takes off his hat and bows to you when you hit him properly, a chamois who tumbles over a precipice.

The maker, who has a shooting gallery on the Continent, makes a good profit out of it, as the bull’s-eyes are very small and difficult to hit, and people keep on paying to shoot in order to amuse their companions, and children beg their parents to try to set the automatons in motion.

CHAPTER XIV

The regulation French Duelling Target is made in several ways, but in all cases it is the figure of a man painted black, standing in absolute profile (see Plate 3).

This can be had, either printed on paper, to paste on a board cut out to its shape, in cast iron with a base so that it stands up of itself, or of steel with an electrical device for registering the shots. The figure is in profile, which is not correct.

A proficient duellist stands as full face as a man shooting a gun. This position is easier to shoot in, but it is also easier to hit.

In the absolute profile target, the places where misses are usually made are past the small of the waist and under the chin. These would not occur on a man standing full face, or nearly so.

The target of paper pasted on wood has the bullet holes covered by white and black paper pasters.

The bullet hole is first pasted over with a white paster, so as to show its place from the firing point. After the next shot a white paster is put on this fresh shot and the former shot obliterated by a black paster.

On this target there is no bull’s-eye and all hits, anywhere, have an equal value.

In competitions, a row of these figures stand in the field and the marker, after a shot at each has been fired, goes down the line and pastes white pasters over the bullet holes and black patches over where he finds a white patch. He need not say anything, when he has finished, it is at once seen from the firing point which targets have been hit and where, and what targets have been missed.

The iron target is divided by incised lines into an oblong bull’s-eye with various subdivisions as shown in the diagram (see Plate 3).

The bull’s-eye counts four, the space on each side three, the space below two, and the head and the bottom of the frock coat one each. These divisions are invisible from the firing point.

When these are painted with soot and water, or distemper black and water, the bullet knocks off the black and leaves a distinct lead-coloured mark.

When shot at in the open this is all that is necessary, but if, instead of a bank behind the figure there is a wall, this wall is painted white and a second lot of paint (this time whitewash) is kept for whitening the wall, if a shot hits that, to obliterate it so as to show where misses go.

An inexperienced marker is apt to put his brush into the wrong pot, so that the result is a grey colour.

The electric marking target looks exactly like this last and is painted after shots in the same way, but the various divisions are separate plates which stand on rods with springs behind.

When a shot strikes any plate it drives it back, and the spring returns it to place.

The act of driving back makes electric connection, transmitted by wires, to a small copy of the target, like the indicator inside a hotel lift, and rings a bell. It shows the value of the shot and approximately the place it has struck. The actual spot struck is not indicated.

CHAPTER XV

Then the revolver came with its front overbalance, which often needed, on its short upright stock, a grip with the little finger under the butt to steady it.

As I explained in my Art of Revolver Shooting, it was necessary to get the line of the arm as nearly possible in line with the barrel, consequently the thumb also had to be extended in line with the barrel.

This was possible with the old “break down” action revolvers, but when solid-frame revolvers were made to withstand the stronger pressure of the nitro powders, the extractor opening lever had to be put in the way of this thumb extension, so that the thumb was crooked to avoid the nail being split by the recoil, or the catch opened by the thumb striking it from the recoil.

The proper way to hold the duelling pistol is not very high up the grip, because if the hold is taken so high up as to make the barrel in line with the arm, the back sight is hidden by the hand.

This lower hold is not a disadvantage, as the obtuse slope of the handle and the perfect balance of the pistol have no tendency to drop the muzzle.

The thumb is curved downwards just enough to get the best grip.

The duelling pistol has a spur at the near end of the trigger guard, which some shooters put their second finger round (see Plate 6). I find that this only gives one a clumsy handful and that it is better to have the second finger with the others together round the stock, and close under the back of the trigger guard.

PLATE 5. HOW TO HOLD THE DUELLING PISTOL (1)

I am sorry to find that some still cling to the absurd practice of using the second finger to press the trigger, holding the first finger along the pistol.

There is nothing to recommend this and everything to condemn it, and I have never seen it used by a good shot.

It is only a fashion, like the new one of jerking the elbow out at right angles to look at the wrist watch, or turning up the collar, and the bottom of the trousers, on a hot dry day.

PLATE 6. HOW TO HOLD THE DUELLING PISTOL WITH SPUR (2)

Using the second finger for the trigger deprives the hand of a third of its grip on the stock. It employs a less sensitive finger for the trigger, as the first finger is always used for sensitive work, the second being only a gripper. Moreover, the first finger, if extended along the barrel when shooting an automatic, not only gets burnt and cut, as it lies along where the spent cartridge cases and powder gases escape, but it is apt to get jammed into this opening and stop the action of the pistol.

I shot an automatic pistol alternately with another man, which jammed when my companion shot it but not with me. I found he kept getting his first finger into the mechanism, as he was using his second for the trigger.

Now as to holding the stock of an automatic pistol. The United States Regulation Colt .45 Automatic has the best grip of any, and one can hold it, as I have advised for the duelling pistol, right up hard against the projection over which the recoil slide operates.

The smaller Civilian and Police Colt have not quite as good a stock, rather more upright; the same applies to the Savage and the Smith & Wesson.

The German Military Regulation Automatic has a nice stock but it is rather too thick. It is well balanced and at the proper angle.

The “Hammer Head” stock attachment to the barrel of some automatic pistols I find most awkward to hold, and impossible to get a sense of direction with. One finds oneself far below the object one wants to hit and the muzzle has to be canted up with a most wrist-spraining movement. The recoil comes on the wrist at the same angle as if you put the first joints of your fingers on a table, and the palm of your hand against a leg of the table whilst keeping the arm horizontal.

I can neither hold nor shoot in this position; it is all so awkward. If a man lowers his head, he can look along the sights, but if he keeps his head up as he should and does in shooting any other pistol, it is very difficult to align the sights except by bending the arm and raising the elbow. In any case I cannot shoot with such a stock, so can give no instruction in its use.

In a later chapter I will give my ideas of what should be altered in automatic pistols from a shooter’s point of view; the “Hammer Head” or “right-angle” stocks being one of these.

Not knowing how to hold and shoot a pistol, has given rise to all those inventions of a portable rifle stock to fit on a pistol, so that the pistol can be shot like a rifle.

To begin with, such a stock puts the sights too close to the eyes, the noise is deafening and the accuracy very bad, compared with holding the same pistol at arm’s length as it should be held. It is merely the attempt to try and hold it steady by men who cannot shoot a pistol.

A moment’s thought will show that, unless a man is as near-sighted as an owl in daylight, he cannot shoot with the back sight resting on his nose.

A pistol fitted with a rifle stock must be used with great caution. You are apt to put the fingers of your left hand over the muzzle, as the end of the muzzle comes just where one puts one’s hand with the fingers round the fore end, to steady a rifle or shotgun.

CHAPTER XVI

Wherever you go to a rifle meeting where there is a competition at a moving target, “Running Deer,” “Running Man” or “Gliding Man,” etc., it is always the same.

A few men shoot as they ought to, and win all the prizes. The bulk of the competitors lie on their faces, as they were taught to do at stationary targets, take a deliberate aim at a spot on the background, and wait till the target gets opposite their aim.

Then—boom—the dust flies up where the target was a moment before, but it is now—elsewhere.

It is as if you tried to catch a fly by putting a finger on him when he is on the table-cloth. You will put it where he was, not where he is.

The correct principle (the one with which I won the Rifle Running-Deer World’s Championship at the Olympic Games in 1908) is to treat the rifle or pistol exactly as if it were a shotgun.

Assuming you are not familiar with shotgun shooting, get a man who is a good shot with the shotgun to coach you, when practising with the pistol at moving objects.

If you are a shotgun man you do not need to be told what follows.

At a stationary target, however rapidly you are shooting, you try to hit that object.

In shooting at moving targets you try to make two moving objects (the target and the bullet) meet.

The target is moving. The bullet also takes time to get where the target will be. You have to get the bullet to arrive simultaneously with the target at the same spot.

If you aim at the object, the bullet will arrive at the spot after the object has gone further on.

To give an illustration:

An illustrated paper showed an engraving of a man on a motor bicycle going at fifty miles an hour, at six hundred yards’ distance.

There was a cross made on the man’s chest which, it was explained, was the spot to aim at in order to hit him.

If the rifle were correctly aimed for this cross, a man could shoot millions of shots and never hit the motor-cyclist.

The bullets would reach the spot where the motorist was a moment before, but he would be yards further on when the bullet arrived.

Now the way to overcome this missing behind is to “swing” and “time.” These are shotgun men’s terms, never used or understood by pistol or rifle shots, and this is the reason so few riflemen can hit moving targets, and chase them with the bayonets instead.

Suppose you have a shotgun in your hands and a pheasant comes flying across you. The thing is to hit him in the neck with the centre of the charge so as to make a clean kill without a flutter in midair—“neck him,” as we call it.

Most men try to shoot without moving their position and so hamper and cramp themselves unnecessarily by having to twist the body if the bird is passing them at an awkward angle.

Turn like a soldier does in “right about face” to either side, so that the bird gives you the easiest crossing shot. Whilst doing so, follow an imaginary point in front of his head with your eyes, the distance in front varying with the bird’s speed and distance from you. Whilst doing so bring up your gun (not looking at the gun), the gun swinging as your body swings in the direction the bird is travelling. As the gun comes to your shoulder press the trigger.

If you look at the bird, you will shoot at the bird, and consequently shoot behind where he was at the moment the trigger was pulled. If the bird was forty yards off you will have missed clean behind him.

If nearer, owing to the shot spreading over a thirty-inch circle, you may have hit him far back in the body, what is called “tailored him,” and he will go off and die a lingering death.

If you shoot forward enough, you will either kill him clean or miss him clean (a miss in front).

That is the great thing. If it must be a miss let it be a clean miss, in front. Not shooting far enough forward is the chief cruelty in shooting—wounded animals going off to die in agony.

Always remember this when shooting at animals and birds. The forward end is the vital end; hitting it causes sudden, painless death, so swing far enough forward.

To hit bird after bird, animal after animal, too far back, as one sees some men do, to an accompaniment of screams of hares and rabbits, and fluttering birds, is disgusting.

If you shoot well forward, none of this happens. You may not have so much game down, but each one of them drops stone dead without a sound. There is no calling out, “Bring a dog, I have a ‘runner.’”

I think it would be as well, before trying moving shots with a pistol, to do a little shotgun shooting at clay pigeons, so as to get into the idea of swing and timing, if you are not a shotgun shot already.

When you can swing your gun to an imaginary spot, in front of a moving object and press the trigger at the moment the sights are aligned, without stopping your swing, you can shoot the pistol with success at moving objects, provided you treat it exactly as if you were using a shotgun.

Have a moderately large object which the bullet will either break or leave a visible hole through, arranged to pass you at a slow speed.

It can either be dragged by a long string, run on a trolley (the trolley shielded behind a bank so that a bullet could not strike it) or some other slowly moving target.

A swinging object is of no use. It makes a difficult curve to follow, for the beginner, and its passage lasts too short a time.

A swinging object also makes the shooter try the objectionable method of waiting and aiming at the spot the object swings to, which I want to avoid.

If your target travels slowly enough, and is large enough, and at only some twelve yards’ distance, there will be no necessity to aim in front of it. Its forward edge is far enough.

Fix your eyes on the front part of the target. As it traverses bring your pistol up without looking at the pistol, as it comes level with your eye and the sights get aligned. Keep on swinging your body and pistol and press the trigger, while still swinging.