The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It

CHAPTER XVII

But if the object is coming from a distance, and will be in sight for some distance as it passes, this rule does not apply.

You can take your time raising your arm, only your following swing must be fast and of course your “allowance” in front of the object greater than at slower moving objects.

As you get proficient, increase the distance you stand from your target and increase its speed.

It is a mistake to have a small target for practising. When you miss you cannot see if you have missed behind or in front, and you get to dwelling on your aim.

As to the distance to aim in front, that is a matter of experience and, other things being equal, the man who has this experience can beat another shot who can hold closer on a stationary object, but does not know how far to aim in front of a moving one, or how to swing and time.

The difference between shooting at an upright man moving and an animal is that, in the former case, the most important thing is to judge the proper distance to aim in front; in the latter case, to keep one’s elevation so as not to miss over or under.

When shooting at a running man target, the man being narrow, one is very apt to miss just behind the back.

At a running deer one cannot, if at all a decent shot, miss him behind his tail (though one may miss past his chest in trying to shoot forward enough), but it is easy to miss over his withers, or under his brisket.

Keep on practising at moving objects, varying the distance and speed constantly, and the direction from right to left and left to right, till you can judge how far in front you must shoot for each case.

It is best to always use the same pistol and charge. If you use at one time a .22 pistol and then the .44 duelling pistol, you will get confused, as the .22 goes up much faster and consequently needs less allowance in front of the target.

As long as you keep to the same pistol, you need not mind how slowly the bullet goes up. You know how much to aim in front but, if at one time you must aim an inch in front and next time four inches for the same speed, you can never learn to judge where to aim.

The various rifles I have used at the Running Deer at Bisley since the early days vary in allowance in front from four feet down to merely aiming at the point of the shoulder.

The faster the bullet goes, the easier it is to judge how far you must aim in front at moving objects, but here comes in the inevitable “compromise.”

The faster the bullet goes, the more force it needs to propel it, which means more recoil and shock to the shooter.

You have to make a compromise. If you are strong and have good nerves, and don’t take alcohol or smoke, you can stand a strong recoil without its spoiling your shooting. If you are not strong, it is better to have to aim further in front and save your nerves, by using a lighter load.

I am not speaking from theory but from experience. I have specialized and made record scores on the “Running Deer” at the National Rifle Association of England’s Meeting since I was a small boy.

When I first began, an older man shot a very light charge and kept winning, although he had to aim an enormous distance in front of the “deer” to make up for the slow speed of his bullet. But, as there was little noise and no recoil to worry his nerves, he put up wonderfully good scores.

I, knowing no better, tried to get my bullet up quickly by shooting a tremendously big charge. The bullet went up quickly but the recoil nearly knocked me down, and in consequence my shooting was very erratic.

I have since experimented from very small charges up to the heaviest, having a velocity of over three thousand feet a second.

The year I won the World’s Championship at the Olympic Games, I had arrived at a “compromise” between speed of bullet and recoil, which enabled me to win, but since then I have yet a still better compromise, which enables me to make highest possible scores.

Formerly, in revolvers and pistols, one had to bear the full recoil. Now, automatic pistols, which utilize part of the recoil to operate opening, loading, ejection, and reclosing, have less recoil when shooting heavier charges than revolvers did.

The automatic pistol has a softer recoil than a pistol or especially a revolver, owing to this absorption of recoil.

It is more of a push, less of a blow.

Therefore, when you have found the heaviest load you can stand in a single-shot pistol, you will find you can use a heavier cartridge in an automatic pistol, without any more discomfort.

You will therefore not have to aim so far in front with an automatic pistol when shooting at moving objects, and not have to take so high an aim at distance objects to allow for the drop of the bullet—as with a revolver.

CHAPTER XVIII

Instead of the recoil coming back directly on you it will be softened and, even with the best of automatics, the pistol will have a tendency to wriggle and “tap,” not recoil back in one clean kick.

When practising, make a point of putting the safety bolt on and off, using this safety bolt as you would in putting a single-shot pistol to half-cock.

There is this difference. Whereas, in English makes of guns and sporting rifles, the safety bolt puts the weapon automatically at safe each time it is reloaded, having to be taken off before each shot can be fired. Military firearms are only at safe when the safety bolt is purposely put on with the thumb.

The usual automatic pistol is made on the military idea. The safety once off, it remains off till the user puts it back at safety, no matter how many shots he has fired in the meantime.

The Colt automatic pistol, like the Smith & Wesson hammerless safety pocket revolver, remedies this defect by having a second safety which makes the pistol safe, even if the first safety slide is not at safe. This consists of a lever at the back of the stock which is at safe till the hand presses it in firing and which keeps the weapon safe till the stock is gripped in actual firing.

Any one who is a pistol shot grips the stock instinctively when shooting, but I have known men unused to firearms, unable to shoot a pistol having this safety grip, as they pull the trigger without squeezing the stock.

I was asked to give expert opinion as to whether a good revolver-shot had shot a man accidentally or on purpose.

The pistol he used was a Smith & Wesson hammerless safety pocket pistol.

The contention was that a man trying to drag the pistol from his hand had caused it to go off accidentally. I said that with an ordinary revolver, if the man had his finger on the trigger at the time, it was very probable the pistol would be discharged accidentally, but that the man would not be likely to do so with a Smith & Wesson safety pocket pistol. To test it we experimented, and besides not being able to make me fire the pistol (empty of course), when we reversed matters, my questioner, although he tried his utmost, could not fire the pistol whilst I pulled at it.

The holder pulls against the front of the stock to avoid its being taken from his hand, he does not squeeze the back of it. The result is that the pistol cannot be discharged, except by a voluntary effort. He can pull the trigger as much as he likes, but as long as he does not grip, but merely uses the front of the stock as a handle to pull against his adversary, the pistol is safe against accidental discharge.

When you have got accustomed to the automatic pistol as a single loader, fill the magazine and use it as an automatic.

For continual rapid-firing, that is one loaded magazine after another, do not shoot off the last cartridge of a magazine before inserting a fresh one. Otherwise it necessitates dragging back the slide with both hands after each fresh clip is inserted and wastes time.

Most automatic pistols remain open after the last shot has been fired, a most necessary thing, as otherwise you never know if your pistol has another shot available or is empty.

To do continuous firing shoot all but one cartridge of the clip load, press the stop, and drop the empty clip. The loaded clip, held in the other hand, is inserted into the butt and shooting can at once be resumed. The last cartridge left in the barrel, from the first clip, when fired, brings up the first cartridge of the new clip and so on, indefinitely.

You will find slightly different problems to overcome as compared with the single-shot pistol or revolver.

Rapid-firing is incomparably easier than with a revolver. There is not only gain of time and no fatigue of the trigger finger or thumb from cocking, but also the hold of the stock does not have to be changed. It is merely a matter of aligning and pressing. The recoil is also deadened and much less severe.

You will find a tendency for your shots to be strung out vertically, owing to varying escape of gas at the breech.

You will find lateral variation is much less than with a revolver, the bullet going from the barrel of the automatic, not jumping into it from a cylinder, thus tending to accuracy.

The vertical variation is more than from a revolver, and this vertical deviation is absent from a good single-shot pistol.

When shooting an automatic pistol do not be discouraged if your shots are not so good vertically but strung out. It is not your fault but that of the pistol, and you cannot correct this by your shooting.

Later I will give special practice for automatic pistols, but if you are a good shot with the single-shot pistol or revolver, you will have no difficulty in shooting the automatic pistol well, as soon as you have got used to its characteristics.

I used to think the occasional very low shots were due to dropping the muzzle in pulling, but I find it is not this. It is caused by an occasional escape of gas greater than normal at the breach of the automatic pistol, causing the bullet to have a weaker flight and therefore striking lower.

CHAPTER XIX

For the learner, it is important that he should be able to apportion his time, take so long for lifting his arm, so long for aiming, etc., so as to learn how to do the best shooting in the time limit allowed, and judge accordingly.

For this purpose there is nothing better than the metronome.

The metronome is used by music teachers for instructing their pupils in the right time when playing.

Music for instruction is marked with the metronome beat proper to it: all that has to be done is to wind up the metronome, set it to that number, and start it beating.

A metronome consists of a pyramidical box with clockwork, which makes an upright pendulum beat at whatever speed it is set.

The speed depends on a weight which is moved up and down the rod, to set marks, which correspond to numbers engraved on the sides.

It is, in fact, a clock pendulum reversed.

The more elaborate ones have a bell attachment which strikes after any desired number of beats of the pendulum. If you want to practise three minutes’ exposure of target, you set the metronome at half-second beats (120 to the minute) and the ball to strike at every sixth beat.

Accuracy of course depends for what purpose you are practising, but to be able to hit an object a foot in diameter, at ten yards’ distance instantly, is ample for self-defence.

CHAPTER XX

After putting a dozen shots close together, try to put a dozen shots a foot higher on the target.

You will find yourself all at sea, and will have to begin aiming. Then you get so mechanical you will find it difficult to hit a foot lower, which you found so easy before.

Your arm has got so used to lifting to a certain position, your trigger finger to squeeze when the arm is raised to exactly the same position, that the whole thing becomes as mechanical and subconscious as swinging your arms and legs as you walk.

Your arms swing to exactly the same spot each time. Try to take longer or shorter steps, and to swing your arms further or less far, and you will see how mechanical your ordinary walk is.

If you want to win a prize for snap shooting, you can, by practising constantly under identical conditions of distance, shape, colour, height of target, and lighting, get so mechanical that it takes an effort not to hit the same spot continually.

For this reason, to learn snap shooting, not merely forming a habit, it is best to constantly vary the height of the target you shoot at, or try to hit various parts alternately.

Get someone (if you are shooting at a man target) to call out “head” at the first beat of the metronome (beating at 120 to the minute), and try to hit the head before the next beat of the metronome.

Then he will call “feet” and it is ten to one that you will swing too high; or if it was “feet” first you will not be able to get as high as the “head” next time.

You can put in your shots at great speed if it is always to the same spot, but if you have to vary and do not know where you are to hit, till you get the word to go, it is impossible to shoot quite so fast accurately.

For this reason it is well not to think one has mastered snap shooting when one has got into the knack of putting all one’s shots on the same spot.

Snap shooting and shooting at moving objects, are the two sorts of shooting of real use.

Shooting long shots (which I will treat of next) may be useful at times, but deliberate shooting at minute bull’s-eyes is only useful for winning prizes and getting a reputation for being a “Crack Revolver-Shot.”

My world’s record snap-shooting score was published in the newspapers with the words under it—“This is the highest at present, but it will, of course, soon be beaten.”

Naturally, it was not as pretty a group as the target published next to it, which had been shot with deliberate aim, but this latter score has been equalled dozens of times. While my rapid-fire score is unbeaten (Appendix 10 and 11). The value of a score can only be judged if the conditions it was shot under are known.

If you want to be thought a good shot by the public, leave rapid, snap, and moving object shooting alone, otherwise your best scores will look so bad beside those of the man who aims, lowers his pistol, aims again, wipes his hands, and after half an hour of these antics, scores a bull’s-eye.

CHAPTER XXI

Beyond the twenty-five metres, however, it begins to drop very rapidly. I have watched where the bullet strikes when the man target is missed in an open field. The bullet strikes the ground less than a hundred yards off, showing that it has dropped the height of a man’s shoulder (say over four feet).

The .22 hits the ground nearly two hundred yards off under similar circumstances.

I had exceptional opportunities to watch this, as my man target stood out in an open park, where there was no necessity to have a butt behind it.

As it is not usual to shoot a duelling pistol beyond twenty-five yards, or a .22 pistol beyond fifty yards, there is no necessity to make any alteration in the sighting at that distance, but if extreme accuracy is desired at any one distance the hind sight can be filed for that special distance.

The automatic, however, has a very powerful cartridge which shoots accurately several hundred yards.

Now the way I use my “big game” rifle is: when at a distance at which the drop of the bullet would make it fall below the body of the game when I aim at it, I judge how much I must aim above and shoot accordingly.

The advantage of this is that you are ready at any moment to shoot. If the animal is close and therefore dangerous, you can aim straight at him. If he is far you aim above him.

If he suddenly comes close you merely have to aim at him. This is the principle on which the United States Army Automatic is sighted, one immovable back sight.

Most rifles and some automatic pistols are sighted differently.

They have leaves or other adjustments to the back sight, so that if you want to shoot at long range you estimate the distance, look at the hind sight which is marked in distances, and either raise the leaf marked for that distance, or else slide or screw up the back sight for that distance.

This is all very pretty theoretically, or for deliberate target shooting, but in practice it is dangerous.

As an instance, you are out shooting, and see a stag 250 yards off, as you estimate.

You fix the back sight of your rifle for that distance, and begin taking a careful aim.

At that moment there is a grunt, you look up and there is an old wild boar (a solitaire, very savage) charging at you from twenty yards off.

If you fire at him with your 250 yards’ sight up, you miss him and he has you. But if you are shooting on my principle with a fixed sight for close range, you would be aiming two feet above the stag when the boar started charging, and all you would have to do is to shoot at the boar’s chest, and he would drop and you could then fire at the stag, as he galloped off.

A leaf of the back sight may get put up accidentally, and you do not notice this when firing at short range.

The chief danger is from an enemy near you. You ought to have your sights right for him, the distant one is not so important to hit, if you forget to aim high for him.

How often soldiers are told to put up their sights for a thousand yards’ range, and then have to start shooting at a close enemy and forget to alter their sights.

My advice is to have nothing to do with elevating back sights.

As the duelling pistol has such an extreme drop, it will accustom you, if you shoot it at various distances, to aim high or low according to the distance.

When you come to the automatic you will find, except for very exceptionally long shots, you need not alter your elevation of aim at all; it shoots practically straight up to the furthest you are likely ever to have to use it.

Less than forty yards and generally at a few feet off is the range for pistols in actual combat.

The further the object shot at, the more accurate the aim must be to hit it.

It is difficult to do snap shooting with a pistol at one hundred yards, though one can do very accurate snap shooting with a rifle at that distance.

The reason is that the rifle has a longer barrel, so that a slight fault in the alignment does not so much matter, but with the short barrel of a pistol a hundredth of an inch wrong in the sighting, at one hundred yards, makes over twelve inches error where the bullet strikes.

In other words, an error of a hundredth of an inch in alignment in an automatic pistol at one hundred yards, would make the pistol miss a target twelve and a half inches in diameter, whereas a rifle at the same distance with the same error of alignment would graze the edge of a target two and a half inches in diameter.

The pistol is more than four times more difficult to shoot than the rifle at one hundred yards, owing to its short barrel magnifying the error nearly four to five times more than the long barrel of the rifle.

To compare a pistol with a rifle target at one hundred yards, the rifle target bull’s-eye would have to be reduced to a fifth of its diameter, leaving the bullet holes where they are, or vice versa, the pistol target bull’s-eye would have to be magnified five diameters, leaving the bullet holes where they are.

This means that in shooting a match at a hundred yards, the rifle would have to be given a bull’s-eye a fifth the diameter of the pistol target, the outside rings of the target in proportion, or the pistol must shoot at twenty yards, against the rifle at one hundred, both having bull’s-eyes the same size.

This confirms my experience that to hit a foot diameter bull’s-eye with a pistol at a hundred yards, is about as difficult as to hit a two and a half inch bull’s-eye at the same distance with a rifle. Of course standing position is meant. With the prone position for the rifle it is too great a handicap on the pistol.

CHAPTER XXII

Now that the pupil has learned how to handle the single-shot pistol with safety to himself and others, he can be trusted to learn how to shoot the automatic pistol. (See Plates 7 and 13.)

Before giving such instruction, it is necessary to explain what an automatic pistol is, and in what it differs from a single-shot pistol.

The first pistol, as the first rifle, was naturally a single-shot one.

The pistol and rifle both proceeded in development along the same lines.

First the match-lock, wheel-lock, flint-lock, percussion lock. Then through muzzle-loader to rim fire, pin fire, to central fire breechloader, hammer, hammerless, and ejector.

The double barrel, and multi-barrel, and from smooth-bore to rifled bore, were evolved at the same time.

Here the pistol and rifle parted company slightly; though the principle was the same in each case, it was differently applied.

The rifle became a magazine loader, and it will next be an automatic loader (though at present automatic loading is principally used in machine guns and low-power rifles).

The pistol, instead of becoming a magazine loader (in the sense of being loaded by cartridges brought up from a magazine by operating a bolt), became a revolver—that is, the cartridges were fired out of the magazine instead of being first inserted into the barrel from a magazine.

When cartridges are inserted into the barrel, there is no escape of gas at the breech when they are fired, but when fired out of the cylinder of a revolver, there is an escape of gas at the juncture of the cylinder and barrel, which varies, and when such escape of gas occurs it causes weak and low shots.

The cylinder cannot be made gas tight, as that would prevent its revolving, or coincide absolutely with the calibre of the barrel, consequently a revolver can never be as accurate as a single-shot pistol.

This defect in the revolver was its weak point in comparison with the magazine-loading rifle.

Just before the war, I shot two makes of military full-charge automatic rifles, which were very good, but the war has put an end to their development for the present. Undoubtedly the rifle of the future will be an automatic.

The principle of an automatic firearm can be best explained by the analogy of the automobile.

The revolver, which is a magazine pistol, can be fired only after each cartridge is placed in position by the action of cocking the hammer with the thumb, or by double-action trigger pull.

The internal combustion (the automobile engine) operates by the explosion operating the various parts.

The explosion in the cylinder of the engine drives the piston rod forward, which turns the crank, which, turning the fly-wheel, drives the piston rod back ready for the next explosion.

In the automatic pistol, the recoil from the explosion drives the working part of the pistol back against a strong spring. As soon as the force of the explosion is spent, this spring forces the working parts back into place again. These working parts do all the work the shooter does in a single-shot pistol—that is, it cocks the pistol, opens the breech, extracts the spent cartridge, inserts a fresh cartridge, and closes the breech.

The idea is very simple, and has occurred to almost everyone who has handled a pistol or a rifle, but there are mechanical difficulties which are only just beginning to be overcome, and the automatic pistol, and still more the automatic rifle, are yet far from perfect.

The chief difficulty is the force of the explosion. In a motor-car engine, the force of each explosion can be regulated so as to be just sufficient for the work required.

In an automatic pistol this cannot be done. The force of the explosion is that which gives the best shooting, in other words the greatest possible force, subject to the shooter being able to stand the recoil and the pistol not to burst, though made light enough to be easily handled.

If a pistol were made a ton weight, it would fire a very much larger charge without bursting, but the charge of the explosion has to be limited to what a pistol of some two and a half pounds’ weight can bear without bursting, or recoiling too severely on the shooter.

The smaller pocket automatic pistols are lighter (the two-and-a-half pound ones are military pistols).

A pistol weighing under two and a half pounds can shoot only a small charge with light recoil, and so is easier to make.

The heavy recoil from a military rifle (which gives the bullet a speed of some thirty thousand feet a second) would shatter the recoil mechanism of a small pocket pistol, though the latter can quite safely operate under the slight recoil of its weak cartridge.

With a magazine rifle or revolver, the shooter uses just sufficient manual force to operate the mechanism, and even then pistols and rifles may get damaged by a clumsy man using too much force to wrench the weapon open or slam it shut.

If, instead of the intelligently applied strength of a man, using the minimum force necessary, you substitute the smashing blow (several tons’ weight to the square inch) given by the force of gunpowder, to operate delicate mechanism, you can realize the difficulty the inventor has to contend with.

It is as if you have to invent a firearm which would operate if, after each shot, you threw it under a passing railway train.

CHAPTER XXIII

What the maker of the automatic pistol has to do is to restrain the sudden smashing blow of the explosion on his mechanism and have it operate gently. (See Plates 13 and 14.)

The safety of the shooter depends greatly on the breech of the pistol not being opened till after the force of the explosion is spent.

If the breech is opened before the force of the explosion is spent, it will drive the cartridge out like a bullet, and the pistol will in fact be shooting from both ends at the same time.

Now will be seen why a very light-charge rifle or pistol is easier to be made a practical automatic firearm.

With a very light charge, the explosive force is so light that, as long as it does not instantly blow the breech open (but retards it ever so slightly), there is no harm done.

Rifles and pistols have long been made to shoot light charges that do not need the breech securely locked during the discharge, and are perfectly safe to use.

The original automatic pistol operated as follows:

The discharge drives the mechanism back against a spring at the same time that it blows open the breech, which the recoil spring then closes, inserting a fresh cartridge. The spent cartridge is blown with some force sideways out of a slot at the side of the mechanism, so that it may not hit the shooter in the face.

In some makes of pistol, the cartridge is not blown out but merely dropped out.

With a suitable charge the breech-closing mechanism can be made heavy enough for its inertia to keep the breech closed sufficiently long after the discharge.

When it comes to such heavy charges that it is necessary to keep the breech closed till the force of the explosion is spent, the difficulty of making a safe automatic firearm begins.

With a military full-charge rifle this has hardly yet been arrived at, hence the delay in its being used for military purposes, but it seems as if the problem is on the point of being solved.

For the comparatively weak recoil of a pistol, this does not apply. There are several perfectly safe pistols in use, and there is no danger in using any of the well-known makes.

Some makes of automatic firearms, instead of using the recoil for operating the mechanism, have a small tube alongside the barrel, which communicates by a minute hole with the bore of the barrel near its muzzle.

The breech does not open till the bullet is just passing out of the barrel, past the hole into the tube, and therefore the expansion of the gas of the explosion loses its force.

A small fraction of this gas rushes through the hole into the tube and operates the mechanism.

This has been the principle I have always worked on in trying to solve the problem of an automatic firearm.

One system uses the recoil, tempered by a buffer, to modify its force.

The other consists in diverting enough gas from the big explosion to operate the mechanism gently.

It is conceivable that by this latter system it would be possible to convert the explosion of a siege cannon into a force just strong enough to break an egg, and that by two such divisions of the explosion, one would open the breech and the other close it, without the necessity of any anti-recoil mechanism at all on the principle of the slide valve of a locomotive steam engine. (My grandfather, Ross Winans, invented the locomotive slide valve, not Stevenson.)

I think I am right in saying that this system has not yet been applied to automatic pistols, and that they all operate on the recoil, driven back by a compressed spring.

A fault in every automatic pistol I have yet seen, is the difficulty of first loading it.

The cartridges are carried in a clip, which is inserted in the butt of the pistol and drops out on pressing a button. Most automatic pistols indicate when this magazine is empty and the pistol unloaded.

This is very good, but what I complain of is that, after the magazine is full, you have to bring the first cartridge into the barrel by hand, after the first shot the cartridges are fed into the barrel and the empty ones ejected, automatically.

When getting the first cartridge ready to fire in a revolver you accomplish it in cocking the pistol, and with a magazine rifle by working a bolt or lever.

But with an automatic pistol, if the hands are wet, cold, greasy, or weak (as a soldier with blood on his hands and weak from a wound), it is impossible to get the first cartridge into the barrel, or get the pistol ready to shoot.

The operation in automatic pistols begins by taking the pistol in both hands. (Compare with cocking the revolver with one hand.)

Then you hold the stock firmly with one hand, and grip the slippery barrel of the pistol with the other hand, and use considerable force to draw the barrel back against the strong compression spring.

Your only assistance to get a grip is a slight corrugation on the barrel, only wide enough for your thumb and forefinger to hold.

Imagine trying to pull hard with only your forefinger and thumb gripping a smooth and possibly slippery surface, with a cold, wet, or greasy hand.

Let any one grease the automatic pistol and his hand and see if he can perform this operation. Sandow, no doubt, could do it, but not the average man.

The magazine rifle is purposely made with a bolt like a door bolt, so that it can be operated easily under all conditions, but the automatic pistol, evidently to give it a neat external appearance, has no projection to take hold of to drive back the slide, which, besides, takes more strength than is required to operate the bolt of a magazine rifle.

The remedy is simple: have two small projections, one on each side of the corrugated grip on the barrel, so that the shooter can get two fingers one over each side of this grip and, holding the stock in one hand, draw back the slide with his other hand, with a perfect grip under all conditions, like bending a crossbow.

As to the shape and angle of the stock, inventors and shooters are at constant war.

The inventor is thinking of his mechanism; he makes his stock at the best angle, shape, and size to suit what he puts inside it. It is much easier to construct apparatus to feed cartridges into the barrel at right angles than at an acute angle.

Therefore, the inventor generally gives the shooter a stock unsuitable to do good shooting with.

The inventor should work in combination with the shooter. The shape of the pistol externally should first be decided on by the shooter, so as to be the best possible for shooting. In my opinion this should be the shape of the French duelling pistol of the Gastinne-Renette pattern. (Plates 2 and 9.)

The inventor should try to design his pistol to fit, as far as possible, into this external shape.

Some points, as the distance of the trigger from the finger, and the slope and form of the butt, cannot be departed from without injury to accurate shooting and quick handling of the pistol, and yet these are the very things inventors alter.

Other points the shooter may give way in, if such modifications are of vital importance from the inventor’s point of view.

The reverse procedure is, however, the rule. An inventor generally has no knowledge of shooting, or horses, or whatever else his invention applies to; he is merely a clever mechanic. He has “imagination” and theories. Generally, such theories are most grotesque and childish.

I will instance an invention relating to horse-shoes.

The inventor showed me a sort of bird-cage of iron and said it was a horse-shoe.

He informed me that shoeing horses as at present practised is wrong. “It is brutal to nail shoes onto horses’ feet. How would you like to have an iron shoe nailed on the sole of your bare foot?”

I tried to explain to him that the outer horn of a horse’s foot has no feeling, that a horse is hurt only when the farrier is clumsy and drives a nail into the sensitive inner tissues of the foot, but he was too far absorbed in his theories to listen to me.

He then went on to show me that his shoe needs no nailing on, that it has clamps, fastened by thumbscrews which clasp the horse’s foot and grip it by claws “just below where the hair grows,” to use his expression.

I explained to him that this (the coronet) is the most sensitive part of the horse’s foot, to press there would give him great pain and cause him to go lame, and finally his foot would die and drop off.

Also, that these clamps and thumbscrews would strike the horse on the opposite fetlock and throw it down, and the centrifugal force would cause the shoes to fly off when the horse was going.

Finally, that these shoes were hideously ugly and no horseman would care to be the laughing stock of everyone by taking his horse out with such things on.

The inventor merely said: “All you horsemen are the same. You merely follow each other without any imagination,” and he went out, to get the same reply from every horseman he met.

He was firmly convinced that people who have to do with horses all their lives are fools and never think of what is best for the horse, but it rests with men like himself who have “imagination” to show us horsemen how to shoe and handle horses.

CHAPTER XXIV

With my magazine rifle I got off five shots, making four hits, wasting much time with the loading.

With the automatic rifle there was not an instant wasted in the loading; the difficulty was in getting the shots to go anywhere near the deer—in fact, I could not hit the deer, except with the first shot.

At each shot the rifle tried to jump out of my hands, twisted itself round to the right and then suddenly twisted the other way. The tighter I gripped the more it wriggled about.

Instead of the sights coming down back to alignment, after the recoil, I found they jumped clean off the deer and I had to go hunting about to get my aim again.

Instead of, as with a well-balanced double rifle, the muzzle flying up at the first shot and dropping down into place for the second shot, there was no possibility of alignment without a fresh aim for each shot.

It was just as if you have a strong unruly child in your arms trying to set him down on a chair.

He wriggles from side to side, stiffens his back, and you cannot seat him on the chair.

This is just how the rifle acted. It wriggled and struggled and refused to let itself be aligned on the target.

The inventor also tried shooting it and missed even with his first shot. The fault lay in the way the recoil was taken up.

To make an automatic rifle which will shoot accurately in rapid shooting, the recoil must be straight back, not with a twist and wriggle from side to side.

When choosing an automatic pistol, shoot it and find out if it lets you align your sights afresh immediately after you have fired. If you find it cants over or tries to go home into its holster at each shot, and you have to alter this cant before you can fire again, do not buy it.

Get the gunmaker to instruct you thoroughly in the mechanism of any automatic you buy and especially what parts need special attention to prevent its jamming.

Jamming is the constant bugbear to fight against. The automatic pistol must always be kept in perfect working order and the parts properly cleaned and oiled.

The barrel in some is difficult to properly clean internally, unless taken apart, and it is difficult to re-assemble.

Unless all the parts work freely, a weak cartridge is apt to prevent the pistol closing properly.

When you have learnt the mechanism from the gunmaker you can begin practising shooting with the pistol.

The principal thing you have to remember is that, whereas a single-shot pistol, when you have taken out the cartridge, is unloaded and safe, and a revolver when you have emptied the cylinder is also unloaded and safe, when you have taken out the magazine with its cartridges from an automatic pistol, the pistol may still remain loaded.

With the automatic pistol, when you have drawn back the slide and thereby loaded a cartridge into the barrel, that cartridge remains in still when you withdraw the clip full of cartridges.

I give herewith a description of the Colt New Safety which obviates the danger of leaving a cartridge inadvertently in the automatic pistol.

“Figure 1 shows the pistol in cocked or firing position, magazine withdrawn and cartridge in barrel chamber.

“Figure 2 indicates position of the magazine when inserted in handle of the pistol, and position of firing mechanism when safety-disconnector is forced forward by the inserted magazine.

“When the magazine is removed (see Figure 1), the plunger acted upon by its spring forces the safety-disconnector to the rear. This movement forces the rear end of the connector (A) below the nose of the sear (B) so that should the trigger be pulled, the connection between trigger and sear being broken, that is, the rear end of the connector (A) being below the sear nose (B), the trigger cannot operate the sear, consequently no discharge of the piece can occur.

“When the magazine is inserted into the handle of the pistol (see Figure 2), the curved top of the forward portion of the magazine forces the safety-disconnector forward and permits the rear end of the connector (A) to rise in front of the sear nose (B) in the normal position for firing. A pull on the trigger causes the sear to turn upon its pivot so that the firing pin is released and strikes the cartridge.”

PLATE 7. COLT NEW SAFETY DISCONNECTOR AUTOMATIC PISTOL, .25

The firing mechanism consists of the trigger with its connector which releases the sear; the sear which releases the firing pin when the trigger is pulled; the firing pin (there is no pivoted hammer in this model), and the safety-disconnector with its plunger and spring. This disconnector is part of the calibre .25 only.

To unload an automatic pistol, withdraw the clip of cartridges and then draw back the slide and extract the cartridge remaining in the barrel.

Till this latter is done the pistol is still loaded and dangerous.

The automatic pistol is a very delicate instrument and apt to go wrong at the most critical time.

The revolver used to be grumbled at, but (if it did not fit too tightly) even when it jammed, it could be cocked and worked by using extra strength, opened by striking it over the thigh, etc.

But an automatic cannot be forced, it must be operated with knowledge of exactly just what has gone wrong.

Any one taking up automatic-pistol shooting seriously should go to a gunmaker and learn all about its mechanism so that he will know what is wrong when the pistol refuses to operate.

Each make of automatic varies, so I cannot give elaborate instructions as to handling. Each make may have some point where it is simpler and superior to others though in other respects it may be inferior.

In the following remarks I mention what I consider best from a shooting, not a mechanical, point of view. The latter is undergoing constant change, and the automatic pistol has not yet arrived at a standard type.

There are some points in which even the best automatic is at present imperfect, and some in which it is dangerous to spectators—for instance, the very strong ejection of the fired cartridge in some makes, which may destroy the eyes of persons standing near enough to be hit by the spent cartridges as they are ejected.

I know of an automatic rifle which ejects its spent cartridges with great force, and another which merely lifts them out, as if they were spilt over the edge of the ejector slot, no force being used. This is the way ejecting should be done.

Such ejection would be very useful on an automatic pistol; now, if near a man shooting them, they, even the best, hit one quite hard with the spent cartridges.

This gentle ejection is a patent and is done by a very weak spring in the extractor which tips the cartridge out at the right moment; the ejection is not caused by the back blast of the powder, or the drive forward of the carrier, as in other automatics.

CHAPTER XXV

See how quickly you can draw, shoot, and return to holster “all safe.”

The idea is to make the movement of drawing, taking off the safety, firing, returning the safety, and putting back in holster, all one continuous movement, and as nearly instantaneous as possible.

The safety should be off as the pistol gets clear of the holster; similarly the safety should be on again the instant the shot is fired.

If you are using a pistol having the additional safety squeeze in stock, there is far less danger in this practice, as this pistol squeeze only occurs as the trigger is pressed.

This is the only sort of practice I know of where an automatic pistol is safer than a revolver.

In drawing a revolver, if it is a single-action one, there is danger of its being fired by accident in cocking, and especially in putting back to half cock, if only one hand is available to do this.

With an automatic the safety can be put on or off without danger of an accidental explosion, and the Regulation U. S. .45 Army Colt cannot be fired till the grip is squeezed as well.

A musician has an advantage in this practice, as he uses his fingers and thumbs independently of each other.

In practising this exercise with a .45 Colt U. S. Army Automatic, be sure to draw the pistol without any pressure on the safety at back of stock, only push the thumb safety and put the pressure on the other release only as you fire.

You can practise this with an empty pistol with a pad of rubber to take the blow of the falling hammer so as not to break the mainspring. As you draw, push the safety off with the thumb, pulling the pistol out with the fingers against the front of the grip, so as not to touch the back safety lever, and squeeze that with your palm in firing.

Keep in mind that the pistol is safe so long as you do not press the palm of your hand against it, even when the slide safety is off.

In all this practice remember speed is the one object, as long as you can hit the figure that is all that is necessary. To hit the enemy first is the all important thing, to hit him after he has hit you, on account of wasting time in taking a good aim, is a fatal mistake.

For extreme speed you can fire the moment the pistol is in the direction of the target even before you have raised your arm, continuing the raising of the arm as you fire and getting the next shot in as an aimed one.

Even if the first shot is a miss it disconcerts the opponent and may prevent his getting in a shot on you before you have time to fire the second shot.

CHAPTER XXVI

For hitting small objects with extreme accuracy at short range for exhibition purposes, I find the larger the bullet, providing it is propelled by a small charge which has no recoil, the easier to make hits with.

The big bullet cuts into say the ace of hearts, where a smaller bullet would just miss it.

Six well-placed shots with a .44 French duelling pistol shot at five yards would make one hole, whereas six .22 bullets hitting exactly the same centres would make six distinct holes, close together, but would not be the sensational “all the shots in one hole” like the former score, which audiences talk about afterwards.

Nowadays, with the wax bullets driven by fulminate out of a duelling pistol, shooting off the heads of assistants can be done with very little risk except to the eyes, whereas with a leaden bullet a bad shot means the death of the assistant unless provided with a steel skull cap under a wig.

In spite of the advantage of the big bullet, most stage shooters use the .22 calibre pistol.

It may be that they have some contract with the makers to use only their make of pistol, or it is a tradition because Chevalier Ira Paine used it, but why any one with a free hand uses it in preference to a .44 I do not understand.

I cannot do as good shooting with a .22 as with the larger calibres, and I have, I think, specimens of all makes of pistols and have shot them all.

I was a pupil of Chevalier Ira Paine, who was an incomparably better shot than any of us at stationary targets, and unique in that I never saw him make a bad shot, and he has won (which no other man has succeeded in doing) both the Duelling Pistol and the Revolver Grand Medal at Gastinne-Renette’s Gallery in Paris. Both are better scores than any ever made before or since. There is also a seven-shot score with all the bullets into a shamrock-shaped hole at sixteen metres, made by Ira Paine, framed at Gastinne-Renette’s.

He was shooting for the Grand Medal d’Or when he made this seven-shot score. They were such a phenomenal group that he was asked not to continue on that target for fear of spoiling it.

As he shot so extremely well with the duelling pistol, and as I know no score of his with the .22 to equal his work with the duelling pistol, I do not understand why he did not use the latter for his stage work.

One of his most sensational feats was for his assistant to hold a playing card, the three of hearts, horizontally. Paine hit the outside pip first, then the middle one, and finally the one next the fingers, which were about a third of an inch from it.

This, in artificial light and reserving the most dangerous shot for the last, required nerve, and he did this the night before he died, when he knew his case was hopeless.

As I said, he was the only man I ever saw who did what heroes of novels do. That is, he never missed or made a bad shot during all the years I saw him shoot.