DISAPPEARING TARGET

This target, which has the two-inch bull’s-eye, like the twenty yards stationary target, appears and disappears at intervals of three seconds—three seconds in sight and three seconds invisible—and is shot at from a distance of twenty yards.

The rules forbid the pistol being raised from the firing-table before the target appears; and it must be lowered to the table after each shot.

Shooting in this competition is the groundwork of all the competitions other than at stationary targets; so I shall go very fully into the way of becoming proficient at this, as the other competitions should then come comparatively easy.

In order to do the best possible work, you ought for practice to have an exact copy of the disappearing mechanism used at Bisley; and also (and this is very important), the range should orientate as at Bisley and should have the background of the same colour.

At Bisley, at one time in the afternoon the shooting is against the setting sun; at which time the wise shot takes a rest and lets others waste their entries, as it is impossible to make good shooting under these circumstances. By having the points of the compass the same as at Bisley, you will soon find out which sort of light suits you best, and at what hour of the day it comes. Personally, I find the light from 9 to about 11 A.M. (during which time it is more or less over one’s left shoulder) the best for shooting in July. As the sun comes round, you will find that the point to aim at varies gradually as the light strikes the front sight more or less on the side.

Variations in elevation, owing to varying intensities of sunlight, can also be remedied by having several pairs of spectacles with plain glass (unless, of course, you need optical glasses to see clearly with), of different tints of smoke or yellow colour. You can then, when you find a certain strength of light best for your shooting, keep to this strength artificially, whatever the real light may be, putting on glasses of a shade sufficient to modify the light as required. The glasses should have round, and not oval, frames, and these should be a good two inches in diameter, so that the rims do not interfere with your view. Large round goggles, with plain window-glass, are a great protection against particles of burnt-powder, especially in a head wind; and after a hard morning’s shooting, the surface of the glass will be found covered with adhesive black spots. It is as well to have one pair of plain white glass (i. e., ordinary window-glass), and to wear either these or one of the smoked or yellow pairs whenever shooting, or even looking on at shooting, as the powder blowing back constantly into the eyes irritates them; and a sudden dab in the eye may even spoil a score by making one flinch at a critical moment. I have known a man incapacitated from shooting for several days through getting his eyes inflamed from particles of powder and smoke blowing in his face in a head wind, and from the irritating fumes of the nitro-powders; and the look of many competitors’ eyes towards the end of the shooting shows how it affects them. A solution of boracic acid and rose-water (of course you must get a chemist to dispense the right quantities) is a very good thing to bathe the eyes with during and after a hard day’s shooting, and it makes the eyes feel very comfortable the next day.

Also, it is important to protect the ear-drums from the constant banging, else you get your ears “singing” and finally become more or less deaf. A pistol is worse than a rifle or gun in this respect, owing to the shortness of the barrel and the consequent proximity of the concussion to the ear. The left ear is more apt to suffer than the right, which is more sheltered by the arm, and a neighbour’s shot, for which the ear is unprepared, affects it more than one’s own. This is particularly noticeable if your neighbour stands slightly behind you. Some use cotton-wool in the ears. I find it apt to mix with the natural wax in the ears, a small amount of the cotton-wool remaining behind each time the wool is removed; and, what is more, it does not sufficiently deaden the sound. For practising in private, a pair of small down pillows tied over the ears deaden the sound best, or a racing motorist’s skull cap with ear shields but both are very hot in warm weather and cannot be worn in public. “Elliot’s Perfect Ear Protectors” are the best I have yet found; these are made in the United States and sold in England by Gieve Mathews & Seagrove, The Hard, Portsmouth. The concussion of pistols, bad at all times, is of course aggravated by the use of the heavy military ammunition obligatory at Bisley.

If you cannot get a copy of the Bisley disappearing-target mechanism, the next best thing is to have the target hinge over and be brought up again by some mechanical means. If this is not practicable, a stationary target may be made to answer, as I shall presently show.

My reason for wanting the actual Bisley arrangement is because that comes up with a jerk (some of the men operating it are very jerky), and the target “wobbles” for a fraction of a second, both just as it gets upright and just before it disappears, and this is apt to disconcert any one not used to it.

Next, get a metronome, with bell attachment. Set it to beat half-seconds (be very particular to get the time absolutely correct), and set the bell to ring at every sixth beat. You have now intervals of three seconds marked with a “ring” at the end of each. Count the beats to yourself when the metronome is working: “One, two, three, four, five, six”; “one, two, three,” etc.

Get your man to work the lever which actuates the target (the lever in every case being a yard or two behind you, so that there is no danger of shooting the man or of burning his eyes with the side flash from the chambers of the revolver). Let him, at the stroke of the bell, bring up the target sharply, so that it comes with a bang, and lower it at the next ring in the same way, and keep it down till the next ring, then jerk it up, and so on; jerking it as roughly as the mechanism will allow.

If you have to practise on a stationary target, pretend to yourself that it disappears at each alternate ring of the metronome. The firing-point must be like the Bisley one; it will not do to stand with the revolver hanging at your side; it must rest on a ledge the same height as at Bisley, or else your practice will be useless for Bisley, as quite a different way of working the muscles and resting them between shots is in use in the two styles of shooting, and it takes less time to “come up” from a ledge than when the arm is hanging by the side. Owing to the slope of the ground at Bisley, some of the ledges are higher than others; choose the one that suits you best, and have your practice ledge that height; and when shooting at Bisley, do so from the ledge you have previously chosen.

Stand squarely, well behind this ledge. You will only get disqualified if you get into the way of resting the lower part of your body against the ledge; or even if you stand close to it and your coat happens to hang in front; or if you happen to have a “corporation” some competitor may have you disqualified as resting against the ledge.

The position of the legs and body is as for the twenty-yards stationary target, except that the rod which works the target is best kept between the feet, and these have to be a little wider apart. (N.B. If you are a short man, it is better to stand to one side of the rod.)

Stretch your arm out its full length, and, holding the pistol with the sights uppermost, rest the lower side of the barrel lightly against the ledge. The part of the barrel adjacent to the chamber is the part to rest on the ledge, as it is less likely to slip. There is a notch between the barrel and lower part of the frame of the revolver, and when this is resting on the edge of the table, and the arm is straight, then you are standing at the right distance from the table.

If you have to stretch too much or to lean forward, move slightly closer until you are comfortable; if your arm is bent, move backward till it comes straight. (All this is done with an empty revolver.)

Now stand in this position, watching the target go up and down, and counting all the while, “one, two, three,” etc., to yourself, till you get the rhythm of the thing. Keep your eyes all the time fixed on the bull’s-eye when it is vertical to you; do not follow it down with your eyes, but keep a mental picture of it, while it is away, on the background. You will gradually be able to know exactly where it will be, and when it will be there, and you will then be able to aim at the imaginary spot; so that when the target appears the sights will not have to be shifted to the bull’s-eye, but the bull’s-eye will come to the sights.

Now, cock the pistol, of course using only your right thumb, and not shifting your left hand, body, or pistol in the slightest.

(If you cannot do this neatly, cock the pistol first, and then “set” yourself at the ledge.)

Now, at the word “one,” slowly (i. e., without hurry or jerk) bring your arm up, quite straight, till the revolver is level with your eye, and you are looking through the sights.

If you have been following the above directions carefully, you will find you are aiming at the bottom edge of the bull’s-eye, without having had to shift your hand or to align the sights; the sights and also the target have, in fact, “come up” to your eye, not your eye to them. The speed with which you raise your arm should bring the sights touching the bottom edge of the “bull” at the word “two”; but it is better, at first, to be slower: as long as you get the sights touching the “bull” before it disappears, it will do—for the present. At the word “six,” lower the pistol to the table, but keep your eyes on the imaginary spot at which the “bull” disappeared. Keep the pistol down while you count six, and then raise it as before. After a few minutes of this drill, begin to squeeze the trigger slightly while the pistol is resting against the ledge. With practice you will be able to regulate the squeeze so that it will require only half a pound more pressure to fire the pistol. Then as you lift the pistol, gradually tighten the squeeze, and keep gradually tightening it, never diminishing the pressure, but not increasing it if your aim is getting wrong, and beginning to increase it again as you correct your aim. If you are increasing the squeeze properly, you will find, just as your aim is perfect, and a fraction of time before the word “six,” the hammer will have fallen and you will not have jerked or moved off your aim. With an automatic pistol there is no need to cock it after the first shot, but with a revolver the instant the hammer has fallen, cock quietly with your right thumb, and lower your pistol to the table as before. In all cocking, I mean it to be understood that it must be done with one movement of the right thumb, the finger well clear of the trigger so as not to break or wear the sear-notch, and the left arm, left hand, and body not moved in any way, as already illustrated. After you have done this a few times, and have confidence, you may load several chambers of the revolver, having exploded, or empty, cartridges in the other chambers, so as not to injure the nose of the hammer or the mainspring. The cartridges, loaded and unloaded, should be put in in irregular order, and the barrel spun round, so that you do not know when you have a loaded one to fire.

Now, go through the same drill as before; most likely, if the first cartridge is an empty one, you will be surprised to find you jerked it off instead of squeezing, owing to fear of the recoil; but if this is so, expecting your next shot to be also an empty cartridge, you will give a nice, smooth, gradual “let-off,” with the result that you will get a “bull,” or close to it. The following shot, in consequence of your being too eager, will almost certainly be a very wild one, most likely below the target. This is caused by jerking the trigger, which results in bobbing the muzzle down. It is curious that, contrary to the usual idea that in firing quickly with a pistol one is prone to “shoot over,” the exact reverse is the case, and that snatching at the trigger generally gives a low left shot. I have my pistols for rapid-firing competitions sighted to shoot higher than the others, to counteract this.

After a little of this sort of practice, you can get to loading all the chambers of a revolver. Now the great thing is “time.” Time and shoot like a machine. At Bisley one sees men fire one shot directly the target appears; the next too late—after the target has begun to go down; and whenever a shot goes wide, they dance about, stamp, or swear, and shift their position constantly, half raise the pistol and lower it again, and more antics follow in the same fashion. A man who shoots in this style may as well go home, for all the prizes he will win. I never trouble to look at his target; seeing his “form” tells me what his target must look like.

By your constant practice with the metronome, you ought to get the “time” so impressed on your mind that you could work the target at the proper intervals without any metronome to indicate the time. Your hand “comes up” simultaneously with the target; you fire just before it disappears (some of my highest possibles were made with the target just on the “wobble” of disappearing as I fired each shot); every instant must be utilized for the aim, and there must be no hurry or flurry. In fact, you become a “workman.”

Do not get into the trick of “coming up” too soon before the target appears. There is nothing to be gained by it, and you might be disqualified. If a shot goes wrong or there is a misfire (you are allowed another shot for a misfire), keep on just as though nothing had happened; pay no attention to the number of shots you have fired in the score, or how many more you have to “go.” I have often started to “come up” again for a shot, not knowing that my sixth had already “gone,” so mechanical had my shooting become.

In practice, never fire if you feel you are “off” the “bull”; better “come down” with the target, without shooting, and fire the next time the target “comes up.” In this way you will perhaps “come up” ten times for your six shots; but you will have good shots for those that you have fired, and will be encouraged much more and get better practice than by firing a lot of wild shots, which as you fired, you knew were badly aimed.

At Bisley, I find this the easiest competition of any, more so, if there is no wind, than the stationary twenty-yards target, but one can only keep it up for a short time. One gradually gets into the swing of it, till one can “throw” each shot right into the “bull’s” centre. This keeps up for a few entries; as one’s arm tires, one begins to lose the absolute precision. It is then useless to continue shooting and it is time to take a rest.

You need a large front sight and open “U,” so as to get your aim quickly. My favourite revolver has very coarse sights,—a front sight which, in aiming, seems nearly as large as the “bull.”

I like the sun as much behind me as possible for this and any other quick-firing or moving-object competition, as you can then at once see the hit on the target and can correct it, if necessary, at the next shot. At a stationary target, this seeing the hit at once does not matter, as you have plenty of time to locate your shot with your telescope.

In any competition in which unlimited entries are allowed, it is best to give up shooting an entry at your first bad shot and to start a fresh entry instead of shooting out the full six shots. Many men say, “It is better to keep on, as it is practice.” In my experience I find that everyone has strings of better shots than his average and these may commence at any time. If you have a three, for instance, as your second shot of a score, you may have four sevens to finish up with; then your next score may begin with two sevens and then a two. There are thus two scores spoilt, whereas, if you had retired at the shot counting three in your first score, and started another score, you would have had a string of six sevens in your second score, making a highest possible score of forty-two. I have so often seen this sort of thing happen to others (though I have never allowed it to happen to myself) that I am sure it is false economy at Bisley, except in the limited-entry series, not to stop and begin afresh the moment you get a shot out of the bull.

Another thing men do is to keep shooting pool to “get practice,” as they call it, till they shoot themselves out and make bad scores in competition. The place to practise is at home; there is no economy in paying half-a-crown for every six shots at Bisley, when you can shoot as much as you like at home for nothing. The rapid-firing and fifty-yards competitions being more difficult, you may allow yourself one or two sixes in a score before beginning again; but stop at the first shot scoring less than six points.

If possible, choose a time when there is no one shooting at the target next you; as, even if you do not find yourself “letting loose” at the sound of his firing,—he most likely, timing himself all wrong,—the smoke from his shots may drift across you, and spoil your view of the target.

Do not shoot whilst a man is “arranging his things,” or “bringing up his target” next you; it will distract your attention.

Shoot one entry in each series of competitions,—disappearing, rapid-firing, etc.,—and then take the competition in which you have done worst (comparatively worst, should be said, as thirty-six in the rapid-firing is equal to forty-one at the stationary twenty-yards) and beat that score. The moment you have beaten that sufficiently for one of your scores in another series to be the worst, go at that one; and so keep pushing the worst along. This gives you a better aggregate than any other system, and prizes are given for aggregates.Be sure to look through your barrel after each entry, and wipe it out frequently. Quick shooting, especially in hot, dry weather, cakes and leads the barrel and spoils accuracy. If the pistol sticks or grates, however slightly, it is apt to spoil one’s “time.” At Bisley, you must not “wipe out” during the shots of an entry. Where, however, there is no rule against it, “wipe out” after every shot at stationary targets, and use only one of the chambers if using a revolver. When you open the revolver after each entry, look carefully to see if the caps were struck in the centre, especially if you have made a bad shot. Should they be hit on the side, clean the revolver; if this still continues, take another. It is useless to keep on while this is happening.

Be very careful to see that you are using your own ammunition, the proper sort for each particular pistol, and not taking some other that happens to be lying about. Also be very particular to have your pistol passed, the trigger-pull tested, and ammunition examined before shooting, by the official appointed for the purpose by the National Rifle Association, whose office is at the firing-point. This should be done every day, morning and afternoon,—as the trigger-pull may have altered,—so that there shall be no chance of disqualification after a good score is made.Although it is, as a rule, best to finish your shooting at one class of competition, either moving or stationary, the change from one to the other gives a rest if you find yourself getting tired or discouraged. Moreover, as above explained, you secure a better “aggregate” by shifting from one series to another, though such changing would easily confuse a beginner. For the beginner, therefore, it may be as well to study one particular competition and compete in it only at Bisley the first year. This will probably place him high in the prize-list, and encourage further perseverance another year.