GRIP

There is a great variety of opinions as to the shape and size a pistol stock should have so as to give the best grip.

As I have already mentioned, the grip which suits me best is that on the French duelling pistol. But what suits one man may not necessarily suit another.

A smooth, mother-of-pearl stock is very slippery to me, but some think this gives the ideal grip.

Some men have fat flabby perspiring hands, others have cold damp hands, both of these seem to be able to hold a mother-of-pearl grip comfortably, but they do not suit a man who has dry warm hands.

In the revolver days I knew several men who could not grip the Smith & Wesson Russian model revolver comfortably. They said the stock was too small for them. Even the Colt stock, according to them, was too small. They, in consequence, induced the makers to supply Colt revolvers to suit “The English market” with enormously big stocks.Now these very men who found the normal stocks too small did not have abnormally large hands. It was that they held their pistols with much too rigid a grip.

Some men have special stocks made so that they “can get a firm grip.”

Some of them even go to the length of putting India rubber tennis racket grips over the pistol stocks. I have tried shooting one of their pistols so ornamented (?) and found it was like trying to shoot with a big potato held in my fist.

Others, in order to obtain this “firm grip,” smear the stock of their pistol over with wet modelling clay, take a grip of it and then have a plaster cast made of their finger prints in this clay and get a stock cast from this. When they hold this monstrosity with their fingers embedded in it, they claim to have a perfect hold.

The idea they are working for is an entirely wrong one. The pistol should be held as a fencing foil, lying in the palm of the hand. Because the left hand gets burnt when many shots are fired in rapid succession from a rifle or gun, a hand guard was invented which slips over to the fore end of the gun and protects the left hand from contact with the hot barrels.

It was also claimed that, having to hold this guard made the shooter always hold his hand in the same place, and that this was a great advantage.

The rigid grip on a fixed spot is, as a matter of fact, a disadvantage. It caused me to give up this hand guard and substitute an asbestos glove for the left hand.

In game shooting with a rifle, or gun, one shifts the left hand constantly, according to the angle of the rifle or gun to your shoulder. For a high shot the left hand is thrust forward, for a low shot the hand drawn back.

To sit down and shoot off the knees, the left hand is much further back on the rifle than if you stand up to shoot off hand.

If you find yourself shooting under, you shift the left hand forward for the next shot so as to shoot higher.

You cannot do all these niceties (which make all the difference between first class shooting, and merely good shooting) if your left hand is tied to one place. The same applies to pistol shooting.

The pistol should not be held in a “firm grip” as these inventors of potato-shaped stocks imagine.

A fencer does not keep a “firm grip,” nor does a shotgun man.

All have their weapons lying in the palms of the hands loosely and easily, the grip of the foil is only tightened momentarily for parrying or thrusting and the game shot handles a rifle or shotgun as lightly as a woman nursing a baby.

A pistol stock which has all the fingers embedded in it stops all wrist play. It may answer for a long aim at a stationery target but for any rapid shooting it is impossible.How can a man draw and shoot in one movement if he has to fit his fingers first into each hollow excavated in the stock? He might as well try to pull on a glove each time before he draws his pistol.

If he gets the hold the least wrong he will miss and probably also get his hand cut.

How can a man cock or slip on the safety bolt if he first has to take his thumb out of the “dug out” in which it has taken refuge? He will most likely fumble the whole thing and drop the pistol.

Very many pistol inventions are the result of a man who, shooting for the first time, discovers difficulties merely due to his own clumsiness and inexperience, and instead of consulting a pistol shot, invents something to overcome these imaginary difficulties.

I have actually seen such an inventor shooting in a competition with an iron rod up his sleeve attached to his pistol “to keep his arm steady.”

An inventor came to me with something he said would stop all runaway horses, and was very angry with me because I would not try it on one of mine, although I told him mine were properly broken horses, not runaways.

The invention consisted of two India rubber bags which, un-inflated, were to be put inside the nostrils of the horse.

If there was any difficulty in stopping the horse, a pair of bellows was worked, attached to a rubber tube connecting these bags to the driver.This inflated the bags, and the horse, according to the inventor, “at once comes to a standstill.”

I told the inventor that a horse thus choked would throw himself about, and cause a fearful smash before he died. He probably thought, “what lack of imagination” horsemen have.

A wooden or vulcanite stock with a small clean-cut file pattern so as to give a non-slip hold is good.

A too small grip has the fault of driving the nails into the ball of the thumb; it should be just thick enough to avoid this, any thicker would be clumsy.

An ivory stock is heavy, but this may be an advantage if there is weight needed in the stock to counterbalance the barrel, otherwise ivory gives a good grip, if roughed.

The depth of the roughing depends on the tenderness of the hand of the shooter.

A roughing which would make one man’s hand sore is hardly enough of a non-slip hold for a man whose skin is harder.

Sometimes screw heads and pins are not quite flush with the stock and may chafe the hand.

They and any roughness left on screw heads by the unskilful use of the screw driver should be filed down smooth.

A sore hand which gets hurt at each shot is very detrimental to good shooting and the shooter is constantly trying to get a fresh grip in order to save his hand.Automatic pistols have almost universally a projection over the hand between the thumb and the trigger finger for the slide to work on.

This turns the stock into a “saw handle” which used to be common on English duelling pistols.

I have tried such a stock with very good results on a revolver, but it is in the way of one-handed cocking.

An objection to a “saw handle” is that it compels the grip to be always taken in the same place, and as I said before, the grip should be movable higher or lower, according as you find you are shooting too low or too high.

A little rosin ground fine and rubbed on the stock and hand gives a good non-slip grip if the stock is greasy or slippery.

Do not shoot with gloves on. It destroys the sensitiveness of the hand, especially the trigger finger. I am always afraid of being shot by accident when a man shooting next me wears gloves, especially the slippery so-called “chamois skin” ones.