COMPETITIONS

The duelling clubs at Gastinne-Renettes’ have very practical and interesting competitions.

These clubs exist for duelling practice, there is no shooting with deliberate aim to make highest possible scores, all is conducted on actual duelling lines.

The word duel means single combat, so all these competitions are conducted in pairs, the winners again competing in pairs and so on till finally only one remains, as in cock-fighting.

Each participant in such a pool, when putting down his name, pays a nominal sum which goes to provide a medal for the winner.

In order that each competitor shall compete against each other competitor, there are printed scoring-cards on the lines of longitude and latitude in maps, so that by running the finger down the list of names and then at right angles down the spaces for results, it can instantly be seen when any particular pair must compete and at which target each will stand.

Each competitor alternately stands to the right or to the left of whoever is his opponent.Only the pistols supplied by the range are allowed to be used, and these are given so that each shooter uses each pistol in turn and as all are purposely varied as to trigger-pull it requires a really good shot to win. He never knows if he is going to have a light or heavy trigger-pull.

This is the chief difficulty in these competitions, as also in actual duels. When a pair of competitors are each facing a separate man target, the director of the combat gives the word “Attention, feu, un, deux, trois.”

If they both hit anywhere on the figure, the one who fired first is the winner of that pair.

It is usual to have a timer, to decide who fired first.

The director cannot fulfil both offices effectually.

After all have fired in pairs, each with each of the other competitors, the totals are added up and the one who has won the most combats is the winner of the medal.

If two or more have an equal score then these again shoot against each other to decide the winner of the medal.

It is not good scoring but quick hitting which wins.

A good hit counts no more than a bad one; a hit in faster time than the other shot, wins.

Winners are not the same men who win at deliberate shooting. Target shots seldom win, it is the lightning quick shot who wins, even if he cannot hit a smaller target than one eighteen inches broad by five feet high.The whole art of this shooting is to be able to keep from missing by more than three inches either side of your aim, not caring what your trigger-pull is, or how it varies for each shot.

As to elevation, that needs no attention; you cannot miss over or under a five-foot target.

Bring up at top speed putting all the attention on not jerking to the side should your trigger-pull happen to be one of the heavy ones; aim slightly more to the right than the actual centre of the figure to allow for an occasional pull to the left with an extra heavy trigger-pull.

It is the very hard pulling pistols which give almost all the misses.

Men in constant practice in such competitions are in the best training for a duel or for self-protection.

With Clubs which use the Devilliers bullet the competitions are conducted on exactly similar lines, except that the competitors fire at each other instead of at iron targets.

Theoretically this is even better practice. It gets a man used to seeing his adversary actually before him and being able to study his movements and note if he is active, and try to be a shade the quicker of the two.

The inaccuracy of the Devilliers bullet as compared to the lead bullet (with a powder charge) is a great disadvantage.

You feel that there is an element of fluke in the shooting. You may make a very good shot and the bullet being too soft or the barrel too hot that bullet does not take the rifling properly and gives you an unmerited miss.

Seeing your adversary raise his arm as you do yours and trying to anticipate his let-off by hitting him before he can hit you, is the great advantage of the Devilliers bullet as training for a duel.

In snapping practice with an empty pistol, it is well to practice facing your reflection in a mirror to get used to the adversary’s arm rising.

When first trying it this necessity to get used to anticipating your adversary’s movements is very apparent, a man who can shoot very quickly and coolly at an iron target when standing side by side with his opponent does not see the other man, he is thinking only of time.

When facing his opponent and shooting at him he watches his opponent’s hand and tries to time him, that, is to say fire just before the moment his adversary’s arm is absolutely level to shoot, just as you time a pigeon out of a trap for when he is well clear and yet before he can make his dart.

A well-known pigeon shot said, “I do not understand all this talk about easy and difficult birds, all birds are easy if you time them right.”

The same with duelling, if you take your opponent just before he can get his swing on to you he is properly “timed” and “an easy bird.”