LEARNING TO SHOOT

Having a pistol and ammunition, the next thing is to find a place to shoot in with safety and comfort.

The usual procedure is as follows:

A says “I want to learn pistol shooting.”

“I know a place,” says B.

They go off and find a shooting gallery.

When they get there they go down a dark staircase, into a long, dark cellar with a glimmer of light at the firing point and a glimmer of light at the far end, illuminating a series of minute white cards with a microscopic black dot on each. Men lie down on mats, to which they have to grope their way, shooting miniature rifles at these minute spots.

Why, when a man wants to learn to shoot, has he to go into a coal cellar and ruin his eyesight seeing, as one shooter complained, “three front sights and two back ones”?

To shoot one needs all the daylight possible.

One sees fine big public buildings, and is told “They have a Shooting Range for their employees, is it not nice of them?”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.