The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It Part 22

I find they are not so active in their movements, especially if they have to turn round suddenly to shoot, but at the same time they had more confidence in their ability to shoot.

Who has not seen (to go to the extreme case) when a large dose of alcohol has been swallowed and a man is "under the influence of liquor" that the "patient" is ready to fight all comers, although he cannot stand on his legs.

As Professor Kraeplin says, "the subject experimented on cannot judge--he thinks alcohol makes him shoot better although the actual facts are the other way about."

At the Olympic Games which take place each four years, the members of the United States Rifle and Revolver Teams which compete are water-drinkers and non-smokers, and they are practically unbeaten to date.

Major Smith W. Brookhart of the Ordnance Department, United States National Guard, writing in _Arms and the Man_, May 4, 1918, says: "Civilization has advanced so much in the past decade, that it is now almost superfluous to write a caution against the use of stimulants.

Every rifleman will admit that alcohol is an enemy. Total abstinence, _bone dry_, is the only safe rule. Tobacco or any other stimulants should also be avoided. They may not be so fatal as alcohol, but they all tend in the wrong direction. The man who wants to climb into the champions.h.i.+p cla.s.s and stay there must be a normal man. The proper att.i.tude of mind will give every man more pleasure in conquering a habit than in submitting to it. To win over the smoking habit is an achievement of which to be proud and it improves the scores."

Those who make a moderate use of alcohol and tobacco are gradually reduced as to the quant.i.ty they use some weeks or even months before the actual Games, until all the members of the teams are non-smokers and water-drinkers.

There is this to be said of the smoker, as long as you do not try to prevent his stifling you with his smoke he does not pester you to imitate his example like a drinker does.

He merely pityingly informs you that "you do not know what you have missed."

As the "joy" missed consists of chronic sore throat, palpitating heart, and shaky nerves, I cannot see that much is missed by the non-smoker.

The invariable answer to the question "what pleasure do you find in smoking" is "it soothes the nerves."

Healthy normal nerves need no soothing.

When an automatic function of the body is normal and healthy, it does not indicate its presence.

A man does not feel his heart when it is healthy, only when it is diseased.

In the same way a man who has not injured his nerves by nicotine or alcohol does not know that he has any nerves, but on the other hand, nerves being destroyed by narcotics fight back, and make their agony known.

A man would fight against his headache being "soothed" by being clubbed over the head.

As well might one say a man half insensible from concussion needs "soothing" by being knocked completely out. If this soothing of the nerves is persisted in, a man sinks lower mentally than an animal.

A man in the last stage of nicotine poisoning, when told by his doctor, "you must either give up smoking or you will die" answered "then I prefer to die."

What a glorious death! How true the dictum of Sir Oliver Lodge that the supreme outcome of 500,000 years of effort by the Universe has been, man!

The following appeared in the _Daily Mail_ of September 25, 1917. It shows how men risk not only their own lives but hundreds of other lives rather than give up smoking. What a blessing if Dr. Furlong's suggestion of nicotine tablets is adopted.

We non-smokers will no longer have to walk the streets, eat our meals, sit in theatres, and travel in railway trains breathing an atmosphere of tobacco, and burnt paper smoke.

Sh.e.l.lWORKERS' CRAVING TO SMOKE.

_To the Editor of the Daily Mail_:

SIR: As some men in munition factories will run the risk of smoking in spite of their liability to fines and as others, even if they do not smoke during working hours, carry matches in their pockets, it is necessary to consider what is best to be done to prevent explosions.

I believe that if tablets of nicotine were manufactured, each one representing the drug value of say one cigarette, they would const.i.tute a real safeguard against such accidents. One or two of these tablets would remove the craving for a smoke and check the irritability caused by the want of it.

I do not wish to convey that nicotine tablets would ever take the place of smoking, but they would have the advantage of safety, and no disadvantage that I know of except that they are a little slower in action.

Early in the war I advocated the introduction of these tablets for use in special circ.u.mstances, but unfortunately up to the present the idea has not been utilized.

WM. VERNER FURLONG, M.D.

16, Pembroke Road, Dublin.

The smoker does not see the selfishness of his behaviour. He looks on the non-smoker as selfish if he protests against being nauseated.

The nicotine tablets will enable the taker to poison himself without also poisoning others.

CHAPTER XXIX

CLEANING AND CARE OF THE PISTOL

In the black powder days cleaning was, comparatively, a simple matter.

Now, with the smokeless powders, especially cordite, incessant care has to be taken to avoid the pistol spoiling by corrosion, pitting, and rust.

Even if you have cleaned the bore most carefully after using--the next morning you may find it in an awful state.

The only remedy is to go over the pistol at intervals, after use, and even when it appears perfectly right it should be looked after every few days, to make sure.

Practice with a single-shot pistol entails less time spent in cleaning; if you shoot frequently with an automatic pistol it will keep you busy all your time taking it to pieces and looking after it.

A single-shot pistol is easy to clean. There is only the inside of the barrel to look to, and it is easily got at without taking it to pieces; whereas the moving parts of an automatic all need seeing to. The big bore duelling pistol is much easier kept clean than a .22 bore.

A man practising with an automatic, unless he is very enthusiastic, soon gets tired of the labour and the time it takes to keep it in working order.

I shot with an automatic which had been at the front in the war over two years. It shot extremely well, the owner having taken great care of it during all its rough experiences, but it constantly failed to completely close.

It did not actually jam, but what came to the same thing, it occasionally did not quite close and could not be fired unless it had been closed by hand.

This shows that in the actual work of war there is a tendency for an automatic pistol to become weak in the closing spring, and there ought to be some simple device for increasing the tension of the spring, when necessary.

There may have been some such device on the pistol in question, which its owner and I did not discover.

To really know your automatic pistol, it is best to have a few hours with a gunmaker, taking it to pieces, and learning the use of each part, and how to correct any failure of the pistol to function properly. Otherwise you may, when in an out-of-the-way place, be rendered helpless by a simple fault which could be corrected in a few moments without the use of tools by someone who understands its mechanism.

I saw a man who actually buried a loaded automatic pistol deep in the ground, because it had a jam and he was afraid of it.

CHAPTER x.x.x

PRACTICAL PISTOL SHOOTING