The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It Part 36

A pistol weighing 2 lbs. would shoot the .32 cartridge with hardly any appreciable recoil.

But this same cartridge in a small pocket revolver weighing only a few ounces kicks very viciously.

Besides it has a very small stock made the same shape as a full-sized stock.

The result is that, whereas in a full-sized stock the top of the comb is designed to project over the thumb and forefinger, in the little vest-pocket pistol this comb comes against the tender part of the palm and the recoil drives it into the hand.

I have had my hand cut and bleeding after a few rounds with a pistol intended for ladies' use!

The surest way to make a beginner flinch is to let him begin with a little pocket revolver.

I mention revolver because an automatic pocket pistol generally does not have a stock with projections which can drive into the hand by the recoil.

The makers know that if the slide of an automatic pistol _did_ drive back into the hand it would do very serious damage. They therefore make the stock so that it cannot be held with the comb against the palm of the hand.

Men accustomed to shoot a pistol having a heavy recoil get so used to bracing against that recoil that they bob forward with an empty pistol to a recoil which does not come.

A heavily loaded gun, if it misses fire, makes the shooter bob forward involuntarily to meet the recoil he expects.

An automatic pistol can be used with a heavier loaded cartridge than would be possible with a revolver.

Not only is some of the recoil taken up in working the mechanism in the former pistol but the recoil is softer.

The recoil of a revolver can be likened to a blow with the fist, whereas the recoil of the automatic pistol is like a hard push with the open hand.

The recoil first having to work the mechanism loses its sudden sharp stinging blow.

I find I can shoot a heavily charged military automatic pistol longer than I can a revolver which has much less recoil. There is none of the jar and strain on the wrist in an automatic pistol which a revolver with the English Regulation cartridge gives.

c.o.c.king the revolver by trigger-pull is tiring to the hand, and a very few rounds entirely paralyses the trigger finger for the time being.

It is a very unnatural strain to draw back the weight of the spring to raise the hammer and revolve the chamber with the trigger finger. It tires the finger very soon.

With the automatic pistol there is none of this strain. Therefore a man can fire a hundred shots rapidly with the automatic pistol, when he could not fire twenty-four rounds with a double action revolver, using the double action, without his trigger finger giving out.

I merely mention this as a matter of interesting ancient history.

Revolvers are obsolete, but it is as interesting to understand how they were used as it would be if we knew all such lost details concerning the ancient cross bow, or Bushman's long blow tube.

When one thinks of the unhappy men who were forced in their training to shoot heavy military revolvers with alternate hands working the double action trigger, it is extraordinary more of them did not dislocate their trigger finger or sprain their wrists.

Let any one take one of these relics and work its double action for ten minutes without stopping, and when added to this each shot drives the wrist upwards with great force, he will no longer wonder why men used to s.h.i.+rk "revolver practice."

CHAPTER XLVIII

JUDGING DISTANCE

With the revolver, which was not usually shot at longer range than fifty yards, judging distance was of little importance.

With a full charge .45 revolver, sighted for twenty yards, the drop of the bullet was not more than about 1 inches at fifty yards.

With gallery ammunition in a .44 revolver the drop was about 4 inches.

I am speaking from memory, not from actual calculations or measurements.

The duelling pistol, although shooting the same gallery charge, needs slightly less allowance at fifty yards, as there is none of the escape of gas the revolver has at the cylinder.

There was, therefore, no need to judge distance with a revolver but the automatic pistol with its heavy charge shoots as far as the old time rifles did and so needs knowledge of distance judging on occasions.

Owing to the shortness of the barrel it is very difficult to do accurate shooting at long range, but the pistol itself carries and shoots well up to rifle "midrange" (_i. e._, five hundred yards).

As it is so difficult to shoot at long range with a pistol there is all the more necessity to be able to judge distance so as to avoid another cause of error.

A long range revolver match took place in 1911 in Colorado, but many important details are lacking.

It was gotten up by the Magazine _Outdoor Life_ of Colorado.

The conditions were five sighting shots, and then twenty shots to count.

The target was a brown paper profile of a turkey at three hundred yards'

range.

This description is very vague, as all reports of shooting by non-experts are; they always leave out vital details and put in a lot of useless matter; it may mean a target of fifteen inches in diameter (if it only included the body of the turkey) or over thirty inches (if it included the whole of the turkey, head, legs, feathers, and tail).

Probably it was the latter size as, if it was only fifteen inches in diameter, that would correspond to an inch bull's-eye at twenty yards, or a 2-inch one at fifty yards, much too small for revolver shooting.

It is extremely difficult to hit a four-inch bull's-eye for a succession of twenty shots at fifty yards. I have hit it ten times in twelve shots (see page 349), and the much greater difficulty of hitting a corresponding sized target at three hundred yards would make a full score impossible with a revolver.

The winner, name not given, made three hits for his twenty shots, six men hit it twice in their twenty shots, six hit it once, and six missed every shot.

This is not a very encouraging result of a long range revolver shoot.

Though the automatic pistol would be much more accurate at that distance, still I doubt if any one could get more than eight shots on the turkey in twenty shots at three hundred yards.

To be of any use for comparison the actual diameter of the turkey would have to be ascertained.

Judging distance should be constantly practised, under all conditions of light, by judging when out walking how far off a man is, and then walking up to the spot, counting your steps, to see if you have judged right.

Do not measure distance by yard strides and thus draw attention to your movements and raise doubt as to your sanity.

First measure in private, say one hundred yards, and then walk it with your natural length of step when walking at your usual speed, and see how many of your steps go to one hundred yards.

When you know your number of steps for a hundred yards you can measure distances in ordinary walking and without pa.s.sers-by noticing what you are doing.

My natural walk is 104 steps to the 100 yards at four miles an hour.

Try, when you think you are fairly accurate, to judge the distance a man is off also judge how far a small boy is. You will find at first you think him much further off than he is owing to having got into the habit of judging the distance by the height of the man.