Читать книгу The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It - Walter Winans - Страница 14

Table of Contents

FIRST LESSONS

As the automatic pistol is a very dangerous one for a novice to handle, it is best for the beginner to first thoroughly master a single-shot pistol.

There are several styles of single-shot pistols (see Plates 2, 9, 10, and 17). I will not give a list and description of all makes, like a gunmaker’s catalogue. I will merely describe a few of the typical ones. Very many are not only obsolete but of no use, and I do not intend to describe any pistol or ammunition merely to condemn it.

All that I describe have some merit, and most of them have great merit. Still if there is any ammunition or pistol left out, you must not at once jump to the conclusion that I consider it bad or dangerous; it may be that it was omitted through an oversight.

It is best to have a pistol light in weight and shooting as small a charge as possible, so that there may be no great weight to hold up and no flinching from the noise or recoil.

PLATE 2. BREECH-LOADING PISTOLS

(By Gastinne-Renette)

With a very small charge it is possible to use a very light pistol, and though this is advisable for a beginner still, weight in a pistol, even if it shoots only a very small charge, is an advantage for accurate holding.

The trigger-pull must not be lighter than 2½ pounds for safety (especially for a beginner) and if the pistol weighs less than 2½ pounds, it is very difficult to press the trigger without disturbing the aim.

Lightness in weight of the pistol is also often obtained by shortness of barrel, and to shoot a pistol with only a two or three inch barrel is the supreme test of skill in pistol shooting and a useless handicap to a learner.

At one time I thought it impossible for good shooting to be had out of a two inch barrel, but a friend and I tested this at twenty-five metres, and we both, after a few trials, got strings of shots on the chest of a life-sized figure of a man target.

But it requires a man who has shot for many years to be able to do this; even an average shot goes very wide and wild in his shooting with such a short barrel.

These very short barrels are therefore useless for the general public for self-protection, except when the pistol actually touches the opponent.

Even the short police pistol requires a lot of learning. Most people imagine it is merely necessary to buy a little pistol “which I can put in my waistcoat pocket,” to become burglar proof.