Automatic Pistol Shooting Part 11

This is all very well if you remember to take out the pistol each morning; if you forget, and the housemaid makes up the bed roughly, there may be trouble.

It also advises rolling under a bed or sofa as a precaution when exchanging shots.

Make sure that n.o.body can tamper with your pistol or cartridges. I knew of a case in which a muzzle-loading revolver was kept loaded in an unlocked box at the side of the bed. When there was a burglary in the house, this revolver was found to have been _dipped in water_ and thus rendered useless!

CHAPTER XX

SHOOTING IN THE DARK

There are occasions on which it is necessary to shoot at night, as for a night-watchman; or in the case of a wild animal's jumping into camp and carrying off someone; or in night attacks. For this work, an exceptionally large _dead white_ front sight (either a fixed one or an adjustable one on a hinge) is needful. This sort of sight, though, can only be seen if there is moonlight, or at least some glimmer of light.

In pitch-darkness, a large front sight with both itself and the rib of the barrel coated with luminous paint is useful, provided the pistol is, for several hours previous to being used, exposed to strong sunlight. If it is kept all day in a case or holster, the paint will not s.h.i.+ne at night.

Also, in cleaning the pistol, the paint may be spoilt and may require renewing. I would not advise painting any pistol you care about.

The most satisfactory way is to learn to shoot in the dark _by the sense of direction_, by pointing your pistol in the direction in which you conjecture the object to be, not attempting to see your sights or to "draw a bead."

One can often see an animal on a very dark night by crouching down and getting it against the sky-line; and yet, on looking through the sights, you cannot discern anything.

One form of practice is to have a target made of tissue paper, with a candle behind it to illuminate it. The sights are consequently seen in silhouette against it. This was the principle of the "Owl" series of prizes shot for in the early days of Wimbledon in the evenings. What I think better, so as to teach shooting by _sense of direction_, is to have one or more metal targets about a foot square hung by wires (these will give out a ringing sound when struck, and the rest of the b.u.t.t should be of sand, or sods, or wood, so as to make a different sound). Have a small sleigh-bell hung behind the middle of each target, operated by strings held by an a.s.sistant standing behind you.

Now, let him ring the bells at random, you firing by sense of direction towards where you hear each bell ring.

This practice can also be done in a shooting-gallery at night with all the lights turned down, and it is perhaps safer there than out-of-doors.

You can even have targets behind you, and swing round and "snap" at them; but this, and in fact all night shooting, is very dangerous, unless you can be absolutely certain that the bullets will do no damage, however wildly they may fly.

A man with a good ear can do surprisingly accurate work in this style of shooting.

Such practice can be done in daylight by being blindfolded; and then your a.s.sistant can notice where your misses go, and help you to improve your shooting.

THE ART OF REVOLVER SHOOTING

By WALTER WINANS

Chevalier of the Imperial Order of St. Stanislas of Russia Vice-President of the National Rifle a.s.sociation of Great Britain

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The Shooting of Big and Little Game

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