[Ill.u.s.tration: COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL, MILITARY MODEL, CALIBRE .38]

CHAPTER XIII

TARGETS

I began my instruction with a white bull's-eye on a black target, but, as soon as the pupil becomes a little proficient, this bull's-eye shooting should be stopped.

The pupil should then learn to hit the middle of a large object, not a small object of different colour, superimposed on a larger one.

The great difficulty beginners have in deer-stalking is that they aim at the stag as a whole, instead of trying to hit a definite part of him.

If you aim at even a large object in the former way, you are very apt to miss it entirely.

In France there are man targets of iron, the natural size of a man in profile, which can be stood on the ground in front of the b.u.t.ts. These are the best I know for shooting at with the small duelling charge.

There are divisions incised into this target so that the marker, when he goes up, can see the value of the shot, but these divisions are invisible from where the shooter stands. He must judge as to where to aim and hit.

The target is painted over after each series of shots with a mixture of soot and water.

Be sure not to use any size or varnish, as this fixes the black so that the bullet does not knock it off, and so shots are difficult to locate on the figure from the firing point.

With soot and water the shots appear almost white on the target at the spot the soft lead bullet has flattened and dropped down, taking the soot with it.

These iron targets are suitable only for soft lead bullets driven at low velocity.

With a high-power automatic pistol it would be dangerous, as bullets would rebound or glance off long distances if the edge of the target were grazed.

For shooting with powerful ammunition, the target must be of wood, or canvas on a wooden stretcher, with black paper pasted over it. The bullets go through into the b.u.t.t, which latter must be exceptionally thick or else the last of several bullets striking in one place will go through it.

The pattern of target we used at the Olympic Games at Stockholm in 1912, I do not like. It was much too big and the rings (upright ovals) too distinct. It was like shooting at an ordinary ring target with visible bull's-eye.

It was a good idea, however, having upright ovals instead of circles for a man target, as a miss right or left is important, whereas a rather high or low shot would still strike a man.

For animal targets, on the Continent, these ovals are placed horizontally, because an animal is longer than it is high; also for running shots a miss in front or behind the bull's-eye is more excusable than one over or under.

The proper distance to practise at is the distance you can hit the invisible bull's-eye twice in three shots. As soon as you can do better than this, move the target a few feet further off, or decrease the size of the bull's-eye.

The idea is to have a target on which when shooting your very best, you may just be able to make the highest possible score.

This is the principle on which the targets are made in all the Gastinne-Renette compet.i.tions in Paris.

The highest possible score is not beyond the power of the pistols, if held by a very good shot.

For the Grande Medal d'Or, the holding has to be nearly as good as if the pistol were fixed in a vise, but it _is_ possible to make, as several dozen winning targets made by the crack shots of the world testify.

A target impossible to make a full score on discourages the shooter.

It rather adds to the interest if a hit breaks something; if a clay pigeon, for instance, is put on a nail for a bull's-eye on a man target painted the same colour, it is practically an invisible bull and it is a great satisfaction to see the pieces instantly fly at a hit, instead of having to examine the target to see where your shots are.

These clay pigeons, or soup plates, or whatever you use, would not do if put against an iron target, as the splash of the bullet would break them even if they were not actually hit.

One can buy an apparatus in Paris which fills rubber b.a.l.l.s with water, which make good targets to shoot at either hung up or thrown in the air.

To hit them with a pistol with a bullet when thrown in the air is extremely difficult, and can only be safely tried when shooting out to sea, or against a high cliff.

Single barrel pistols of 28 shotgun bore, 10-inch barrels are made to shoot shot, and these are very good for such shooting and train timing and swing in snap shooting.

At eighty live pigeons at twelve yards' rise I have got more than half I shot at. One has to be quick, as the pigeon is so soon out of range. No. 7 shot is best for this, but the pistol only shoots half an ounce of shot, and makes a very small pattern.

I will explain in the next chapter how to shoot so as to compel quick shooting without the c.u.mbersome machinery for making a target appear and disappear.

If you count seconds for yourself or have them counted for you, the time varies and one cannot help dwelling on the counting when a fraction more time is needed for your aim to be correct.

The utmost care must be taken, if you have an a.s.sistant to go to and from the target, not to point in his direction or to load before he has come back. Even at otherwise well-managed shooting clubs, there is too much carelessness in this respect.

Targets which draw up and down on trolleys are a great nuisance, and yet almost all shooting galleries are equipped with them, and their presence is considered the acme of good gallery equipment in England.

This may be all right for preventing markers being shot, but I prefer an iron man target, life size, standing on his feet in a green field with a suitable background. One can shoot so much better than at a figure painted on a flat background.

You see a miss by the momentary puff of dust where the bullet hits the ground, instead of having to look for a bullet hole in the painted background.

It would be possible to make a target which drops down and rises again from the impact of the bullet.

I have a target in the form of a stag which when you hit his invisible heart, he half rears, then bends his hocks and plunges down on his knees, throwing back his head in the most realistic manner. This stag, stood amongst long bracken and stalked, gives a most lifelike performance.

He is wound up in various places and the shock of the bullet on a buffer releases the movements in succession with momentary intervals.

It was made by a very ingenious target mechanic, who also makes monkeys which run up a tree when hit, parrots who turn a somersault on the branch they are sitting on when hit, a man who takes off his hat and bows to you when you hit him properly, a chamois who tumbles over a precipice.

The maker, who has a shooting gallery on the Continent, makes a good profit out of it, as the bull's-eyes are very small and difficult to hit, and people keep on paying to shoot in order to amuse their companions, and children beg their parents to try to set the automatons in motion.

CHAPTER XIV

PRACTICAL TARGETS

The pistol being, primarily, a man-shooting weapon, the target for practice should be the shape of a full-sized man.

The man target we used at the Olympic Games at Stockholm in 1912, was a coloured paper target of a soldier standing at attention, full face. This was pasted on a wooden board cut to the same shape.

The bull's-eye was an upright oval on the breast, surrounded by concentric upright ovals.