CHAPTER XXII

THE AUTOMATIC PISTOL

Now that the pupil has learned how to handle the single-shot pistol with safety to himself and others, he can be trusted to learn how to shoot the automatic pistol. (See Plates 7 and 13.)

Before giving such instruction, it is necessary to explain what an automatic pistol is, and in what it differs from a single-shot pistol.

The first pistol, as the first rifle, was naturally a single-shot one.

The pistol and rifle both proceeded in development along the same lines.

First the match-lock, wheel-lock, flint-lock, percussion lock. Then through muzzle-loader to rim fire, pin fire, to central fire breechloader, hammer, hammerless, and ejector.

The double barrel, and multi-barrel, and from smooth-bore to rifled bore, were evolved at the same time.

Here the pistol and rifle parted company slightly; though the principle was the same in each case, it was differently applied.

The rifle became a magazine loader, and it will next be an automatic loader (though at present automatic loading is princ.i.p.ally used in machine guns and low-power rifles).

The pistol, instead of becoming a magazine loader (in the sense of being loaded by cartridges brought up from a magazine by operating a bolt), became a revolver--that is, the cartridges were fired out of the magazine instead of being first inserted into the barrel from a magazine.

When cartridges are inserted into the barrel, there is no escape of gas at the breech when they are fired, but when fired out of the cylinder of a revolver, there is an escape of gas at the juncture of the cylinder and barrel, which varies, and when such escape of gas occurs it causes weak and low shots.

The cylinder cannot be made gas tight, as that would prevent its revolving, or coincide absolutely with the calibre of the barrel, consequently a revolver can never be as accurate as a single-shot pistol.

This defect in the revolver was its weak point in comparison with the magazine-loading rifle.

Just before the war, I shot two makes of military full-charge automatic rifles, which were very good, but the war has put an end to their development for the present. Undoubtedly the rifle of the future will be an automatic.

The principle of an automatic firearm can be best explained by the a.n.a.logy of the automobile.

The revolver, which is a magazine pistol, can be fired only after each cartridge is placed in position by the action of c.o.c.king the hammer with the thumb, or by double-action trigger pull.

The internal combustion (the automobile engine) operates by the explosion operating the various parts.

The explosion in the cylinder of the engine drives the piston rod forward, which turns the crank, which, turning the fly-wheel, drives the piston rod back ready for the next explosion.

In the automatic pistol, the recoil from the explosion drives the working part of the pistol back against a strong spring. As soon as the force of the explosion is spent, this spring forces the working parts back into place again. These working parts do all the work the shooter does in a single-shot pistol--that is, it c.o.c.ks the pistol, opens the breech, extracts the spent cartridge, inserts a fresh cartridge, and closes the breech.

The idea is very simple, and has occurred to almost everyone who has handled a pistol or a rifle, but there are mechanical difficulties which are only just beginning to be overcome, and the automatic pistol, and still more the automatic rifle, are yet far from perfect.

The chief difficulty is the force of the explosion. In a motor-car engine, the force of each explosion can be regulated so as to be just sufficient for the work required.

In an automatic pistol this cannot be done. The force of the explosion is that which gives the best shooting, in other words the greatest possible force, subject to the shooter being able to stand the recoil and the pistol not to burst, though made light enough to be easily handled.

If a pistol were made a ton weight, it would fire a very much larger charge without bursting, but the charge of the explosion has to be limited to what a pistol of some two and a half pounds' weight can bear without bursting, or recoiling too severely on the shooter.

The smaller pocket automatic pistols are lighter (the two-and-a-half pound ones are military pistols).

A pistol weighing under two and a half pounds can shoot only a small charge with light recoil, and so is easier to make.

The heavy recoil from a military rifle (which gives the bullet a speed of some thirty thousand feet a second) would shatter the recoil mechanism of a small pocket pistol, though the latter can quite safely operate under the slight recoil of its weak cartridge.

With a magazine rifle or revolver, the shooter uses just sufficient manual force to operate the mechanism, and even then pistols and rifles may get damaged by a clumsy man using too much force to wrench the weapon open or slam it shut.

If, instead of the intelligently applied strength of a man, using the minimum force necessary, you subst.i.tute the smashing blow (several tons'

weight to the square inch) given by the force of gunpowder, to operate delicate mechanism, you can realize the difficulty the inventor has to contend with.

It is as if you have to invent a firearm which would operate if, after each shot, you threw it under a pa.s.sing railway train.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MECHANISM OF THE AUTOMATIC PISTOL

What the maker of the automatic pistol has to do is to restrain the sudden smashing blow of the explosion on his mechanism and have it operate gently. (See Plates 13 and 14.)

The safety of the shooter depends greatly on _the breech of the pistol not being opened till after the force of the explosion is spent_.

If the breech is opened before the force of the explosion is spent, it will drive the cartridge out like a bullet, and the pistol will in fact be shooting from both ends at the same time.

Now will be seen why a very light-charge rifle or pistol is easier to be made a practical automatic firearm.

With a very light charge, the explosive force is so light that, as long as it does not instantly blow the breech open (but r.e.t.a.r.ds it ever so slightly), there is no harm done.

Rifles and pistols have long been made to shoot light charges that do not need the breech securely locked during the discharge, and are perfectly safe to use.

The original automatic pistol operated as follows:

The discharge drives the mechanism back against a spring at the same time that it blows open the breech, which the recoil spring then closes, inserting a fresh cartridge. The spent cartridge is blown with some force sideways out of a slot at the side of the mechanism, so that it may not hit the shooter in the face.

In some makes of pistol, the cartridge is not blown out but merely dropped out.

With a suitable charge the breech-closing mechanism can be made heavy enough for its inertia to keep the breech closed sufficiently long after the discharge.

When it comes to such heavy charges that it is necessary to keep the breech closed till the force of the explosion is spent, the difficulty of making a safe automatic firearm begins.

With a military full-charge rifle this has hardly yet been arrived at, hence the delay in its being used for military purposes, but it seems as if the problem is on the point of being solved.

For the comparatively weak recoil of a pistol, this does not apply. There are several perfectly safe pistols in use, and there is no danger in using any of the well-known makes.