The public think that a bullet goes only where the shooter wants it to go, "You pull the trigger and the bullet does the rest" sort of idea.

They believe the bullet goes direct of itself to that object and stops there, when the trigger is pulled. They have no idea that the bullet may miss that object and hit someone beyond.

People will stand in the direct line of fire to watch a wounded buck in a park being shot, and are indignant if asked to move to one side.

They think it is absolutely safe to fire into the air, even in a crowded city. They do not think that the falling bullet may do any injury.

As there is only slight danger from falling shot, this fosters the idea.

They do not know the difference between a shotgun or rifle. Both are "sporting rifles" to them and a military rifle is a "gun."

A man does not put a razor to the throat of another in play, but he thinks it "humour" to take up a firearm, point it at another and pull the trigger.

The extraordinary thing is that if the "did not know it was loaded" man were taken to a range and asked to hit a target, he would miss it every shot, but he never misses his victim when he is playing at the game of "I did not know it was loaded." He kills his victim every time.

The reason is that the fool takes very good care to go up to within a few inches of his victim before killing him with his "I did not know it was loaded" joke.

Some people have no sense of humour.

They handle horses in the same way, but, fortunately, animals make allowance for ignorance in human beings but a firearm makes no such allowance. Therefore there are fewer accidents to human beings from horses than from firearms, in proportion to the silly things the humans do.

A dog will allow a small child to poke its fingers in its eyes. If a grown person attempted it he would get bitten, but a pistol makes no such distinction.

I was being shown round a remount depot where the horses were picketed out with a hind leg tethered to a peg, when a sour-looking, underbred artillery horse, began kicking at his neighbour.

The horse kicked himself free and trotted off to the corner of the field, where he stood, sulkily, with his ears laid back, a piece of rope wedged between his near hind shoe and the foot.

A man was ordered to bring the horse back. He was wearing a pince-nez of very near sighted type.

Now what he ought to have done was to first catch the horse, taking care not to get kicked whilst doing so, then to hold up a fore leg (so that the horse could not kick), whilst someone else removed the bit of rope from the hind shoe, standing to one side.

Instead, he walked up straight behind the horse. When he got within a few yards of him, to my intense horror, he went down on his hands and knees and began crawling towards the horse's hind legs.

The horse had been laying back his ears and showing the whites of his eyes and measuring the distance for a kick at the man.

This manuvre on the man's part, however, so surprised the horse that he stood quite still, looking at the man enquiringly.

The man crawled up close to the horse's heels, took out his pocket knife and, putting his nose within a few inches of the horse's near hind foot, quietly sawed away at the piece of rope with his blunt pocket knife and jerked the ends out from between the shoe and hoof. The horse stood like an angel all the time.

The man to this day has not the least idea he ran any risk or performed an act worthy of the V. C.

The horse evidently thought such a fool was not worth kicking. There is no fun kicking a man who is not frightened.

CHAPTER III

WHY PISTOL SHOOTING IS UNPOPULAR

Games, or "_sports_" as they are called, would not be popular if they were conducted on the same lines that pistol shooting usually is.

Pistol shooting is made as dull and uninteresting as possible, and then surprise is expressed that hardly any one takes a pistol in his hand, except when compelled to do so, and that shooting galleries do not pay.

Small white squares of cardboard, a minute black spot in the middle of each, are put up at various distances. You are told to aim at this spot.

If you hit it it counts so much, if you miss it, the further from it you perforate the paper, the less points you score.

When you have fired a certain number of shots, the total is added up and you go on again.

Occasionally, you have the mild excitement of being allowed to do this in compet.i.tion, and a "spoon" is given you if you make top score, paid for out of your own money less a percentage which the gallery keeps.

Your skill does not avail you long, as the next time you shoot, by however many points you have won, by that number of points you are handicapped, so it is possible that if you get _very_ proficient, you can have the pleasure, when making all bull's-eyes, of being beaten by a man who has not made a single bull's-eye, and beats you by handicap, and the list of spoon winners appears in the papers with his name on top and yours at the bottom, and people say, "How badly X shoots."

This is not very encouraging to X or conducive to a desire to gain proficiency.

However bad a shot you are, you have an equal chance of winning this spoon.

Even the possibility of gaining a spoon applies to only a few shooting clubs. The shooting galleries in black cellars, do not give prizes. You are supposed to be fully compensated, after being deafened by a man with a full charge revolver or automatic pistol blazing away into the darkness beside you, by paying for your targets, ammunition, and hire of a greasy revolver with a trigger-pull hard enough to break your finger and a report like a cannon, whilst you strain your eyes to see a black front sight in the darkness.

There is no sport, or comfort, in all this. Under such circ.u.mstances n.o.body can be blamed if he gives up pistol shooting in disgust.

I shall describe later, how a gallery should be built (see Plates 15 and 16), or an open range planned and conducted, but I here merely indicate why pistol shooting in England is deservedly unpopular as at present conducted.

There should be no handicapping. Being able to shoot well should be an incentive, not a handicap.

Next, there should be the excitement and amus.e.m.e.nt of a game.

Who would go to look at a game conducted under the following conditions?

Sit in a room with all the lights out, with a faint glimmer at the far end.

Hear incessant, deafening noises.

Nothing else but noise for an hour or two, except occasionally a pause whilst the black spot in the distance disappears and then reappears.

Finally a man reading from a piece of paper announces:

X 40 points, First.

Y 39 points, Second.

Z 38 points, Third.

Then you go home.

Some drudgery in learning has to be gone through with, but it should be in a good light out-of-doors, and this drudgery is only while learning. It should not be continued all through a man's shooting career, and be considered "pistol shooting."

As I will show, shooting can be made intensely interesting to both spectators and partic.i.p.ants.

The present style of shooting compet.i.tions leads many sportsmen to say: "I love shooting, but I hate target shooting."