DISAPPEARING TARGET
This target, which has the two-inch bull's-eye, like the twenty yards
stationary target, appears and disappears at intervals of three
seconds--three seconds in sight and three seconds invisible--and is shot
at from a distance of twenty yards.
The rules forbid the pistol being raised from the firing-table before the
target appears; and it must be lowered to the table after each shot.
Shooting in this competition is the groundwork of all the competitions
other than at stationary targets; so I shall go very fully into the way of
becoming proficient at this, as the other competitions should then come
comparatively easy.
In order to do the best possible work, you ought for practice to have an
exact copy of the disappearing mechanism used at Bisley; and also (and
this is very important), the range should orientate as at Bisley and
should have the background of the same colour.
At Bisley, at one time in the afternoon the shooting is against the
setting sun; at which time the wise shot takes a rest and lets others
waste their entries, as it is impossible to make good shooting under these
circumstances. By having the points of the compass the same as at Bisley,
you will soon find out which sort of light suits you best, and at what
hour of the day it comes. Personally, I find the light from 9 to about 11
A.M. (during which time it is more or less over one's left shoulder) the
best for shooting in July. As the sun comes round, you will find that the
point to aim at varies gradually as the light strikes the front sight more
or less on the side.
Variations in elevation, owing to varying intensities of sunlight, can
also be remedied by having several pairs of spectacles with plain glass
(unless, of course, you need optical glasses to see clearly with), of
different tints of smoke or yellow colour. You can then, when you find a
certain strength of light best for your shooting, keep to this strength
artificially, whatever the real light may be, putting on glasses of a
shade sufficient to modify the light as required. The glasses should have
round, and not oval, frames, and these should be a good two inches in
diameter, so that the rims do not interfere with your view. Large round
goggles, with plain window-glass, are a great protection against particles
of burnt-powder, especially in a head wind; and after a hard morning's
shooting, the surface of the glass will be found covered with adhesive
black spots. It is as well to have one pair of plain white glass (_i. e._,
ordinary window-glass), and to wear either these or one of the smoked or
yellow pairs whenever shooting, or even looking on at shooting, as the
powder blowing back constantly into the eyes irritates them; and a sudden
dab in the eye may even spoil a score by making one flinch at a critical
moment. I have known a man incapacitated from shooting for several days
through getting his eyes inflamed from particles of powder and smoke
blowing in his face in a head wind, and from the irritating fumes of the
nitro-powders; and the look of many competitors' eyes towards the end of
the shooting shows how it affects them. A solution of boracic acid and
rose-water (of course you must get a chemist to dispense the right
quantities) is a very good thing to bathe the eyes with during and after a
hard day's shooting, and it makes the eyes feel very comfortable the next
day.
Also, it is important to protect the ear-drums from the constant banging,
else you get your ears "singing" and finally become more or less deaf. A
pistol is worse than a rifle or gun in this respect, owing to the
shortness of the barrel and the consequent proximity of the concussion to
the ear. The left ear is more apt to suffer than the right, which is more
sheltered by the arm, and a neighbour's shot, for which the ear is
unprepared, affects it more than one's own. This is particularly
noticeable if your neighbour stands slightly behind you. Some use
cotton-wool in the ears. I find it apt to mix with the natural wax in the
ears, a small amount of the cotton-wool remaining behind each time the
wool is removed; and, what is more, it does not sufficiently deaden the
sound. For practising in private, a pair of small down pillows tied over
the ears deaden the sound best, or a racing motorist's skull cap with ear
shields but both are very hot in warm weather and cannot be worn in
public. "Elliot's Perfect Ear Protectors" are the best I have yet found;
these are made in the United States and sold in England by Gieve Mathews &
Seagrove, The Hard, Portsmouth. The concussion of pistols, bad at all
times, is of course aggravated by the use of the heavy military ammunition
obligatory at Bisley.
If you cannot get a copy of the Bisley disappearing-target mechanism, the
next best thing is to have the target hinge over and be brought up again
by some mechanical means. If this is not practicable, a stationary target
may be made to answer, as I shall presently show.
My reason for wanting the actual Bisley arrangement is because that comes
up with a jerk (some of the men operating it are very jerky), and the
target "wobbles" for a fraction of a second, both just as it gets upright
and just before it disappears, and this is apt to disconcert any one not
used to it.
Next, get a metronome, with bell attachment. Set it to beat half-seconds
(be very particular to get the time absolutely correct), and set the bell
to ring at every sixth beat. You have now intervals of three seconds
marked with a "ring" at the end of each. Count the beats to yourself when
the metronome is working: "One, two, three, four, five, six"; "one, two,
three," etc.
Get your man to work the lever which actuates the target (the lever in
every case being a yard or two behind you, so that there is no danger of
shooting the man or of burning his eyes with the side flash from the
chambers of the revolver). Let him, at the stroke of the bell, bring up
the target sharply, so that it comes with a bang, and lower it at the next
ring in the same way, and keep it down till the next ring, then jerk it
up, and so on; jerking it as roughly as the mechanism will allow.
If you have to practise on a stationary target, pretend to yourself that
it disappears at each alternate ring of the metronome. The firing-point
_must_ be like the Bisley one; it will not do to stand with the revolver
hanging at your side; it must rest on a ledge the same height as at
Bisley, or else your practice will be useless for Bisley, as quite a
different way of working the muscles and resting them between shots is in
use in the two styles of shooting, and it takes less time to "come up"
from a ledge than when the arm is hanging by the side. Owing to the slope
of the ground at Bisley, some of the ledges are higher than others; choose
the one that suits you best, and have your practice ledge that height; and
when shooting at Bisley, do so from the ledge you have previously chosen.
Stand squarely, well behind this ledge. You will only get disqualified if
you get into the way of resting the lower part of your body against the
ledge; or even if you stand close to it and your coat happens to hang in
front; or if you happen to have a "corporation" some competitor may have
you disqualified as resting against the ledge.
The position of the legs and body is as for the twenty-yards stationary
target, except that the rod which works the target is best kept between
the feet, and these have to be a little wider apart. (N.B. If you are a
short man, it is better to stand to one side of the rod.)
Stretch your arm out its full length, and, holding the pistol with the
sights uppermost, rest the lower side of the barrel lightly against the
ledge. The part of the barrel adjacent to the chamber is the part to rest
on the ledge, as it is less likely to slip. There is a notch between the
barrel and lower part of the frame of the revolver, and when this is
resting on the edge of the table, and the arm is straight, then you are
standing at the right distance from the table.
If you have to stretch too much or to lean forward, move slightly closer
until you are comfortable; if your arm is bent, move backward till it
comes straight. (All this is done with an _empty_ revolver.)
Now stand in this position, watching the target go up and down, and
counting all the while, "one, two, three," etc., to yourself, till you get
the rhythm of the thing. Keep your eyes all the time fixed on the
bull's-eye _when it is vertical to you_; do not follow it down with your
eyes, but keep a mental picture of it, while it is away, on the
background. You will gradually be able to know exactly _where_ it will be,
and _when_ it will be there, and you will then be able to aim at the
imaginary spot; so that when the target appears the sights will not have
to be shifted to the bull's-eye, but _the bull's-eye will come to the
sights_.
Now, cock the pistol, of course using only your right thumb, and not
shifting your left hand, body, or pistol in the slightest.
(If you cannot do this neatly, cock the pistol first, and then "set"
yourself at the ledge.)
Now, at the word "one," slowly (_i. e._, without hurry or jerk) bring your
arm up, quite straight, till the revolver is level with your eye, and you
are looking through the sights.
If you have been following the above directions carefully, you will find
you are aiming at the bottom edge of the bull's-eye, without having had to
shift your hand or to align the sights; the sights and also the target
have, in fact, "come up" to your eye, not your eye to them. The speed with
which you raise your arm should bring the sights touching the bottom edge
of the "bull" at the word "two"; but it is better, at first, to be slower:
as long as you get the sights touching the "bull" before it disappears, it
will do--for the present. At the word "six," lower the pistol to the
table, but keep your eyes on the imaginary spot at which the "bull"
disappeared. Keep the pistol down while you count six, and then raise it
as before. After a few minutes of this drill, begin to squeeze the trigger
slightly while the pistol is resting against the ledge. With practice you
will be able to regulate the squeeze so that it will require only half a
pound more pressure to fire the pistol. Then as you lift the pistol,
gradually tighten the squeeze, and keep gradually tightening it, never
diminishing the pressure, but not increasing it if your aim is getting
wrong, and beginning to increase it again as you correct your aim. If you
are increasing the squeeze properly, you will find, just as your aim is
perfect, and a fraction of time before the word "six," the hammer will
have fallen and you will not have jerked or moved off your aim. With an
automatic pistol there is no need to cock it after the first shot, but
with a revolver the instant the hammer has fallen, cock quietly with your
right thumb, and lower your pistol to the table as before. In all cocking,
I mean it to be understood that it must be done with one movement of the
right thumb, the finger well clear of the trigger so as not to break or
wear the sear-notch, and the left arm, left hand, and body not moved in
any way, as already illustrated. After you have done this a few times, and
have confidence, you may load several chambers of the revolver, having
exploded, or empty, cartridges in the other chambers, so as not to injure
the nose of the hammer or the mainspring. The cartridges, loaded and
unloaded, should be put in in irregular order, and the barrel spun round,
so that you do not know when you have a loaded one to fire.
Now, go through the same drill as before; most likely, if the first
cartridge is an empty one, you will be surprised to find you jerked it off
instead of squeezing, owing to fear of the recoil; but if this is so,
expecting your next shot to be also an empty cartridge, you will give a
nice, smooth, gradual "let-off," with the result that you will get a
"bull," or close to it. The following shot, in consequence of your being
too eager, will almost certainly be a very wild one, most likely below the
target. This is caused by jerking the trigger, which results in bobbing
the muzzle down. It is curious that, contrary to the usual idea that in
firing quickly with a pistol one is prone to "shoot over," the exact
reverse is the case, and that snatching at the trigger generally gives a
low left shot. I have my pistols for rapid-firing competitions sighted to
shoot higher than the others, to counteract this.
After a little of this sort of practice, you can get to loading all the
chambers of a revolver. Now the great thing is "time." Time and shoot like
a machine. At Bisley one sees men fire one shot directly the target
appears; the next too late--after the target has begun to go down; and
whenever a shot goes wide, they dance about, stamp, or swear, and shift
their position constantly, half raise the pistol and lower it again, and
more antics follow in the same fashion. A man who shoots in this style
may as well go home, for all the prizes he will win. I never trouble to
look at his target; seeing his "form" tells me what his target must look
like.
By your constant practice with the metronome, you ought to get the "time"
so impressed on your mind that you could work the target at the proper
intervals without any metronome to indicate the time. Your hand "comes up"
simultaneously with the target; you fire _just_ before it disappears (some
of my highest possibles were made with the target just on the "wobble" of
disappearing as I fired each shot); every instant must be utilized for the
aim, and there must be no hurry or flurry. In fact, you become a
"workman."
Do not get into the trick of "coming up" too soon before the target
appears. There is nothing to be gained by it, and you might be
disqualified. If a shot goes wrong or there is a misfire (you are allowed
another shot for a misfire), keep on just as though nothing had happened;
pay no attention to the number of shots you have fired in the score, or
how many more you have to "go." I have often started to "come up" again
for a shot, not knowing that my sixth had already "gone," so mechanical
had my shooting become.
In practice, never fire if you feel you are "off" the "bull"; better "come
down" with the target, without shooting, and fire the next time the
target "comes up." In this way you will perhaps "come up" ten times for
your six shots; but you will have good shots for those that you have
fired, and will be encouraged much more and get better practice than by
firing a lot of wild shots, which as you fired, you knew were badly aimed.
At Bisley, I find this the easiest competition of any, more so, _if there
is no wind_, than the stationary twenty-yards target, but one can only
keep it up for a short time. One gradually gets into the swing of it, till
one can "throw" each shot right into the "bull's" centre. This keeps up
for a few entries; as one's arm tires, one begins to lose the absolute
precision. It is then useless to continue shooting and it is time to take
a rest.
You need a large front sight and open "U," so as to get your aim quickly.
My favourite revolver has very coarse sights,--a front sight which, in
aiming, seems nearly as large as the "bull."
I like the sun as much behind me as possible for this and any other
quick-firing or moving-object competition, as you can then at once see the
hit on the target and can correct it, if necessary, at the next shot. At a
stationary target, this seeing the hit at once does not matter, as you
have plenty of time to locate your shot with your telescope.
In any competition in which unlimited entries are allowed, it is best to
give up shooting an entry at your first bad shot and to start a fresh
entry instead of shooting out the full six shots. Many men say, "It is
better to keep on, as it is practice." In my experience I find that
everyone has strings of better shots than his average and these may
commence at any time. If you have a three, for instance, as your second
shot of a score, you may have four sevens to finish up with; then your
next score may begin with two sevens and then a two. There are thus two
scores spoilt, whereas, if you had retired at the shot counting three in
your first score, and started another score, you would have had a string
of six sevens in your second score, making a highest possible score of
forty-two. I have so often seen this sort of thing happen to others
(though I have never allowed it to happen to myself) that I am sure it is
false economy at Bisley, except in the limited-entry series, not to stop
and begin afresh the moment you get a shot out of the bull.
Another thing men do is to keep shooting pool to "get practice," as they
call it, till they shoot themselves out and make bad scores in
competition. The place to practise is _at home_; there is no economy in
paying half-a-crown for every six shots at Bisley, when you can shoot as
much as you like at home for nothing. The rapid-firing and fifty-yards
competitions being more difficult, you may allow yourself one or two sixes
in a score before beginning again; but stop at the first shot scoring less
than six points.
If possible, choose a time when there is no one shooting at the target
next you; as, even if you do not find yourself "letting loose" at the
sound of his firing,--he most likely, timing himself all wrong,--the smoke
from his shots may drift across you, and spoil your view of the target.
Do not shoot whilst a man is "arranging his things," or "bringing up his
target" next you; it will distract your attention.
Shoot one entry in each series of competitions,--disappearing,
rapid-firing, etc.,--and then take the competition in which you have done
worst (comparatively worst, should be said, as thirty-six in the
rapid-firing is equal to forty-one at the stationary twenty-yards) and
beat that score. The moment you have beaten that sufficiently for one of
your scores in another series to be the worst, go at that one; and so keep
pushing the worst along. This gives you a better aggregate than any other
system, and prizes are given for aggregates.
Be sure to look through your barrel after each entry, and wipe it out
frequently. Quick shooting, especially in hot, dry weather, cakes and
leads the barrel and spoils accuracy. If the pistol sticks or grates,
however slightly, it is apt to spoil one's "time." At Bisley, you must not
"wipe out" during the shots of an entry. Where, however, there is no rule
against it, "wipe out" after every shot at stationary targets, and use
only one of the chambers if using a revolver. When you open the revolver
after each entry, look carefully to see if the caps were struck in the
centre, especially if you have made a bad shot. Should they be hit on the
side, clean the revolver; if this still continues, take another. It is
useless to keep on while this is happening.
Be very careful to see that you are using your own ammunition, the proper
sort for each particular pistol, and not taking some other that happens to
be lying about. Also be very particular to have your pistol passed, the
trigger-pull tested, and ammunition examined before shooting, by the
official appointed for the purpose by the National Rifle Association,
whose office is at the firing-point. This should be done every day,
morning and afternoon,--as the trigger-pull may have altered,--so that
there shall be no chance of disqualification after a good score is made.
Although it is, as a rule, best to finish your shooting at one class of
competition, either moving or stationary, the change from one to the other
gives a rest if you find yourself getting tired or discouraged. Moreover,
as above explained, you secure a better "aggregate" by shifting from one
series to another, though such changing would easily confuse a beginner.
For the beginner, therefore, it may be as well to study one particular
competition and compete in _it only_ at Bisley the first year. This will
probably place him high in the prize-list, and encourage further
perseverance another year.