PECULIARITIES AND FAULTS OF AUTOMATIC PISTOLS
Before purchasing an automatic pistol it would be well to try shooting
several makes. Inventors have not yet arrived at anything like a standard
shape. The grip, angle of stock, distance of trigger, etc., all vary, and
you can decide what suits you best only by actual trial.
Handling the unloaded pistol is not enough. I was once trying an automatic
military rifle and found it balanced and handled very nicely.
In order to test it in rapid fire I tried it against a magazine rifle to
which I was accustomed.
For merely “loosed off” it beat the magazine rifle, but I wished to try it
for accuracy and speed combined.
The test was to shoot at the “Running Deer” Bisley, to empty the magazine
at one run of the deer.
The deer runs at a speed of fifteen miles an hour during five and a half
seconds at a distance of 110 yards from the firing point, across the line
of fire.
With my magazine rifle I got off five shots, making four hits, wasting
much time with the loading.
With the automatic rifle there was not an instant wasted in the loading;
the difficulty was in getting the shots to go anywhere near the deer--in
fact, I could not hit the deer, except with the first shot.
At each shot the rifle tried to jump out of my hands, twisted itself round
to the right and then suddenly twisted the other way. The tighter I
gripped the more it wriggled about.
Instead of the sights coming down back to alignment, after the recoil, I
found they jumped clean off the deer and I had to go hunting about to get
my aim again.
Instead of, as with a well-balanced double rifle, the muzzle flying up at
the first shot and dropping down into place for the second shot, there was
no possibility of alignment without a fresh aim for each shot.
It was just as if you have a strong unruly child in your arms trying to
set him down on a chair.
He wriggles from side to side, stiffens his back, and you cannot seat him
on the chair.
This is just how the rifle acted. It wriggled and struggled and refused to
let itself be aligned on the target.
The inventor also tried shooting it and missed even with his first shot.
The fault lay in the way the recoil was taken up.
To make an automatic rifle which will shoot accurately in rapid shooting,
the recoil must be straight back, not with a twist and wriggle from side
to side.
When choosing an automatic pistol, shoot it and find out if it lets you
align your sights afresh immediately after you have fired. If you find it
cants over or tries to go home into its holster at each shot, and you have
to alter this cant before you can fire again, do not buy it.
Get the gunmaker to instruct you thoroughly in the mechanism of any
automatic you buy and especially what parts need special attention to
prevent its jamming.
Jamming is the constant bugbear to fight against. The automatic pistol
must always be kept in perfect working order and the parts properly
cleaned and oiled.
The barrel in some is difficult to properly clean internally, unless taken
apart, and it is difficult to re-assemble.
Unless all the parts work freely, a weak cartridge is apt to prevent the
pistol closing properly.
When you have learnt the mechanism from the gunmaker you can begin
practising shooting with the pistol.
The principal thing you have to remember is that, whereas a single-shot
pistol, when you have taken out the cartridge, is unloaded and safe, and a
revolver when you have emptied the cylinder is also unloaded and safe,
when you have taken out the magazine with its cartridges from an automatic
pistol, the pistol _may still remain loaded_.
With the automatic pistol, when you have drawn back the slide and thereby
loaded a cartridge into the barrel, that cartridge _remains in still when
you withdraw the clip full of cartridges_.
I give herewith a description of the Colt New Safety which obviates the
danger of leaving a cartridge inadvertently in the automatic pistol.
“Figure 1 shows the pistol in cocked or firing position, magazine
withdrawn and cartridge in barrel chamber.
“Figure 2 indicates position of the magazine when inserted in handle of
the pistol, and position of firing mechanism when safety-disconnector is
forced forward by the inserted magazine.
“When the magazine is _removed_ (see Figure 1), the plunger acted upon by
its spring forces the safety-disconnector to the rear. This movement
forces the rear end of the connector (A) _below_ the nose of the sear (B)
so that should the trigger be pulled, the connection between trigger and
sear being broken, that is, the rear end of the connector (A) being
_below_ the sear nose (B), the trigger cannot operate the sear,
consequently no discharge of the piece can occur.
“When the magazine is _inserted_ into the handle of the pistol (see Figure
2), the curved top of the forward portion of the magazine forces the
safety-disconnector forward and permits the rear end of the connector (A)
to rise in _front_ of the sear nose (B) in the normal position for firing.
A pull on the trigger causes the sear to turn upon its pivot so that the
firing pin is released and strikes the cartridge.”
[Illustration: PLATE 7. COLT NEW SAFETY DISCONNECTOR AUTOMATIC PISTOL, .25
The firing mechanism consists of the trigger with its connector which
releases the sear; the sear which releases the firing pin when the trigger
is pulled; the firing pin (there is no pivoted hammer in this model), and
the safety-disconnector with its plunger and spring. This disconnector is
part of the calibre .25 only.]
_To unload an automatic pistol, withdraw the clip of cartridges and then
draw back the slide and extract the cartridge remaining in the barrel._
Till this latter is done the pistol is still loaded and dangerous.
The automatic pistol is a very delicate instrument and apt to go wrong at
the most critical time.
The revolver used to be grumbled at, but (if it did not fit too tightly)
even when it jammed, it could be cocked and worked by using extra
strength, opened by striking it over the thigh, etc.
But an automatic cannot be forced, it must be operated with knowledge of
exactly just what has gone wrong.
Any one taking up automatic-pistol shooting seriously should go to a
gunmaker and learn all about its mechanism so that he will know what is
wrong when the pistol refuses to operate.
Each make of automatic varies, so I cannot give elaborate instructions as
to handling. Each make may have some point where it is simpler and
superior to others though in other respects it may be inferior.
In the following remarks I mention what I consider best from a shooting,
not a mechanical, point of view. The latter is undergoing constant change,
and the automatic pistol has not yet arrived at a standard type.
There are some points in which even the best automatic is at present
imperfect, and some in which it is dangerous to spectators--for instance,
the very strong ejection of the fired cartridge in some makes, which may
destroy the eyes of persons standing near enough to be hit by the spent
cartridges as they are ejected.
I know of an automatic rifle which ejects its spent cartridges with great
force, and another which merely lifts them out, as if they were spilt
over the edge of the ejector slot, no force being used. This is the way
ejecting should be done.
Such ejection would be very useful on an automatic pistol; now, if near a
man shooting them, they, even the best, hit one quite hard with the spent
cartridges.
This gentle ejection is a patent and is done by a very weak spring in the
extractor which tips the cartridge out at the right moment; the ejection
is not caused by the back blast of the powder, or the drive forward of the
carrier, as in other automatics.