Part 7 (1/2)

One may drag or grate. The other seems to go off at your mere wish.

No automatic can have the delicate touch of a single-shot pistol. It has to withstand such rough handling by the mechanical loading of the explosion.

A thing to be especially remembered is that one who is not expert, trying to put the pistol to half-c.o.c.k, ruins the trigger-pull and renders it unsafe.

The point of the seer can be broken off or distorted by someone fumbling with the trigger and hammer.

Do not let people touch the hammer or trigger of your pistol, any more than you would let them jerk your horse's mouth.

In the course of your first trials in c.o.c.king, putting to half-c.o.c.k, etc., you will probably injure your trigger-pull more or less, and should you feel the least alteration or grate in it, have it examined by a gunmaker before worse mischief occurs.

With a hammerless (_i. e._, pistol with invisible hammer inside the lock) there is not this danger. c.o.c.king is accomplished by the act of closing or opening the pistol which at the same time causes the hammer to be locked at safety.

What corresponds to c.o.c.king and putting to half-c.o.c.k is accomplished by sliding the safety bolt to the firing position, or to ”safe.”

It is advisable to have the same weight of trigger-pull on all your pistols. If they vary it makes it difficult to shoot equally well with all. The heavier trigger-pull of some will hamper you, and the lighter trigger-pull on others may make you discharge them before you mean to.

As individual fancy in trigger-pull varies, some makers sell their pistols with intentionally a very heavy trigger-pull, so that their clients can have it regulated to their requirements. This probably was the reason my old man had such a heavy trigger-pull on his ”greatest bargain I ever saw”

gun.

Before practising for or entering a compet.i.tion, see that your trigger-pull complies with the regulations, as nothing is more annoying than, after making a winning score, to find your trigger-pull is too light and your score in consequence is disqualified.

It is best to have the trigger-pull well over the minimum so as to allow for its getting lighter during shooting.

CHAPTER IX

AMMUNITION

Every make of pistol has ammunition which suits it best. In fact, to shoot what was made for it. In the case of automatic pistols, they will not work properly unless their own ammunition is used.

It is very dangerous to shoot the wrong ammunition out of a pistol. It may burst it. I nearly had such an accident with a revolver when winning a prize given for the best score with a certain make of powder.

I found the pistol working very stiff in the revolution of the cylinder, toward my last shots, and when I had finished I looked and saw that the cylinders had become egg shape, caused by the pressure of the explosion, which was greater than the powder-charge the pistol was made to withstand.

It was only the excellence of the material which caused the cylinder chambers to expand toward their weakest point (the circ.u.mference of the cylinder), instead of bursting.

It was this expansion that had caused the friction in turning the cylinder.

As my book is not a gunmaker's catalogue there is no use in giving ill.u.s.trations of ammunition.

Such ill.u.s.trations are neither artistic nor of any interest. Many makes of cartridges are long since obsolete and only linger in catalogues because the old blocks happen to still exist and can be used to fill up a catalogue and make it ”fully ill.u.s.trated.”

Any one conversant with pistols does not even glance at them. When he buys the pistol, he also buys the cartridge made for it. He does not buy a pistol and then try which make of cartridge will fit into the chamber.

A cartridge should fulfil the following conditions:

First of all, it should be safe against accidental explosion, such as dropping or when feeding through the magazine of an automatic pistol.