Part 19 (1/2)

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-a.s.semble.

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 princ.i.p.al 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 c.o.c.ked 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.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.]