Automatic Pistol Shooting
CHAPTER I
THE AUTOMATIC PISTOL
This is the pistol of the future and the revolver has now to give place to it, just as the horse has to give place to the automobile for traction purposes.
Still, like the horse, the revolver seems still to have before it a future for certain purposes, and one uses a revolver where one would not care to use an automatic pistol.
The superiority of the revolver consists in its being adaptable to reduced charges and also in its being less complicated and less apt to be discharged accidentally by an ignorant person.
At one time, the revolver was considered the most dangerous fire-arm in existence, but the automatic far surpasses it in this respect. When the chambers of a revolver are emptied, it is harmless; but when the magazine is taken out, after an automatic pistol has been charged, one cartridge still remains in the chamber. This has been the cause of several accidents; a man thinks the pistol is safe after he has extracted the magazine.
The automatic pistol is barred from gallery shooting by the fact that the mechanism is operated by the recoil from a full-charge cartridge only, and this full charge makes too much noise.
I do not advise the purchase of any automatic pistol which does not have at least one safety bolt and which does not have also an external hammer.