If he gets the hold the least wrong he will miss and probably also get his hand cut.
How can a man cock or slip on the safety bolt if he first has to take his thumb out of the “dug out” in which it has taken refuge? He will most likely fumble the whole thing and drop the pistol.
Very many pistol inventions are the result of a man who, shooting for the first time, discovers difficulties merely due to his own clumsiness and inexperience, and instead of consulting a pistol shot, invents something to overcome these imaginary difficulties.
I have actually seen such an inventor shooting in a competition with an iron rod up his sleeve attached to his pistol “to keep his arm steady.”
An inventor came to me with something he said would stop all runaway horses, and was very angry with me because I would not try it on one of mine, although I told him mine were properly broken horses, not runaways.
The invention consisted of two India rubber bags which, un-inflated, were to be put inside the nostrils of the horse.
If there was any difficulty in stopping the horse, a pair of bellows was worked, attached to a rubber tube connecting these bags to the driver.
This inflated the bags, and the horse, according to the inventor, “at once comes to a standstill.”
I told the inventor that a horse thus choked would throw himself about, and cause a fearful smash before he died. He probably thought, “what lack of imagination” horsemen have.
A wooden or vulcanite stock with a small clean-cut file pattern so as to give a non-slip hold is good.