As all records are important for historical purposes, and for comparison with future scores, I give as an appendix in this book those revolver records which cannot now be beaten, the revolvers and cartridges being now no longer made.
It is curious how, even up to the outbreak of the Great War, people did not understand that shooting was more important than playing games, or that shooting had to be learned.
I recently read a “trench anecdote” which relates that a man who had never fired a shot before he was conscripted was shot in the back, and whilst dying, “seized his rifle and dropped an enemy who was running past 200 yards off.”
To do this would require a first-class trained rifle shot who specialized in shooting at moving objects, and even he, with his back broken, could not swing, which is the essence of successful shooting at moving objects.
Another writer, a lieutenant, wrote during the war to one of the daily papers, advising the purchase of a revolver to be deferred till actually starting for the Front!
I have had several men on leave bring me revolvers and automatic pistols, asking me to test them, as they could not hit anything with them at the Front.
With one of these pistols I made the highest possible score at thirty yards; with another I made ten out of twelve bulls at twenty yards. None of the pistols was wrong. It was the men’s lack of skill.
Just before the war, several rifle ranges in England were closed, because they interfered with golf players.
It is to be hoped that after this war, men will spend their spare time in learning rifle and pistol shooting instead of wasting it in games, and will not close rifle ranges because they interfere with their golf links.
The fallacy that games are the best training for military service is exposed by a very interesting article in the Field newspaper.