Do not stand sideways, stand almost facing, only slightly forward with the right shoulder, the feet slightly apart, knees straight, arms straight. Nothing is worse than to shoot with a crooked or flabby right arm. You will never learn to shoot in this way, and a heavy automatic will hit you on the nose with the recoil.
Stand rigid and upright, the swing of the arm upwards should continue and the shot go off as you come horizontally to the target.
The idea is to fire the shot, just as you deal cards, raise and let off when you are horizontal. Do not poke with your head to see the sights, or find the sights and then hunt for the bull’s eye with the muzzle of your pistol (like the rifle target shots do).
Never let your pistol move an inch further than necessary. To lift it above your head and to lower it is not only dangerous but useless. You ought to raise to the target; not raise above it merely to come down to it again.
That sort of “flourish” shooting (which is the hardest thing to stop in a learner) is as if, when you want to go next door to your neighbour you went all the way down the street and then turned back to reach him. Open your door, step to his doorway and go in. The man who swings his pistol (“brandishes it” as reporters say) is at the mercy of the man who draws and fires in one movement.
You ought, with practice, to be able after a few shots to shut your eyes and as the pistol gets level, fire, knowing that your aim is right.
A fencer raises his foil with a straight arm and lunges. He does not need to aim along the foil. His sense of direction suffices. In the same way if your grip is right you ought to see your sights in line on the bull’s-eye without any necessity of correcting your aim as your pistol comes up, and the whole thing should be done in one movement—raising arm, sighting, and pressing the trigger.
The action becomes as mechanical as putting your spoon in your mouth when taking soup.
This is the whole art of pistol shooting. Keep on, practise, practise and again practise, until it becomes mechanical. Once acquired you will never lose it.
Only fire a few shots at a time, but several times a day. Do not worry about cleaning more than once a day if you have not the time. It is worth while spoiling the pistol if you can just get the knack of chucking your shots into the bull, instantly, with the minimum of time or movement of the pistol, like throwing stones into a bowl.