PLATE 6. HOW TO HOLD THE DUELLING PISTOL WITH SPUR (2)
Using the second finger for the trigger deprives the hand of a third of its grip on the stock. It employs a less sensitive finger for the trigger, as the first finger is always used for sensitive work, the second being only a gripper. Moreover, the first finger, if extended along the barrel when shooting an automatic, not only gets burnt and cut, as it lies along where the spent cartridge cases and powder gases escape, but it is apt to get jammed into this opening and stop the action of the pistol.
I shot an automatic pistol alternately with another man, which jammed when my companion shot it but not with me. I found he kept getting his first finger into the mechanism, as he was using his second for the trigger.
Now as to holding the stock of an automatic pistol. The United States Regulation Colt .45 Automatic has the best grip of any, and one can hold it, as I have advised for the duelling pistol, right up hard against the projection over which the recoil slide operates.
The smaller Civilian and Police Colt have not quite as good a stock, rather more upright; the same applies to the Savage and the Smith & Wesson.
The German Military Regulation Automatic has a nice stock but it is rather too thick. It is well balanced and at the proper angle.
The “Hammer Head” stock attachment to the barrel of some automatic pistols I find most awkward to hold, and impossible to get a sense of direction with. One finds oneself far below the object one wants to hit and the muzzle has to be canted up with a most wrist-spraining movement. The recoil comes on the wrist at the same angle as if you put the first joints of your fingers on a table, and the palm of your hand against a leg of the table whilst keeping the arm horizontal.
I can neither hold nor shoot in this position; it is all so awkward. If a man lowers his head, he can look along the sights, but if he keeps his head up as he should and does in shooting any other pistol, it is very difficult to align the sights except by bending the arm and raising the elbow. In any case I cannot shoot with such a stock, so can give no instruction in its use.
In a later chapter I will give my ideas of what should be altered in automatic pistols from a shooter’s point of view; the “Hammer Head” or “right-angle” stocks being one of these.