The automatic pistol has a softer recoil than a pistol or especially a revolver, owing to this absorption of recoil.
It is more of a push, less of a blow.
Therefore, when you have found the heaviest load you can stand in a single-shot pistol, you will find you can use a heavier cartridge in an automatic pistol, without any more discomfort.
You will therefore not have to aim so far in front with an automatic pistol when shooting at moving objects, and not have to take so high an aim at distance objects to allow for the drop of the bullet—as with a revolver.
CHAPTER XVIII
SHOOTING AN AUTOMATIC PISTOL
Before everything else, be sure you have the right cartridges for the pistol you are using. If you have too strong a cartridge you may have a fatal accident. If too weak a cartridge the mechanism will not operate. A weaker cartridge than that for which the pistol is made will prevent its working properly or, in fact, working at all, unless the closing is assisted by the hand, and then it ceases to be an automatic pistol.
It is best to begin practising single loading. The best way to do this is through the magazine so as to get familiar with the magazine. Take out the magazine, put in only one cartridge, put back the magazine, and operate the slide. The pistol is now a single loader, ready to shoot.