< PreviousWWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKILLUSTRA TIONS PA G E F m i N G P o s i t i o n a n d i t s P b e l i m i n a b i e s . ■ 1 9 - 2 3 Lo^vding . 26-29 Unloading ...... 30-32 Reobuits' T abget ...... 34 " T h b e e - Q u a b t e b H i p " P o s i t i o n . . . 3 9 " H a l f - H i p " P o s i t i o n 4 6 " Quab tb r " OB " Close- H ll'" Pos iti on . . 4 7 Tw o - H a n d e d , S t a n d i n g . . . . . 4 8 Tw o - H a n d e d , P b o n e . . . . . 4 9 F i r i n g f r o m b e h i n d T e l e p h o n e P o l e . 5 0 , 5 1 PiuiN OF Range ...... 65 U n i f o r m H o l s t e r a n d I ^ a n y a r d . . . 8 2 S h o d l d e b H o l s t e r . . . • • 8 5 , 8 6 B e l t - H o l s t e r f o b C u t - d o w n R e v o l v e r . . 8 7 - 8 8 .-ii WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKWWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKCHAPTER I P U R P O S E S O F T H E P I S T O L By "Pistol" is meant any one-hand gun. This book is concerned rvith two types only: (1) pistols with revolvuig cj^linders eaiTjdng several cartridges, and (2) self-loading magazine pistols. For convenience, t h e f o r m e r w i l l b e r e f e i Te d t o h e n c e f o r t h a s " revolvers " and the latter as " automatics." The word " revolver" has long been accepted by dic tionaries in almost every language. If " automatic " has not yet been quite so widely accepted, it is, we thinlr, weU on the way to being so, and we shall not be anticipating matters unduly if we continue to use it in the sense indicated. Excluduig duelling (since it is forbidden in most countries and appears to be declining in favour even m those countries in which it is permitted tacitly or otherwise), there seem to remain two primary and quite distinct uses for the pistol. The first of those uses is for target shooting (i.e. deliberate shooting with a view to getting all skots in the ten-ring on a stationary target). Its second use is as a weapon of combat. 1 A WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK2 SHOOTING T O LIVE This book is concerned solely with the latter aspect, but it must not be inferred on that account that we in any way decry the sport of target shootmg. On the contrary, we admire the high degree of skill for which it calls and which we personally cannot emulate. We recognise the great amount of patient practice necessary to attain such skUl, and we can see that in suitable circumstances the inclusion of a target pistol in the camper's equipment would not ordy be a source of pleasure but might bo useful as Avell. Target shooting has its place and we have no quarrel with it. There probably will be a quarrel, however, Avhen we go on to say that beyond helping to teach care in the handling of fire-arms, target shooting is of no value whatever in learning the use of the pistol as a weapon of combat. The two things are as different from each other as chalk from cheese, and Avhat has been learned from target shooting is best unlearned if proficiency is desired in the use of the pistol under actual fighting conditions. These views are the outcome of many years of carefully recorded experience with the Police Force of a semi-Oriental city in which, by reason of local conditions that are unusual and in some respects unique, armed crime fiourishes to a degree that we think must he unequalled anywhere else in the world. That experience includes not only armed encounters but the responsibihty for instructing large numbers of police in those methods of pistol shoothig which WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKP U R P O S E S O F T H E P I S T O L3 have been thought best calculated to bring results in the many shooting aflfrays in which they are called upon to take part. There are many who wUl regard our views as rank heresy, or worse. We shall be content for the present, however, if in the light of the preceding paragraph we may be conceded at least a title to those views, and we shall hope to fortify the title subsequently by statistics of actual results of shooting affrays over a number of years. At this point it would be advisable to examine very carefuUy the conditions under which we may expect the pistol to be used, regarding it only as a combat weapon. Personal experience will tend perhaps to make us regard these conditions primarily from the policeman's point of view, but a great many of them must apply equally, we thhik, to mihtary and other requirements in circumstances which preclude the use of a better weapon than the pistol—that is to say, when it is impracticable to use a shot-gun, rifle or sub-machine gun. In the great majority of shootmg affrays the distance at which firing takes place is not more than four yards. Very frequently it is considerably less. Often the only warning of what is about to take place is a suspicious movement of an opponent's hand. Again, your opponent is quite likely to be on the move. It may happen, too, that you have been running in order to overtake him. If you have had reason to beheve that shooting is likely, you will be WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK4 SHOOTING T O LIVE keyed-up to the highest pitch and will be graspmg your pistol with almost convulsive force. If you have to hre, your instinct -will be to do so as quickly as possible, and you wiU probably do it mth a bent arm, possibly even from the level of the hip. The whole affair may take place in a bad bgbt or none at aU, and that is precisely the moment when the pobceman, at any rate, is most likely to meet trouble, since darkness favours the activities of the criminal. It may be that a bullet whizzes past you and that you wUl experience the momentary stupefaction which is due to the shock of the explosion at very short range of the shot just fired by your opponent— a very different feeling, we can assm-e you, from that experienced when you are standing hehuid or alongside a pistol that is being fired. Finally, you may find that you have to shoot from some awkward position, not necessarily even while on your feet. There is no exaggeration in this analysis of fighting conditions. Here we have a set of circumstances which in every respect are absolutely different from those encountered m target shooting. Do they not call for absolutely different methods of training ? To answer this question, we must consider the essential points which emerge from our analysis. They appear to he three in number, and we should set them out in the following order :— 1. Extreme speed, both in drawing and firing. WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKP U R P O S E S O F T H E P I S T O L5 2. Instinctive, as opposed to deliberate aim. 3. Practice under circumstances which approx imate as nearly as possible to actual fighting conditions. In commenting on the first essential, let us say that the necessity for speed is vital and can never be sufficiently emphasised. The average shooting affray is a matter of split seconds. If you take much longer than a third of a second to fire your first shot, you will not be the one to teU the newspapers about it. It is literally a matter of the quick and the dead. Take your choice.. Instinctive aiming, the second essential, is an entirely logical consequence of the extreme speed to which we attach so much importance. That is so for the simple reason that there is no time for any of the customary aids to accuracy. K reliance on those aids has become habitual, so much the worse for you if you are shooting to five. There is no time, for instance, to put your self into some special stance or to ahgn the sights of the pistol, and any attempt to do so places you at the mercy of a quicker opponent. In any case, the sights would be of httle use if the light were bad, and none at aU if it were dark, as might easily happen. Would it not be wiser, therefore, to face facts squarely and set to work to find out how best to develop instinctive aiming to the point of getting results under combat conditions ? It can be done and it is not so very difficult. Everyone is famfiiar \vith the faet that he can WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK6SHOOTING T O LIVE point his forefinger accurately at an object at which he happens to he looking. It is just as easy, more over, to do so without raising the hand so high as the level of the eyes. That he can do so may he co ordination of eye and hand or just plam mstinct, call it what you wiU. Please try this httle experiment while sittmg at your desk. Imagine that you are holding a pistol in your right hand. Sitting squarely and keeping both eyes open, raise your hand from the level of the desk, but not so high as the level of your eyes, and with a straight arm point your extended forefinger at a mark directly in front of you on the opposite waU. Observe carefully now what has taken place. Your forefinger, as intended, ■wiU be pointing to the mark which you are facing squarely, and the back of yoru- hand wiU be vertical, as it would be if it actually held a pistol. You wiU observe also that you have brought your arm across you until your hand is approximately in aUgnment with the vertical centre-line of your body and that, under the directing impulse of the master-eye, your hand ^vUl he bent from the wrist towards the right. The elements of that little experiment form the basis of the training system which is elaborated in succeeding chapters. We cannot claim that the system produces naU-driving marksmanship, but that is not what we look for. We want the ability to hit with extreme speed man-sized targets at very short ranges under the difficult circumstances which WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKP U R P O S E S O F T H E P I S T O L7 have been outlined already. Nail:di'iving marksman ship will not cope with such conditions. In this trahiing system nothing is permitted to interfere with the development of speed. For that reason we have steadily set our faces against competi tions or rewards of any kind. The mstant that competitions, with the accompanying medals, badges, etc., are mtroduced, men AviU try to shoot dehberately, whether consciously or not, and we find our object is being defeated. For long shots, and they are necessary occasionally, different methods must be employed; but even for long shots speed must stfil be regarded as essential, and any tendency to deUberate shooting should be discouraged by such means as the exposure of the targets for very brief periods only. The theories involved in the square stance, the position of the pistol in line with the vertical centre of the body, and the hand bent over to the right have proved in practice to be of immense assistance in the development of the desked standard of accmacy when shooting at speed. Though stiU very willing to learn, the authors doubt now whether any other methods would answer the particular purposes in view. In general, the training system given in this book may fairly be said to have achieved its object, but perhaps it is time now for the promised statistics to play their part in the discussion. The records of the particular pohce force of the semi-Oriental city referred to earlier show that the WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKNext >