Evening star., 1916-05-08
With Pistol and Revolver.

The average man has some pretty
vague ideas as to the possibilities in
connection with shooting at a target
with the short arm. To start with.
many believe that pistol shooter is
born and not made. and that IL man
has it in him to be good shot all
he has to do is to take up the re-
notion is that if one has revolver
tucked away in the hip pocket pro-
lection is positively assured. The
queerest idea of all is that the expert
shot can do things with the short arm
such as one reads about in the fiction
magazines In fact. it almost seems
as though there were few subjects.
except. possibly. astronomy, about
which the average man knows less.
1t is a well known fact that no man
is interested in a sport about which
he knows nothing. am gong 10
try to describe this branch of the
shooting sport and / am sure that
you will feel your interest growing in
proportion to the knowledge you nave
of the sport.
I think the first and most impor-
tant thing is to give the size of the
target commonly used. the distance
and the mechanical possibilities OF
the sport. for good many of the
fiction stories you read in which
shooting is described are not only
highly improbable from the stand
point of the amount of skill involved,
but they are actually mechanically inn
possible
There are two kinds of targets now
in use for shooting with a pistol and
revolver-the standard American tar
get for fifty yards has bulfs-eye
eight inches in diameter with two in
ner rings, the ten or center being S.3
inches; the standard outdoor target
distance under the ruleS} of the United
States Revolver Association.
For indoor shooting the distance is
reduced to twenty yards, and the target
is reduced so that the inside ring is IL
inch. The target used by the National
Guard organizations and as adopted
by the War Department has a five-inch
bulrs-eye with no inner rings. and is
used outdoors at ranges from fifteen
to seventy-five yards. 1t is a coarser
target-that is, the corresponding rings
are larger than on the standard Amer
lean target
Right here | want to say that one of
the causes for confusion is the num-
ber of different classes Of pistols and
revolvers which are used. The United
States Revolver Association recognizes
! four different classes. First. we have
the target revolver which, roughly. is
a revolver with adjustable sights and
having barrel including the cham
ber of not over ten inches and distance
between sights not over ten inches. The
trigger pull must be not less than "
pounds Second. we have the target
pistol class. which includes all single
shot weapons of barrel less than ten
inches and sights not more than ten
inches apart. The trigger pull on tar
get pistols must be not less than two
pounds Third is the military revol-
yer. which is similar to the target re-
volver. except that the trigger pull
must be four pounds. the sights fixed
and the barrel of standard military
length, which is from to 61a inches.
The pocket revolver is the fourth of
the classifications and at present is
somewhat similar to the military re-
volver. except that the barrel must
not be over four inches. not including
the chamber. and the total weight of
the arm must not be over two pounds.