Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-12
TRYOUT AIDS
GUN SELECTION
Mechanical Idea That Makes
It Possible For Shooter
to Get His Needs
BY "TRAPsHOOTER"

The chances that a shooter has of
picking from stock a gun that is
-perfectly-suited to him are
about two in hundred-certainly not
more than five. This does not mean
that you cannot go into almost any
gunstore and select gun that Will
enable you to give a fair account of
yourself at the traps or in the field,
for you can, because of the studied
efforts of gunmakers to strike aver
ages to fit. Indeed. this is one of
the wonders of the art of gunmaking.
But to attain the ideal of perfec-
tion. the trapshooting gun should fit
the shooters shoulder, arms, hands,
fingers, eyes, cheek; in fact, it should
fit him from head to foot, and within
small fractions of an inch, for every
part of a mans body has bearing
on his skill at the traps. Other essen
tials of the perfect gun are proper
weight, balance and trigger pull.
Invents Try Gun
With so many exacting conditions
to be met, 1t would seem that the fit
ting of a gun to a shooter was con-
siderable undertaking, yet by no
means is this true. A mechanical
genius has simplified the operation
by inventing the try-gun. He has
worked out a system of applying set
screws and lock nuts to an ordinary
gunstock, thereby making possible
any combination of stock, drop of heel
or comb, angle of pitch, cast-off cast
in, etc.
When fitting a gun to shooter, the
expert sizes up the candidate in
general way, then hands over the try
gun to be thrown to the shoulder
without any adjustments having been
made. A critical examination will
show, for instance, that the stock is
too short, the drop is too great and
the cast-off is insufficient. These
faults are discovered by the expert
standing back of the shooter, in front
of him and by having the shooter rest
the gun in the hollow of his arm and
reach for the trigger with his first
finger.
The set screws are adjusted to COM
pensate for these faults and locked
in place to permit the shooter to try
firing at few targets. If the gun
it's naturally and goes back to the
same position every time the shooter
throws it to his shoulder, and fair
number of broken targets result. II is
safe to assume that the fitting has
been a success, while If the gun does
not hs ndle easily and but few or no
targets are hit, the adjusting process
IS continued. When 1t Is decided that
a good fit has been secured, measure
ments of the adjusted stock are made
on a card designed for the purpose
and it is sent to the gunmaker to
guide him in fashioning a stock.
Fortunately for the man who al
ready owns a gun that does not fit,
n new stock can be made according
to the fltter's specifications. or. in
many cog. the old stock can be al
tered. 1t frequently happens that but
o single detail needs to be changed to
make a gun fit to perfection, but that
little change in the gunstock may
make a big change in the shooters
average. Therefore, the Importance
of having the gun fitted to you rather
than trying to fit yourself to the gun.
Only recently a man who had tried
trapshooting with indifferent success
about 10 to Is out of 50-went to a
club and had a try-gun fitted to him.
He Immediately proceeded to smash
targets like an expert. He broke %
out of 25 clay pigeons when his gun
fitted him. His showing proved that
he was better able to judge the course
and the speed of the flying birds"
when his shooting iron was made to
his measure.