Walter Winans

“ They do not know the difference between a shotgun or rifle. Both are “sporting rifles” to them and a military rifle is a “gun.”
A man does not put a razor to the throat of another in play, but he thinks it “humour” to take up a firearm, point it at another and pull the trigger.
The extraordinary thing is that if the “did not know it was loaded” man were taken to a range and asked to hit a target, he would miss it every shot, but he never misses his victim when he is playing at the game of “I did not know it was loaded.” He kills his victim every time. ”

“ England is the last country to use the revolver in the army, and is the last refuge of the revolver, just as Yellowstone Park is the last refuge of the buffalo.
For competition in England, practising will have to be done with a revolver, not an automatic pistol, and a deliberate aim taken at a black bull’s-eye on a white target. ”

“ In the same way some entirely distinct branch of learning may be of use to the inventor of firearms; but in all cases, this must be subservient to practical shooting knowledge; the man who tries to force his ideas onto a shooter, against the shooter’s expert knowledge, makes a mistake.
The highest authority can always learn something new from an expert; but the man ignorant of a subject who tries to teach an expert merely exposes his ignorance, like a politician who tells a general how to conduct a campaign. ”

“ If a man tries to make an automatic pistol contrary to the Laws of Nature, it naturally will not operate properly, he loses his temper, says it is just his luck, but he reasons wrongly.
If he studies the laws of mechanics, which are one form of the Law of Nature, and complies with them, his pistol will act properly; if not and he is ignorant of the laws of mechanics, his pistol will not act properly; it is not his “hard luck” but simply that he is trying vainly to work against Nature, and Fate holds him in a steel grip. ”

“ You need a model who is a shooting man, to pose correctly for a soldier shooting. Such a model is expensive, but you can get any one to pose as a man clubbing with the butt end of his rifle.
When I say that every able-bodied man should know how to shoot, and that it is a disgrace if a man cannot both shoot and ride, I am answered: “Shooting is a gift, I could not learn to shoot if I tried all my life.” This is nonsense. A man may [Pg 9] be more apt for it, which generally means that he has a liking for it; and this enables him to learn to shoot sooner and to become a better shot. ”

“ A man who is a crack shot with the gun, and who unfortunately is also a crack shot with the rifle in its restricted conventional sense, at slow deliberate aim, can perhaps be prepared for a duel by impressing on him to forget all he knows about rifle-shooting, and to imagine he is using a shotgun, but the moment he sees the back sight of his pistol in the actual duel, he will try to use it for deliberate aim and miss. ”

“ If an expert mechanic (even if he is a gunmaker) , who is not a shooting man tries to invent a firearm improvement by himself, and he finds it works in the workshop, he thinks that is all that is necessary, and the invention is a failure as no shooting man will use it.
The expert shot who is unmechanical, cannot put his ideas into practical shape, and if he does not go to a gunmaker and ask his help, the invention never takes shape; in this way some invaluable inventions never see the light, for want of a little mechanical knowledge. ”

“ I know an extremely feeble old man who for many years each morning has half a dozen shots with a duelling pistol rapid-firing, and although he comes and goes a tottering, feeble old man, he brings up his pistol and hits the bull’s-eye instantly, like a young man, when shooting. ”

“ We stood behind the two men who had tied for the Gold Medal, and were shooting off the tie.
He had just begun to say “my hat never blows off,”—when his hat soared off his head like a clay pigeon out of a trap, and landed just in front of the man who was aiming. My companion was a “hat worshipper,” one to whom his hat is everything. They hold it on when on a runaway horse. If it blows off they will dive under a train in motion after it, or do things to save their hat which would gain them the Victoria Cross in battle. ”

“ A good fencer is known by the small circle his point makes when fencing. In the same way a good pistol shot is known by the small circle his muzzle makes when raising it and firing.
I have seen men shoot revolvers at stationary targets, raise their pistol till it pointed vertically at the sky, aiming all the time, and then slowly bring the muzzle down till it was horizontal, and then begin to fish for the bull’s-eye, straining their eyes for nothing and not learning anything of the very essence of pistol shooting which is “lightning speed with accuracy.” ”

“ They go off and find a shooting gallery.
When they get there they go down a dark staircase, into a long, dark cellar with a glimmer of light at the firing point and a glimmer of light at the far end, illuminating a series of minute white cards with a microscopic black dot on each. Men lie down on mats, to which they have to grope their way, shooting miniature rifles at these minute spots.
Why, when a man wants to learn to shoot, has he to go into a coal cellar and ruin his eyesight seeing, as one shooter complained, “three front sights and two back ones”? ”

“ Now, however, the term “sportsman” is employed to mean a man who has never fired a shot or swung his leg over a horse, but one who is merely a kicker or hitter of balls, or worse, one who sits sucking at a cigarette watching others playing games. The things he indulges in are called “sports,” and it is “sports” which, before the war, were considered to overshadow all else, and were taught at schools and colleges.
A feeble old man, past active participation in “sport” can be, of course, excused if he keeps himself in health by playing golf, but a healthy young man should shoot or ride. ”

“ If with the focus correct for the one thousand yards you attempt to look at an object only as far off as your back sight or even your front sight, you will see only an indistinct blur.
A near-sighted man, shooting a pistol full arm stretch, without his glasses, sees his back sight a blur and his front probably not at all, and the target like a post impressionist picture. ”

“ Not knowing how to hold and shoot a pistol, has given rise to all those inventions of a portable rifle stock to fit on a pistol, so that the pistol can be shot like a rifle.
To begin with, such a stock puts the sights too close to the eyes, the noise is deafening and the accuracy very bad, compared with holding the same pistol at arm’s length as it should be held. It is merely the attempt to try and hold it steady by men who cannot shoot a pistol. ”

“ One does not want the sort of rifle so largely advertised as an ideal rifle for big-game shooting—a rifle which weighs as much as an arm-chair, balances like a poker, kicks like a horse, and is warranted to shoot into a two-inch bull’s-eye at four hundred yards, but is impossible to align on a rapidly moving animal at a few yards off, owing to its clumsiness and weight. ”

“ The Elliott Ear Protector acts on an entirely different principle and it reduces the noise of a heavy express rifle to a mere thump, like striking the fist on a wooden table. It takes all the sting out of the shot. ”

“ The public think that no one but an expert can possibly know if a firearm is loaded; that the only way to know is to pull the trigger, and if any one happens to be shot, well, that is unavoidable and nobody is to blame. ”

“ It is this want of knowledge of shotgun shooting which makes men shoot a pistol as if it were a rifle being used at a stationary target.
These men only understand lying down with a rifle, and poking about with the sights to find the target after they have put the rifle to their shoulder. Some have a lot of incantations first; they aim at the sky, bring the rifle down slowly, and then make a bull’s-eye on the wrong target as they naturally cannot know which is theirs of a string of targets, if they only fish about looking through a pin hole for it ”

“ The man who flies out at others is easier to manage, as you know what he complains of. But this man nurses his wrong and broods over it without letting any one know his grievance. He sulks, frowns, does not answer when spoken to, and his shooting goes to pieces, and he ruins the pleasure of the others. After all we are shooting for mutual pleasure and sport. ”

“ There is no doubt on this point, anyhow,—that one is justified in using a loaded revolver in self-defence, where an attack of such a murderous character is made as to threaten one’s own existence, or the infliction of serious bodily harm; and, if the assailant should be killed, yet the using of the revolver and so disposing of him would be deemed as having been justifiable. The same rule would apply to shooting an assassin who was attempting to kill someone else. ”

“ The public think that a bullet goes only where the shooter wants it to go, “You pull the trigger and the bullet does the rest” sort of idea.
They believe the bullet goes direct of itself to that object and stops there, when the trigger is pulled. They have no idea that the bullet may miss that object and hit someone beyond.
People will stand in the direct line of fire to watch a wounded buck in a park being shot, and are indignant if asked to move to one side. ”

“ Convention is the deadly enemy of progress. Simplification is the twin sister of progress. All improvements are the result of simplification, not of elaboration.
The public when they see some very elaborate invention say “how clever,” but the really clever inventor is the one who can make a simple apparatus do the work that formerly could be done only by a much more complicated apparatus, or even took several apparatuses to accomplish. ”

“ A clerk who, when writing, puts his nose right down on the paper, holding his head on one side, in fact a man semi-blind and suffering with extreme myopia made extraordinary good scores with a miniature rifle in a coal cellar shooting gallery, at a minute stationary bull’s-eye. ”

“ If, when a riot starts, he can instantly drop a ring-leader each time the crowd attempts a rush, or break the arm of any man trying to throw a stone, he can get the mob under control with much less bloodshed than if they get out of hand with impunity and the military have finally to be called out. ”

“ Very many pistol inventions are the result of a man who, shooting for the first time, discovers difficulties merely due to his own clumsiness and inexperience, and instead of consulting a pistol shot, invents something to overcome these imaginary difficulties. ”

“ Rabbits and hares can now be killed all the year round. A doe rabbit, dying in a snare or steel trap with a broken leg held by sharp steel teeth, lies suckling her young which have come to her, and the young die of starvation when she has died in torture. ”

“ It is hardly necessary to say that the wrongful use of a revolver as an offensive weapon is very heavily punished, it being provided that any one who shoots at a person or attempts, by drawing a trigger or in any other manner, to discharge any kind of loaded arms at a person with intent to commit murder, is guilty of felony and liable to penal servitude for life, or any less term, or to imprisonment for not more than two years with or without hard labour and solitary confinement. ”

“ When first trying it this necessity to get used to anticipating your adversary’s movements is very apparent, a man who can shoot very quickly and coolly at an iron target when standing side by side with his opponent does not see the other man, he is thinking only of time.
When facing his opponent and shooting at him he watches his opponent’s hand and tries to time him, that, is to say fire just before the moment his adversary’s arm is absolutely level to shoot, just as you time a pigeon out of a trap for when he is well clear and yet before he can make his dart. ”

“ There is now no use learning revolver shooting. That form of pistol is obsolete except in the few instances where it survives for target shooting, or is carried for self-defence; just as flintlock muskets even now survive in out-of-the-way parts of the world.
If a man tries to defend himself with a revolver against another armed with an automatic pistol he is at a great disadvantage.
The automatic is more accurate than a revolver, as the “blow-back” does not vary as much as does the escape of gas past the cylinder in a revolver. ”

“ To hit the enemy first is the all important thing, to hit him after he has hit you, on account of wasting time in taking a good aim, is a fatal mistake.
For extreme speed you can fire the moment the pistol is in the direction of the target even before you have raised your arm, continuing the raising of the arm as you fire and getting the next shot in as an aimed one.
Even if the first shot is a miss it disconcerts the opponent and may prevent his getting in a shot on you before you have time to fire the second shot. ”

“ A cool deadly shot can keep a big mob at bay. It is when police shoot and miss that the crowd begin to jeer and lose all fear of the police.
It is a great mistake to fire over the head of a man to stop him, it only makes him think you are a bad shot. ”

“ A man who has worked hard all his life to become a “crack shot” at a stationary target is not going to risk his reputation by being beaten by a school boy at a moving target.
At the revolver ranges, moving, disappearing, and rapid-firing competitions were instituted but had very little support; a few men shot, but half a dozen men do not constitute a big enough crowd [Pg 157] to warrant the keeping up of competitions which the bulk of shooters do not want.
On the Continent, shooting under practical conditions has always marked the shooting at rifle and pistol clubs. ”

“ A big-game shooter knows of many dodges to induce a dangerous animal who has hidden, to show himself, or charge.
Calling to an imaginary person behind the attacker as “Look out Tom, he’s coming your way, shoot,” will perhaps make a man, expecting an attack from his rear, expose himself to you in front. Throwing something towards him may make him move. The great thing is to keep him moving and prevent his shooting back.
If attacked by several men at the same time, take a fresh one for every shot, hit or miss, and then you can begin to take only those not already hit. ”

“ A very heavy trigger-pull prevents accurate shooting, because the rifle is always going off later than you want it to and encourages hanging on to the trigger.
The man gets into the habit of pressing on the trigger when he is not shooting. He knows the rifle will not go off unless he gives a tug at the trigger.
With a light trigger, a man knows that he must keep his finger clear of it, or he will fire his rifle accidentally.
When learning the handling of the single-shot pistol (the automatic must not be touched till the learner is familiar with the single-shot) , blank ammunition may be used. ”

“ It is to be hoped that after this war, men will spend their spare time in learning rifle and pistol shooting instead of wasting it in games, and will not close rifle ranges because they interfere with their golf links.
The fallacy that games are the best training for military service is exposed by a very interesting article in the Field newspaper.
I maintain that no man who has not the instinct to shoot ingrained in him, will shoot when under intense excitement and danger. If he is a player of games he will not shoot, but throw things at his adversary, or use his rifle as a pike or club. ”