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SHOOTING TO LIVE
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round or even jumping round if the extent of the turn warrants it. It does not matter how it is done so long as the firer faces each fresh target squarely and is thus enabled to retain the pistol in its original position, i.e. in alignment with the vertical centre-line of the body. In firing at a crossing target (“running man”), it will soon be observed that 90 per cent. of all the misses arc traceable to firing ahead of it or, as a man accustomed to the shot-gun would say, to “leading it.” This holds good even when the range is only 4 yards and the target only travels at about 3 miles an hour. This is not the place for a controversy over the rival merits of “landing” a moving target or “swinging” with it. Our purpose is merely to assist instructors in correcting their pupils’ mistakes, and we content ourselves with pointing out that, distance and speed of target being as stated, a bullet travelling at eight hundred feet a second would strike only about three-quarters of an inch behind the point of aim. We now turn to the two other methods of close-quarters shooting previously referred to. These are, respectively:— The “half-hip” (Fig. 13).
Fig. 13.— “Half Hip” Position