Take the latter first.
The main object of a bedside pistol is to frighten the intruder, without having to shoot, the next most important point is, if it has to be fired, that no innocent person in another room should be hit.
For the first reason, to frighten the intruder, the pistol should be as big and formidable looking as possible. A big double-barrelled, pistol-shooting dust shot would probably answer best, and need not be loaded; its looks are enough.
It is more formidable than the largest automatic. It can be fired without aim; even in darkness it is almost sure to hit what it is intended to owing to its spread of shot.
If No. 8 or less size shot is used and a light charge of powder, it would not go through a door or part.i.tion.
It must be remembered that such a charge is very deadly at close range, more so than a bullet even, so should be fired only as a last resource, also it is of no use to fire at one of two people struggling together, it will hit them both.
For a burglar escaping, if care is taken to let him get well away, say thirty yards, before firing, it would mark him for identification. It is a very ticklish job to shoot at a man running away, as far as the law is concerned, and had better be avoided.
The other alternative for a bedside pistol is a .44 Smith and Wesson Russian model with gallery ammunition, and in the hands of a good shot this is the best of all, as he need not shoot to kill unless necessary.
They are now no longer made, but can still be picked up occasionally.
Now as to a pocket pistol to be carried un.o.bstrusively. It must be borne in mind that if any one is shot with a pistol the shooter may get into more trouble, and get less sympathy, than if he carried a pistol openly.
One sees advertis.e.m.e.nts giving ill.u.s.trations of vest pocket automatic pistols of minute size, particular stress being laid on their small size.
This is not the most important feature to be desired in pocket pistols.
A smoker does not complain of the size of his cigarette case, therefore a pocket pistol need not be smaller than a cigarette case.
Even these smallest automatic pistols are _thicker_ than a cigarette case and it is thickness which bulges out pockets, not superficial size.
As a rule, a very small automatic pistol means very small bore; small bore means inefficiency.
A pocket pistol of all pistols must have instant stopping power, as the shooting is done at a few feet or even inches off.
A pistol which does not instantly render the a.s.sailant harmless is worse than useless. It makes the a.s.sailant angry and desperate; he also knows that now if he kills his man he can claim self-defence, having been shot at first.
Very few wish to kill their man. He can be held off with a pistol which commands respect, but a little toy is only laughed at.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 11. COLT DERRINGER .41 calibre, rim fire]
These modern small size automatic pistols are built on a mistaken idea that they are the modern prototype of the old Derringer pistol, which was the most deadly pistol in existence, and the weapon used most frequently in old-time saloon shooting quarrels.
The Derringer was a vest pocket pistol smaller and more compact than most vest pocket automatic pistols, but it was not a small bore pistol. (See Plate 11).
It was just the essential parts of a big powerful pistol, shooting a big powerful cartridge.
The want it fulfilled was a pistol having great power in a small compa.s.s; one shot was all that was required, as the shot was fired at very close range.
Some Derringers had a second barrel below the other, but the typical Derringer was a one shot pistol.
Now if you take a big single shot pistol, how would you reduce it in size to fit the waistcoat pocket?
First you would cut off the barrel except the actual chamber in which the cartridge lies.
Then you would take off as much of the hammer as is compatible with leaving enough grip for the thumb in c.o.c.king.
Then you would whittle away all the stock till only the lock mechanism remained; and this was practically what the Derringer was.
This could be still further improved upon by making it "hammerless"; that is with an internal hammer.
The Derringer was a rim-shot fire cartridge. My pistol would shoot a central fire shot.
For those who desire to be able to shoot several shots rapidly and who do not care to carry two Derringers, an automatic pistol built on the Derringer principle might suit them.
The difficulty is that the reciprocating mechanism takes up room. It is attempted to overcome this by making the pistol shaped like a hammer, the stock coming at right angles out from under the middle of the barrel, but this is awkward to hold, and to shoot.
One good shot, well directed, is worth a whole pistol full of shots blazed away.
This is not the popular opinion, for, as long as a constant fire is kept up, and plenty of smoke and noise, people think great things are being done. It is only after all is over and there is no result that they begin to wonder what it was all about.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 12. COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL .25
Capacity of magazine, 6 shots. Length of barrel, 2 inches. Finish, full blued, with case-hardened trigger, slide lock safety and grip safety, or full nickel plated; rubber stocks. Weight, 13 ounces. Length over all, 4 inches. Cartridge, cal. .25, rimless; smokeless; metal patched bullet.]
The typical _Air Raid_ newspaper report says, "He fired at least three tray loads of cartridges, the stream of smoke could be distinctly noticed"; and the reporter is in ecstasies, and the unimportant detail that all this "losing off" resulted in nothing does not occur to him.
It is the noise, not the results of shooting, that impresses and frightens people.
If noiseless firearms were invented n.o.body would pay the least attention to an air raid except the people actually struck.
A woman was taken to an asylum a raving lunatic after an air raid. She was near some anti-aircraft guns which had been firing, no bombs were dropped near where she was. It was the mere noise of firing that frightened her.
It is the noise that frightens game; I have shot one bird after another out of a covey of black game on the ground. The rest did not fly off at the shots because I was hidden and was using a ".22 short" rifle and the noise of a waterfall drowned reports.
If I had fired a shotgun at one, the rest of the covey would have been off at once.
For actual protection in a house at night without endangering any one, a big pistol loaded with blank ammunition (black powder so as to make plenty of smoke and a little "red fire" powder added to make plenty of flash) would drive off almost any burglar.
I think this is the best house protection for a houseful of women to have by their beds at night. The only thing is to avoid burning peoples eyes or setting things on fire when "losing off."
"A stern chaser" of coa.r.s.e salt is a good man stopper without being fatal and the pain makes the victim think he is mortally wounded.
CHAPTER XLI
DRESS
The dress one can wear when pistol shooting is limited to what the company present is wearing at the time.