It looks so much more effective to shoot things off a woman"s head or fingers; and she can wear long gloves in evening dress without exciting suspicion that she has steel gauntlets concealed under them.
When well arranged, the ball, two inches in diameter, and the aim taken to graze the top of the ball, a miss must be fully eight inches too low to do any damage to the a.s.sistant when she wears a steel skullcap down to her eyebrows under her wig of piled up hair.
Some do not even risk that, but, by an arrangement of a steel plate connected with a lever below it, and the whole hidden behind the "back cloth," the shot is fired at the plate a foot higher than the a.s.sistant"s head; this plate forces the bottom of the lever, armed with a spike, forward. The spike breaks the ball and immediately returns out of sight through the "back cloth."
Some natural object is painted on the scene over this hidden target for the shooter to aim at.
I give below a few exhibition shoots, ranging from real shooting, through "a.s.sisted" shooting down to "trick" shooting, and simple conjuring tricks.
The reader, if asked to shoot for a charity bazaar or to amuse people at a village fete, can choose from this list, according to the rigidity or elasticity of his conscience "in the cause of charity." And charity covers a mult.i.tude of sins.
It is curious how one never can tell what will be a success with the public.
A really difficult feat fails to impress the audience and a simple easy shot "brings down the house." What must be constantly borne in mind is that you must never make a bad shot, that spoils the whole thing.
You can cover up your mistakes sometimes.
If you hit the ace of hearts, have it handed round to the audience and go on to the next item. If a shot is encored do not repeat, go on with your programme.
To do something well and then, trying to repeat it, to make a miss, is a fatal mistake.
If your first shot at the ace of hearts just misses the heart by a shade, this does not matter.
Keep on shooting and make a good group "all cutting into one hole" and hand it round to the audience, thus covering up the traces of the bad first shot.
Stop shooting as soon as the hole cuts well into the pip. If you try one shot too many and get it clear of the "all shots into one hole" then you have made a fearful blunder--a three shot group is ample.
Never attempt anything which you are not able to do easily. To make a lot of easy shots without a mistake is far preferable than to try difficult shots with one or two failures.
If you can trust your nerve it is as well to keep the most difficult shot to the last, so as not to have an anticlimax. As a climax (if your conscience will permit you), give one or two "a.s.sisted" shots, so as to end brilliantly.
Always practise on the actual stage and with the same lighting as you will have to shoot under, when giving the exhibition.
If you do not do this you may find the light different, or so bad that you will not be able to do yourself justice.
A stage open to the sky, is, on a calm day, best of all, but there is the risk of a wind springing up. Always shoot on a stage elevated above the spectators so that all can see, and have the sun at your back.
On an open air stage you can finish as follows:
Have an old-fashioned .44 Winchester, black powder, repeating rifle. These can still be picked up at second-hand gunmakers" shops.
Get cartridges for it loaded with No. 10 shot.
Have a lot of the rubber b.a.l.l.s filled with water.
It looks most effective if the water is of various colours for alternate b.a.l.l.s.
Get an a.s.sistant to throw them straight up as high as he possibly can, and break them in succession.
With practice you can break them as fast as he can possibly throw them.
The higher and straighter up he throws them the easier they are to break and yet the more effective they look.
The stop b.u.t.t should be an iron box with a back sloping downwards, away from you, at an angle of forty-five degrees, deflecting the bullets into a tray full of sand.
Some "numbers" for the programme (range fifteen feet) I give below.
Put a playing-card up edgewise horizontally and cut it in half.
Be sure the background is such that you can see the white edge of the card against it.
If you get your elevation just right, the card will be cut.
Use a .44 calibre bullet in all shooting, as that gives you more leeway in case you are a little wrong in your elevation.
This is the most difficult shot of all and should not be repeated.
The same shot with the card vertical.
This is slightly easier, as one is less apt to miss horizontally than vertically.
The "a.s.sistance" in this shot is to have the card as much out of dead edge on to you, as the audience will stand without detecting it.
Unless a spectator is absolutely behind the shooter and looking over his right shoulder he cannot see if the card is not absolutely dead edge on.
The duffer"s way of doing this shot is to fire dust shot instead of a bullet.
Hitting the ace of hearts I have already described.
To hit several pips on one card is very difficult. It takes really good shooting even at the five yards" range to hit the six pips in succession on the six hearts.
Also this cannot be "a.s.sisted" in any way unless you fluke one pip when shooting at another with the .22 Colt target automatic pistol (or see Plate 4). When the "gallery ammunition" automatic pistol is invented air filled rubber b.a.l.l.s can be put in a row and broken in quick succession. In "a.s.sisted" shooting they are made of dark rubber with a minute white bull"s-eye painted on each, and the b.a.l.l.s stand in recesses in a screen of the same colour as themselves, so that all but the white spot is invisible.
To the uninitiated it looks as if it is the minute white bull"s-eyes which are hit.
If the air b.a.l.l.s are large, the shooting is very easy. If shot is used instead of bullets any one can do this trick but the b.a.l.l.s must be far enough apart to avoid breaking two or more b.a.l.l.s at one shot.
To snuff a candle if the wick is aimed at requires quick shooting as more than a momentary aim at the wick dazzles the eyes.
It is better to put the candle in a candlestick and cut the candle to a predetermined length, and have the pistol sighted to shoot that much too high.
The aim is then taken at the bottom of the candle in order that the bullet hits the wick, and therefore there is no glare in the eyes from the flame.
The "a.s.sisted" way of doing this shot is to have a pair of bellows with nozzle curved at right angles, the side of the bellows towards you made of steel, the nozzle pointed at the candle wick, behind the candle, of course concealed so that when the background is struck the bellows blow the candle out.
I give a number of other shots and other information on exhibition shooting in my _Art of Revolver Shooting_ to which I refer the reader if interested in such shooting.
A most sensational looking shot is a purely "a.s.sisted" one.