124 
FOREST AND STREAM 
THE REVOLVER RANGE 
INDOORS AND OUT WITH THE LIT¬ 
TLE TWENTY-TWO TARGET PISTOL 
Part II. 
ITHOUT a single dissenting voice 
expert and seasoned revolver users 
assert that .22 smokeless ammuni¬ 
tion will spoil the barrel. They don’t com¬ 
plain bitterly about it but take it as a mat¬ 
ter of course. Well, let it spoil the barrel! 
It will not spoil instantly and there are 
more barrels where the first one came from. 
The rifling of the big guns in the Navy 
spoil but they keep on using smokeless pow¬ 
der and when the time comes to change 
the gun or rifling the thing is done. 
No doubt smokeless loads are more harsh 
on the barrel than “semi-black” and there 
may be something inherent in the .22 cal. 
that hastens its destruction; however, any 
one who has used smokeless, which in the 
.22 is certainly worthy of its name, cannot 
help but appreciate greatly its light recoil 
and report, its cleanliness and as has been 
intimated, its freedom from smoke. 
The explanation of why .22 cal. smoke¬ 
less ammunition alone of all others is in¬ 
jurious to the bore is that the amount and 
type of priming composition causes cor¬ 
rosion. It takes nearly the same amount 
of priming composition to ignite the pow¬ 
der charge of a .22 as it does one of the 
big-bore metallic cartridges which has so 
large a charge of powder in comparison 
with its priming, that taken together with 
the larger bore surface the corrosive ef¬ 
fect of the priming is neutralized. 
T HERE are thirteen varieties of .22 
ammunition not counting B. B. and 
C. B. caps and blanks. If you call 
for greaseless bullets the varieties are 
swelled to an appreciable degree and if you 
decide on smokeless rather than black an¬ 
other thirteen is added and should you 
prefer semi-smokeless still another addition 
is made to the family group. 
The original thirteen varieties are: Short, 
Short Spotlight, Short Hollow Point, Long, 
Long Hollow Point, Short Colt’s, Long 
Colt’s, Long Rifle, Long Rifle Hollow 
Point, S. & W. Long, Krag-Armory, Ex¬ 
tra Long, Shot. 
B. B. and C. B. caps have hardly enough 
power to warrant their use in an arm that 
allows an escape of gas between hammer 
and muzzle. The Short Colt’s, Long Colt’s, 
S. & W. Long and Krag-Armory are but 
names save for a crimping of the shell and 
the puny load in the. shot cartridge is not 
practical for anything we have in hand. 
Those cartridges having hollow points 
are for sportsmen who use the revolver as 
an auxiliary for small game on their big 
game hunting trips. The Spot Light cart¬ 
ridge serves as an amusement when used 
on an iron target in a gallery having a long 
enough range to show up their advantage 
in marking the hit. They will not flash 
unless shot against iron or something equal¬ 
ly as hard. Since the .22 Short and Long 
Rifle are better balanced loads than the .22 
By Fred O. Copeland. 
Long the latter may be taken from the list. 
The .22 Short is the ammunition for 
indoor work and the Long Rifle for out¬ 
doors. No cleaner cartridges can be de¬ 
sired than these same Short and Long 
Rifle loaded with smokeless powder and 
non-lubricated bullets. The makers say 
they are accurate and the most sceptical 
will have to admit they are clean to handle 
and to shoot. The grease on cartridges 
having lubricated bullets will melt in warm 
weather and the cartridges become as slip¬ 
pery as skinned grapes and as the non- 
lubricated are on the market, let’s have 
them. 
Twenty-two caliber ammunition is the 
least expensive that holds powder. It is 
almost impossible to say what they will 
cost over night as they have never lost 
sight of their more adventurous sisters of 
the stock market, but where the Short 
cost 12 cents two or three years ago they 
now cost 22 cents per box of 50 and the 
Long Rifle have jumped from 16 cents to 
33 cents. 
I F there are any left at this time of the 
year who are not fully sure the winter 
solstice is on let them go out and sit in 
the shade till on their dash for the furnace 
they admit in no uncertain tones that heat 
at any price is better than coal at any cost. 
It is right here near the coal bin that the 
revolver enthusiast may take pleasure in 
comfort. 
As for the range it will have been con¬ 
structed in the following manner: Secure 
a piece of iron 2 feet square and Vs to M 
inch in thickness on the cellar wall so that 
its upper edge is slanted out some 20 de¬ 
grees. The thing is easiest done by boring 
a hole in each of the upper edges of the 
iron plate through which wires may be 
fastened and run up or back to the most 
convenient woodwork. The base of the 
iron plate may rest on a dry goods box 
of the desired height and the plate will be 
heavy enough so that the impact of a .22 
bullet will not stir it and its angle will 
cause the bullets to flatten—not glance— 
and the spatter be deflected downward. 
Two wires fastened to the ceiling of the 
cellar and their free ends bent in the form 
of a hook will nicely suspend the card¬ 
board targets about a foot in front of the 
iron plate. About three feet in front of 
the target a 60-watt light should be fixed 
to the ceiling and a sheet of tin placed 
between it and the shooting position in 
order that the light may not be seen by 
the shooter but be thrown directly onto 
the target. 
Ten yards back from the face of the tar¬ 
get chalk or paint a line on the floor indi¬ 
cating the distance. The whole thing is 
inexpensive and perfectly simple with the 
exception of the lighting scheme near the 
shooting position. The idea is to hide or 
shade this light so that there will be no 
direct rays falling on the sights for in or¬ 
der not to have them blur they should show 
in silhouette against the target. 
HE one-inch bull’s-eye, four rings out¬ 
side and two inside, is the proper tar¬ 
get for the 10-yard range and as the 
rings are numbered from 4 to 10 the count¬ 
ing is easily accomplished since 10 shots 
are fired at each target, the possible being 
100. The bullet zips through the target so 
fast it scarcely stirs it though it hangs in 
mid-air, but if action is desired a cork may 
be suspended from a single wire and there 
will be action and to spare and the bullets 
will not be agitated off the iron plate. It 
is well to number the targets as the scores 
are made and keep them in order to prove 
that you are improving. 
The revolver is the hardest proposition 
of the entire firearms family to master and 
therefore advancement will not be over 
rapid. The group is the thing to lay for 
and it is far better to place your shots 
in or near the edge of the bull’s-eye than 
to almost center eight of them and leave 
two in the northeast curve of the fourth 
ring. It is right here that you will notice 
you are improving when the group thick¬ 
ens and there are no strays from the fold. 
If a shot is inside, on or touching a ring 
it takes the count for that ring. 
It is as easy to tell how to shoot a re¬ 
volver as it is hard actually to do it. The 
shooter will work out his own comfortable 
hold arranging his knuckles and joints well 
up on the stocks near the hammer, and one 
of those times when the bead of the front 
sight as seen through the U of the rear 
sight hangs for an instant on 6 o’clock of 
the bull’s-eye, ease her off so that the ham¬ 
mer will fall dead and sweet, not jarring 
the arm east, west, north or south. 
Practice develops a sense of direction, a 
feeling similar to that a trapshooter has 
which may be interpreted as confidence, 
that sixth sense which all who use any 
type of firearm must acquire before skill 
is really crowned. In an arm so small as 
a target revolver the trigger pull makes 
itself doubly felt and yet on the score of 
safety the thing should not be overdone. 
Around 2 % to 3 pounds pull will be found 
just right for the normal shooter. The 
pull is determined by hanging a weight % 
of an inch from the end of the trigger. 
ITH the advent of the first warm 
days of spring there comes the de¬ 
sire to be off in the open. Undoubt¬ 
edly the target revolver will go along and 
after a few shots at objects the revolver 
will be scrutinized with a new interest. 
That it has a six-inch target barrel and 
adjustable sights will be appreciated. Those 
same little sights are capable of more vari¬ 
ations than Old Black Joe on the banjo, 
and usually a little screw driver comes 
done up in tissue paper along with the 
revolver with which to play them. 
The club house of a trapshooting asso¬ 
ciation is an ideal place to be along just 
