‘Now, you’ll be holding the gun in your right hand, but this doesn’t mean the support hand is not important. Quite the contrary. The support hand stabilizes the handgun and makes the shooter two to three times more accurate than if the shooter used just one hand. Why? The shooter must perform two tasks with the shooting hand when firing a gun: hold the gun and press the trigger. I deliberately use the word “press” not “pull” because just like pressing a doorbell button, you press the button until the bell rings, and then stop. You don’t continue pressing until the button breaks. To me, the word “pulling” is the whole hand and arm, and “squeezing” is something performed by all the fingers.’

He loaded the revolver, handed it to Jane, and told her to aim at the target. He stood behind her and, using his hands on her shoulders, got her to stand in a semi-crouched position, then put his arms on hers to help hold her steady.

‘OK, slowly press the trigger and fire one shot only.’

Jane could feel his hot breath on her ear as he spoke. Making sure her fingers and thumb were in the correct position, she aimed at the target and pressed the trigger. The loud bang made her jump and the recoil made her hands jerk upwards, but Elliott held them steady.

‘Not bad. You at least hit the target.’

‘Only thanks to you helping me.’

‘OK, on your own now.’ He stepped away from her.

She got into position, took a deep breath, then fired, but missed the target.

‘Do you know what you did wrong?’ Elliott asked.

‘Was I not holding it correctly?’

‘No, you were, but you flinched just before you pressed the trigger. It’s known as recoil anticipation, and one of the most common reasons shooters miss the target. That said, it’s not difficult to fix with some “dry fire” practice.’

‘What’s dry fire?’ she asked.

‘Practicing with an empty gun. When dry firing, there’s no recoil to worry about, so the anticipation and flinching goes away quickly. The key is to dry fire like it is live fire by maintaining a firm grip, so when there is recoil, the firm grip is there to reduce it. Not up, not down, not sideways, just firm and steady.’

‘Practice makes perfect.’ She smiled.

He didn’t smile back. ‘Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect,’ he said firmly.

*

Dabs had come off the long range and was quite eager to get home, so he came to see how Jane was doing. Jane was now in one of the stalls, wearing ear protection, and a new human silhouette target had been brought to ten yards from the firing line. She fired her three shots in quick succession and removed the ear protection as Elliott pressed clearance on the door and Dabs came in.

‘How’s it going?’