"A Farewell to Arms" help!

[riverdog]

Don't apologize to us, you provided me with something to think on and original thinking is rare these days. I liked the essay for that alone. Last Time I read H. I didn't have a clue what an Astra was or if 7.65 was big or small. I'll have to get back into Hemingway, it's been a long time.

 

[Double Maduro]

OK, ignorance showing here.

Doesn't the term "Schutzen Stock" mean a stock with a hooked butt plate?

These stocks were designed for off hand target shooting and not for shooting from prone. This would make it a very poor choice for a "sniper rifle".

So, educate me.

DM

 

[akodo]

I agree with these guys, clip/mag is not an issue. Detatchable scopes were a big european thing, and hanging by the sling would have been just fine.

But i do think you have a valid point. Hemingway used HIS gun knowledge to write about a lt. who had a preconceived notion on guns, and then set about re-enforcing it.

" It was an Astra 7.65 caliber with a short barrel and it jumped os sharply when you let it off that there was no question of hitting anything. I practised with it, holding below the target and trying to master the jerk of the rediculous short barrel until I could hit within a yard of where I aimed at twenty paces and then the rediculousness of carrying a pistol at all came over me and I soon forgot it and carried it flopping against the small of my back wiht no feeling at all except a vague sort of shame when I met English-speaking people. "

To me, this is him constructing a guy who basically decides taht pistols are meaningless, silly, and dangerous to the user, rather than a tool. He probably totally ignored the lectures on basic riflery. As an officer, even a commander of infantry, this may be somewhat forgivable, because he woudl be in charge of organizing when to fire and all that good stuff, not necessarily firing himself.

BUT, he should have had the basic idea of 'put the front site on the target'.

I think about this phrase as if a 'gun newbie' posted his first range experience with a rented gun here on the THR, what would we say?

The fact that this little gun jumped so in his hand tells me he probably held it quite loosely, probably because he was afraid of it subconsiously. That's the only way I can see such a gun jumping like that. A serious novice would tighten his grip and try to improve. A guy convinced that guns were silly, useless, and a danger to the owner would shrug and think "oh well, it is because all guns are flawed"

Even the phrase 'let it off' to me conjurs images of a jerked trigger, where a guy decides to shoot NOW, closes his eyes, and yanks back. It is not the term a skilled gunner like hemmingway would use to describe firing a gun normally.

The it seems like he decides he is going to 'outthink' the gun by pointing it low to correct for his horrendous mistakes. This would be akin to a golfer developing a huge slice, so he lines up at the tee with his butt pointed in the direction he wants the ball to go. Something someone who was only screwing around on the golfcourse, with no real interest would do. Anyone with the smallest inlking of interest at golf would try changing the grip on the club, try a different club, seek out advice.

A novice shooter who was even somewhat serious about shooting wouldn't just aim 5 feet in front of the target to make up for his total lack of control of the firearm. Again, back to the grip, the novice who was seriously interested in learning would, I assume, strive to hold tighter, try different stances, (no, not true shooting stances, just his own ideas of what might work)maybe even try a different hand, or close one eye, etc etc. Barring that he would probably ask for advice.

And another spot where I agree with you is the refrence to what to me sounds like an expensive custom order target rifle as a sniper rifle. Really a gun to buy and have, but not really aware of what it was, what it did, or what a sniper did.(and lots of military guys were from ritzy families, where even if shooting was a pretty rare event, you were still expected to have some fancy dancy guns -usually a pair of doublebarrled shotguns with fancy woodwork minium, maybe a 2nd pair for a hunting buddy, and bringing these things along with other nicities into the field was pretty common. Officers had hellaciously big baggage trains)