Mage Maddox Announces Marksmanship Nirvana
Mage - noun - Archaic - a magician.
Throughout the ages, since the discovery of gunpowder and its adaptation to hurl projectiles, man has been in the pursuit of marksmanship excellence. Many lessons have been learned. Many hurdles still block his path. Here will be a discussion of but a few of the difficulties involved with the accurate delivery of a ballistic projectile.
At the dawn of civilization, Reggie Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China. Reggie is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking. While he did not originate the idea of using a tube to confine and direct propulsion of projectiles using gunpowder, he perfected many of the principles which elevated the practice from experimental to useful; particularly in regard to the proper aiming of the tube and ignition of the gunpowder.
Reginald Bartolomeo Baretta, a direct descendant of Reggie Sun Tzu, devoted his life and considerable engineering prowess to the perfection of ballistic tube design and gunpowder ignition mechanisms, which lead, in 1526, to the founding of Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta in Brescia, Italy. As a testament to his excellence and foresight, Reggie’s company prospers even today after more than 500 years of continuous operation.
The Monsignor of Sharpsburg, in whom resides the current incarnation of this Engineer of the Ages, known alternatively over the eons as Sun Tzu, Merlin, Bartolomeo Baretta, and Mage Maddox, toils even today at the task of marksmanship perfection. After almost a millennium, The Mage has succeeded in defining and simplifying the parameters necessary for marksmanship nirvana and has only to finalize the transition from theory to human physiology. This, then, is a status report on the continuing saga.
A plethora of complicated factors define the flight of a projectile from the time it begins movement near the breach of a barrel to the time of its terminal impact - hopefully somewhere close to its intended destination. One of these factors, perhaps the most important for handheld weapons, is the aim of the barrel during the time of projectile traverse. For this discussion, we will assume that errors and inconsistencies have been eliminated from all other factors.
A gun barrel rigidly mounted to prevent even the slightest movement when firing, and appropriately aligned, will deliver a projectile to the exact same target point every time - again, assuming no inconsistencies in all other factors, such as barrel & ammo quality, meteorological conditions, etc. With handheld shots, therefore, inaccuracy creeps into the equation due to movement that is imparted to the weapon after the correct aiming process is complete. Primary among the causes for this movement is the inability of a human to hold the weapon completely stationary during the process. Two factors cause the barrel to deviate from its proper alignment - 1.) the inability of a human operator to hold the barrel steady during aiming, and 2.) movement imparted to the barrel by operation of the trigger.
The process of aiming a handheld weapon is not completely intuitive and numerous mechanical devices (sights) have been devised to assist in the endeavor - iron sights, optical scopes, holographic scopes, laser pointers, etc. While improving the ability of a human to coordinate hand-eye manipulation, the use of any of the various sighting devices does not, however, eliminate the tendency of the human to impart movement to the weapon while completing the alignment process. More or less movement is determined by a number of factors including the ergonomic design of the weapon, its weight, and the physical prowess of the human. In the final analysis, movement during the alignment phase cannot be completely eliminated in handheld operations.
Mage Maddox has suggested that shooters who experience more movement during alignment than others might be exacerbating the problem by excessively focusing on attempts to hold steady. Instead, he postulates, acceptance of a small amount of movement, as long as it is small enough to continuously roughly approximate the intended target, will yield better accuracy than trying to “time” the ignition with the movement of the sight through the exact center of the bullseye. As long as, Merlin suggests, the sight does not vary excessively from the target a shot will be imparted that results in acceptable results - or at least as good as the particular man-machine interface is capable.
With the alignment problem solved as described above for geriatric shooters and others with limited hand-eye coordination Mage Maddox has defeated another obstacle. The physical connection of a human trigger finger to the mechanism which initiates the ignition of a cartridge presents another opportunity for barrel alignment to be degraded.
Typical handheld weapon operation requires a trigger to be actuated when the shooter has completed the barrel alignment process. Actuation of the trigger mechanism imparts a force on the weapon which would push it out of alignment if not offset by deliberate action of the shooter to counteract. Trigger designs that require relatively large amounts of force require more deliberate counteraction by the shooter. These opposing muscle movements tend to provide greater opportunity for a barrel to move out of alignment while the trigger is in operation.
A trigger design that requires a minimal length of travel and a small amount of operational force reduces the tendency of the shooter to induce undesirable movement which interferes with the maintenance of optimal barrel alignment. Mage Maddox has perfected the practice of modifying trigger mechanisms to produce insignificant lengths of travel between a given trigger’s resting state and its initiation of the movement of parts which results in cartridge ignition.
In addition to a reduction to the length of travel, the Mage has mastered the skill of reducing the amount of force necessary to move the trigger to its “ignition position”, thereby further reducing the opportunity for shooters to impart forces to the weapon which disrupt the alignment process.
The Mage Maddox Psychokinetic Trigger
Psychokinesis - [ sahy-koh-ki-nee-sis ] - noun - the purported ability to move or deform inanimate objects, as metal spoons, through mental processes.
A weapon of high quality, utilizing truly match-grade ammunition, equipped with an appropriate sighting system and operated under controlled atmospheric conditions can be easily adjusted so as to provide accurate barrel alignment. Such a weapon fired from a rigid mounting frame will deliver projectiles to the same spot repeatedly. Without the rigid mounting frame human error is introduced into the firing process, with trigger operation being the most likely source of any error.
The Mage Maddox Psychokinetic Trigger minimizes trigger-induced disturbances to the barrel alignment status at the time of cartridge ignition. With this system, the shooter merely “imagines” the correct timing of trigger movement and the weapon takes care of the rest. Marksmanship Nirvana is achieved. Rank amateur bulls-eye shooters become instant experts.
With The Mage Maddox Psychokinetic Trigger, you don’t need to spend countless hours in practice at the range or thousands of dollars on ammo. Just a few dry-fire exercises are required to learn how not to set off the trigger before you’re ready. More grins at every range session. Thumbs up from all your shooting buddies.
Disclaimer - Keep your bugger hook off the bang switch! This thing will go off if you touch the trigger. Don’t be a Dick!
