Back in 2017 I posted a review of Himmelwright’s “Pistol and Revolver Shooting” book (1930 revision). In going through my archives I found that one of my historical handgun research team had scanned pages from the 1930 edition, mostly pages related to target design, and shared with me. The original book review is here.

Book Review – Pistol and Revolver Shooting (A. Himmelwright, 1930 edition)

From the reviews cited in the 1930 edition, this book was apparently one of the more popular books on shooting in the 1920’s.

The scanned pages are below

The American Standard Target, shown in the image above, was the most widely used target design for many years, probably until the 1950’s. It was designed for 50 yard shooting. The NRA B-8, probably the most popular bullseye style target in use today, is a modified version of the American Standard, but commonly used at closer distances than 50 yards. For shooting at closer ranges in the 1920’s, scaled down targets were used. This practice survives in the form of 1″, 2″ and 3″ dot targets used today.

The post World War 1 / 1920’s era was the start of most of the shooting drills and targets we use today. Other than the influence of Jelly Bryce-style hip shooting on FBI training, the standards and targets developed in the 20’s (not just the American Standard Target but also the Colt Silhouette Target) were the foundation of handgun training until the post World War 2 / 1950’s era.