Beginning Pistol

From Shooting Wiki

Contents 1 What you will need 1.1 A suitable Pistol 1.2 Ammunition 1.3 Hearing Protection 1.4 Eye Protection 1.5 A mentor 1.6 A coach

What you will need

A suitable Pistol

Remembering that there is a world of difference between a quality target pistol designed for ISSF competition, and a basic 'plinker', the following is a quick guide:

• for Air Pistol, the european manufacturers dominate. A quality target air pistol will deliver excellent accuracy!
  • compressed air/precharged pneumatic (CA/PCP) or CO₂?
    While there are a number of excellent hand-cranked Air Pistols available on the second-hand market (e.g. Air Match, FWB 65), most of the new Air Pistols available are CA/PCP.
    • Compressed air - typically, these operate with compressed air stored in a receiver built into the pistol at pressures around 180 bar. The compressed air can be from bulk storage (e.g. scuba tanks), or hand pumps (good exercise, and has the advantage that you are not dependent on supplies of compressed air).
    • CO₂ - with the current fashion for CA Air Pistols, most target manufacturers now concentrate on those pistols rather than CO₂ pistols.
  • electronic or mechanical trigger mechanism?
    • electronic trigger
    • mechanical trigger

the beginning pistol shooters would be well advised to start with a mechanical trigger

More details on Air Pistol specifications can be found at 10m Air Pistol 3.3 - specifications

• for the ISSF 25m rimfire events
  • semi-automatic or revolver?
    • .22 semi-automatics - at international competitions the european manufacturers dominate the market for these pistols. Their pistols come with excellent sights, adjustable triggers. Price is not always a guide to reliability!
    • .22 revolvers - while .22 revolvers are allowed within the ISSF rules for the rimfire events, the modern semi-automatic rimfire target pistols reign supreme in these events. You are extremely unlikely to see a rimfire revolver at an international ISSF competition.

• for the ISSF 25m centerfire event,
  • in reality, there are only two calibres suitable for this event;
    • .32 S&W Long (or the russian 7.62 variants), and
    • .38 Special (or .357 Magnum loaded to the same specifications)
      in practice, fashion leads the way and the .38 calibre is rarely seen at international competitions - this despite the fact that the .38 calibre is less liable to display 'flyers'.
  • semi-automatic or revolver?
    • semi-automatic pistols are the fashion. Their real advantage for ISSF events is that shooters do not have to alter their stance and shoulder position to re-cock for the next shot (no serious shooter would use double-action for this event).
    • revolvers are capable of accuracy equal to that of the semi-automatic pistols. One often overlooked advantage of a revolver is that 'malfunctions' are very rare.
      

The beginning shooter interested in the ISSF Center Fire event would be well advised to purchase a revolver rather than a semi-automatic.

• for the ISSF 50m event,
  The european single-shot 'Free' pistols reign supreme.

Ammunition

• for Air Pistol,
  • flat-nosed, waisted lead pellets
  • 4.5 mm (.177") target pellets come in two weights. Either will be suitable.
  • target quality pellets will be marked for diameter, usually in the range of 4.48 to 4.52 mm. For the beginning shooter this will usually make little difference.

• for the ISSF 25m rimfire events,
  • quality, standard velocity .22 Long Rifle
  • for the ISSF Rapid Fire Pistol event there are minimum velocity requirements.

• for the ISSF 25m centerfire event,
  depending on calibre of the pistol
  • .32 S&W Long (or in the russion 7.62 variants), using 98 grain wadcutter projectiles, or
  • .38 using 148 grain wadcutter projectiles

• for the ISSF 50m event,
  • quality, standard velocity .22 Long Rifle

Hearing Protection

Unfortunately, there are still people who will tell you that only wimps need hearing protection - there are also a large number of older shooters with various degrees of hearing loss, sometimes severe hearing loss!

• under ISSF 8.2.8, All shooters and other persons in the immediate vicinity of the firing line are urged to wear ear plugs, ear muffs, or similar ear protection - consider adequate hearing protection ESSENTIAL!.
• Ear protectors incorporating any type of receiving devices are not permitted for shooters - this does NOT prohibit electronic hearing protection - it does prohibit receiving devices to stop coaches from communicating with a shooter (except as per 8.9.5.2).

Eye Protection

Eye protection should be worn, even for those events where single shot pistols are used. Semi-auto firearms will eject the fired cases as a considerable speed and can easily injure an eye. ISSF rules limit the size of blinders and occluders, but eye safety should be of utmost interest to every shooter.

A mentor

The best 'investment' a beginning shooter can make is a mentor to:

• guide you through the etiquettes and protocols of club and competition shooting.
• advise you on pistol and ammunition selection
• buddy-system you through the early stages

A coach

The reality is that what you 'do', and what you 'think you do' are two very different things. Reading all the books and articles on pistol shooting will improve your knowledge, but will not enable you to objectively apply this knowledge to yourself. While do-it-yourself brain surgery is technically possible, it would be highly inadvisable - do-it-yourself coaching falls into a similar category.

It must be admitted that a number of top shooters have come from the do-it-yourself school, but there are easier ways! It is much more productive to have technique faults detected and corrected early...

Nothing (absolutely NOTHING) will improve your shooting ability like following the advice of a qualified coach!

---

See Pistol Fundamentals, for more detail on the fundamentals of technique.