Today we’re still covering things to consider when you’re looking to buy a pistol for competitive shooting. There are many factors to be considered, such as what competitions you plan to compete in, what divisions in those competitions, action type, and availability of holsters.
- Action Type: Certain divisions in games like IDPA, and others we well split up guns into different divisions based on the action type. For example, IDPA Stock Service Pistol requires pistol to be of the double action variety, so Glocks, M&P’s, decocker CZ’s etc, all fit into this division.
- Manual Safety or Internal: Some people prefer a pistol with a manual thumb safety. We usually don’t. Too many times we have seen experienced shooters come out of the holster, get a quick sight picture, and then fumble with the safety costing themselves several seconds. This is really a personal preference, and something that you need to decide for yourself.
- Holster Availability: Some of the more obscure pistols do not have a lot of companies making quality holsters for them. This used to be a bigger deal than it is now and you should be able to find someone relatively locally that can make a custom holster for just about anything. The other thing to think about is magazine carriers for your obscure pistol. If you decide to go the custom route, you may want to have that person make you some mag carriers as well.
- Magazines: Are magazines available for the pistol you want to compete with? Generally, we think you should have at least 5 magazines for any competition firearm. This gives you enough to plan out your reloads on the bigger stages, and flexibility in the case of a malfunction.
