This article contains affiliate links.



What does that mean?










I have a confession to make, and it's rather embarrassing. I'm not all that great with pistols. That's not to say I'm a bad pistol shooter, but it definitely lags behind my other skills. As much as I enjoy marksmanship and shooting, my focus always trends back towards rifles. This was never more apparent to me than my first review assignment writing for a print magazine.



The assignment was a 1911. In particular, it was an Iver Johnson Eagle LR Special. One of the writing guidelines for the magazine was that a 5" pistol had to be shot for groups at 25 yards. Without going into details, let's just say that I had a hell of a time trying to use pistol sights for groups at 25 yards. It was such a challenge for me that I tend to decline reviews for pistols unless I can mount a dot to them. Even then, I'm simply not as stable with a pistol as I am with a rifle- regardless of the position.



In January 2022, I thought I was going to address this. I had a good interview with Josh Shaw (USPSA Grand Master and instructor for Green Ops Training), and I had in my mind that this was my time to become a pistolero. Well, that ended up not happening. Life and interests went elsewhere.



Back to the Training Zones



As a refresher, I recently talked about a Martial Marksman's training zones. I dubbed the space between 0 and 50 yards to be the "critical zone." In the grand scheme of capability, it's this space that a marksman must be absolutely capable. It is, by far, the zone where we are most likely to engage a threat in the real world, whether it's a home defense situation, concealed carry, or even Scenario-X.







You can cover this 0-50 zone with a variety of tools. Rifles are an obvious choice, especially at the back half of the zone and beyond. Shotguns also stand out as a particularly powerful tool. This zone was also a big driver for my own foray into the PCC/SMG format. The humble handgun seemed mundane in comparison.



But I have to be honest with myself...that line of thinking that pistols are "mundane" is my own bias at play. In fact, when you dig into it, pistols might even be more interesting.



The Case for Handguns



This is every bit a justification for myself as it might be for you, so bear with me. For at least a year, now, I've been planning and pining over a new semi-custom precision bolt action project chambered in .223 Remington. The goal of the project is a rifle that works well enough out to 600 yards that I could use it both for competition purposes as well as a trainer for larger calibers. .223 is certainly cheaper to shoot than large rounds, and a .223 bolt action has a huge fun factor to it.







However, I couldn't get around my current circumstances. The reality is that all of my local ranges only go out to 50 yards,