Is loading without looking important to you? … and pistol shortlist comments.

[Itskeith]

Very very tempting (thanks) Robin.

Just got to move house first in the next month.

Already got an induction into a new club booked

[bootneckbob]

Hi, glad to see although I'm late to reply, the loading without looking has been dispelled as BS!!! You have to break your position in AP anyway.

So.. I was going to say don't discount Steyr because of this loading without looking rubbish, but seems you are now open to the idea. Don't think you'll find a better supported brand here than Steyr and there's a reason a lot of people use them.

I started AP about 8 years ago and bought the Steyr LP50 as I wasn't sure which disciplines I'd do. After my 1st year I did pretty well with it but was advised to get a dedicated single shot as I wasn't using the 5 shot rapid capability. I then bought a Walther LP400 carbon; a rushed impromptu buy from the Sportman gun center in Exeter as it goes. Great pistol but I traded again within a year for a Steyr Evo10e.

My though process at this point being concerns over Walther support and a belief the mechanical dry firing system might wear out as it felt 'fragile'. The Steyr is built like a truck in comparison and electronic so nothing to wear out. Well I was wrong about that as I had to replace the main circuit board on the pistol after a few years of use but as I said earlier Steyr UK are very good and the replacement part arrived in no time; quite expensive for a little circuit board/battery. Anyway, get into Covid and I couldn't break 550 despite shooting pistol now for 4 years so believing it might be the pistol (it was never going to be the pistol) I borrowed a a mates FWB P8X, bought another club mates LP400 (Alu) and of course had my Evo10e which I'd been shooting for 2 or 3 years or so at that point. Long story short after a month of shooting all 3 (lockdown) and studying the stats there was 1% point in my average between the 3 of them. I then decided to look at me and after reading a very good article (I usually send the link to it for new shooters) I put into practice the basics and smashed my PB and shot over 555 with the Steyr and the Walther. The FWB was back with it's owner by this point. My PB then was 559.

As I had the LP400 Alu and the Steyr Evo10e at this point and shooting almost identically with both I decided to take the best of both and bought the LP500 and sold the other two off. Now this part is important for the new shooter I think; all 10m target pistols will outshoot you but some will feel better suited to you than others. My Steyr had a Rink grip made for me but I never liked it as much as the standard Walther ones. The standard Steyr one isn't bad, but like I said it's a personal feel. I bought the LP500 based on the fit and feel of the grip and the pistol and although I bought the mechanical version it can be easily made electronic by swapping the trigger unit out. Support for Walther appears to be available now through East Midlands Range although I can't say I've had to use them yet.

Unless money isn't an issue and you can afford to buy again and again I'd be inclined to wait until you join the club and see if you can handle a few different models. Grip size is a factor and might be an additional cost if you go secondhand (right pistol wrong gripsize). Equally you could go for a really cheap SSP and shoot your first season with one of those to make sure AP is for you.

Sorry I went a bit off topic.....

[trajectory]

Is loading without looking important to you?

Been pistol shooting for a while, thought I'd heard of most things by now, but hey ho not heard of that. DONT DO IT would strongly be my advice.

When slow firing I was always told to rest my eyes between shots & developed a sequence to run through after firing to do so. Theres other aspects too such as relaxing other muscle groups & to some extent it depends a bit if you have a springer, a SSP or pre charged or CO2 pistol, but relaxing your eyes doesn't mean closing them while you are reloading to me.