To Sidearm or not to....

[SWATORNOT]

I thought that maybe some of the visitors to the site could use some helpful information on the sidearm issue. There was a thread about the point of having one on the Special Ops forum that I replied the following to;



The point of a pistol/sidearm is if your in a jam, that or your marker is. The point is not the distance nor accuracy of the sidearm, but the effectiveness of one. Say your setup in a prime position and you have somebody comoing up behind you. You could swing your marker around but by that time the target in front of you has noticed you, as well as the ones behind you. Your now in a bind. Swinging your primary around can be difficult for some people depending on the lenght of the barrel, and the overall setup. having a side allows you to easily and and very quickly to manuver into shooting position.

Generally the side arm is a 'band-aid", your in bind and you need a quick fix in which your sidearm is the source. You may see it as a pointless waste of money or effort, but then again you may have become the "Ultimate Sniper." Maybe you never have been compromised or found yourself in a position where having a sidearm may have just saved your butt and kept you in the game longer.

Some people see these as a waste, others see them as a blessing. You may not always need the sidearm, but it sure is a good thinig to have with you at all times because you never know just when your going to need it. You can say now you won't ever need a sidearm but one day your time will come and you will fully understand their purpose.



If anybody would care to elaborate more feel free or poitn out things that I may have missed out.

[LilBigMan]

Good post SWAT. Shooting your pistol will reveal much less of you to the enemy then shooting your primary would. I have a stock on my gun, so if I ever find a guy at a tree pretty close to me, I would end up showing half my body trying to get a shot that the guy, but if I decided to pistol his ass, then only part of my hopper and a little bit of my forearm would be exposed.

[Snake Eyes 88 USMC]

I have a CoreZX w/ aCOPS911 Tactical thigh holster.
I really don't carry my pistol all that often anymore.
Only becouse I need to get a new holster, the Thigh rig was a good idea at first but it makes me to bulky becouse I get into alot tight positions.
I need something close and tight to my chest meybe even a Paintball Pistol shoulder hoster.
The concept of having one is a great idea and even if it doesn't get packed by me it's always on the field carried by another one of my team mates.
Ofetn times one of us will pack and somehow it will find it's way into someone hands by the end of the day.
It's like a small compact community weapon out on the field to be used by whoever needs it.
That CoreZX has saved myself and others more than once.

[SpecialK]

"side arms" are hardly ever used and when they could be used the user usually doesn't think about it (say that ten times fast)



just go out with a stock class harness, 12 grams and your pistol. Much lighter and faster than anything else.



does the 2 words Haul ass come to mind?

[Kozz]

I go pistol only a lot of times. Heck, at Hell Survivors when the castle siege begins, once I move up to the wall of the castle I sling my A5 down and draw the pistol. I will tend to find an open window and knock out a few players on the stairs or around the top of the walls. Very effective. Can't do it with an A5...too big unless it's a pistol version of the A5 like a few of us have done. I use an Armotech Zeus G2 in my Cops thigh holster. I will also use my Crosman 3357 with .50cal paint when I play with my Thursday group during the spring and summer.

[LilBigMan]

[Tagged Post]

[evillepaintball]

i have one, and in the 4 years that ive owned it, its been used once. and that was because i had a few balls at the end of the day and a couple 12s, so i went 1v1 with some new guy borrowing a 98. i probably would have had him too, but some other guy randomly came in a shot him first.

[Medina]

I'd go w/ a Tac-8 for the hell of it. That's what tax returns are for!

The only time I'd ever use it though is when I have one or two opponents that I DEFINITELY have the drop on. Otherwise, it stays in the holster leaving on-lookers w/ their mouths open.

[ricebrnr]

I too had a pistol. A Sidekick Semi for about 2-3 years. In that time I only drew it twice due to marker issues (out of air/paint/barrel break). If you pay attention to your paint/air this reason for having a pistol is neglible. And this is a skill any good player should obtain. As for barrel breaks, well .....

Other than that I tried playing with pistol only a few times.

Generally speaking, I always recommend putting the money into your primary equipment first. Hop up your marker, get a good harness/vest, upgrade to HPA, etc... When all that is done, and you want something to spice things up then sure, but imho its a waste before then.

[beaker]

Great point Rice. I bought my pistols after my scepter, and even then I still find little mods to make my primary more effective. But if you're heavy on the ol' trigger finger, pistols aren't so bad either. Fill 4 ten round tubes and the mags on your pistols, and you'll be a little more cautious about your paint when you've only got a few shots left.

[Turtle-Prophet of Doom]

The pistol is very effective when operating in CBB situations or in MOUT for that matter. A pistol allows for a smaller profile and gives you the ability to maneuver in places where a shouldered marker can not.

[ricebrnr]

turtle said:

The pistol is very effective when operating in CBB situations or in MOUT for that matter. A pistol allows for a smaller profile and gives you the ability to maneuver in places where a shouldered marker can not.

In general I would agree, but still in real life any operator would tell you they'd prefer a PDW over a pistol in that scenario as well. Which is why I like my "Crutch" for field use but my A5 with folding stock, vertical foregrip and Flatline for about every thing else. I get a shouldered platform for field use and a very compact set up for CQB. This is in fact the reason I bought the A5 in the first place (that and the egrip).

If I had a choice I'd go in a MOUT situation with the A5 on 3 rd burst, stock folded and 200 rds ready to go over a Pistol with 10 rds max.

[beaker]

Ahh, what can I say... I prefer the occasional pistol-whipping... (that and my scepter sportin' A-5 isn't so compact)

[geos]

I got a pair pistols this fall and haven't had alot of chances to use it yet. But during a big game I let a friend use them as primary weapons, which was cool to see. he took out several people be being quick and quite. Side arms make you think and aim a little better some times. If you wher to use your primary as a pistol, you could save pain and increase your accuracy. When every shot counts, you make every shot count.

Geos