Shooters have a lot of solid choices when it comes to pistols. 3-Gun pistols are generally semiauto service style handguns with iron sights (except in open), chambered in 9mm or larger with barrels 4-6” in length and ideally hold 20+ rounds of ammunition. Pistols generally fall into two categories: striker fired or hammer fired. Striker fired pistols tend to be more affordable, lower maintenance, and have passive safeties. Passive safeties can be an advantage because they automatically engage when the shooter lets go of the pistol (in an abandonment box/bucket for example). The trade-off is that striker fired pistols have less than desirable trigger pulls in stock form. By contrast, hammer fired pistols tend to have brilliantly tuned triggers and actions which makes them amazing to shoot, however they tend also have manual safeties a shooter needs to remember to engage when abandoning them. Hammer fired pistols also tend to be higher maintenance and wear heavier price tags. Heavy Metal division generally restricts magazine capacity to 10 rounds, requires larger calibers (if not 45ACP specifically), and even sometimes requires 1911 style pistols specifically.
