How many times have the SL sidearm saved your ***?

[Naruto-kun]

What the title said


For the first time in a long time the sidearm did actually save my *** last night on CIA while they were playing Kashan.

Long story short: I was the last man standing in the North Bunkers and then suddenly: a MEC trooper in the backdoor! I emptied my M4, but the last shot didn't seem knock out the MEC soldier, and I managed to take one hit from his G3A3 in process. As we were both reloading, I realised that as a SL you actually had your bloody sidearm, and I swtiched to it, didn't even bother to aim properly and shot the guy in the head!

Now what are your stories?

[Arnoldio]

Same situation 3 or 4 times.

Otherwise only used for executing.

[chrisweb89]

I don't really bother with the pistol unless its for a finishing shot, or I have a scorpion. Scorpion is a beast sidearm.

[Raccoon]

In short, several.

I can recall a few times where I've run my mag dry, and pulled out my sidearm. But I'd say 3 out of 4 times, I still ended up dying.

Other than that, there was one time where I was playing as a Sniper in a CAS squad, and I stumbled upon two people on a roof, and was actually able to take them out with one magazine.

I love sidearms, but I think they draw a bit too slow to be useful as anything but a last resort in CQC. You'd almost be better off just running around a corner and reloading your rifle.

[Pronck]

Sidearm?! I use the pistol as my primary! And of course I mostly execute people just like Arnoldio.

[TomDackery]

A lot of times... just... a lot.
2 examples from the same video:
The Life and Death of a Sniper - TomDackery's Project Realities - YouTube 49 minutes in
The Life and Death of a Sniper - TomDackery's Project Realities - YouTube 1 hour 4 minutes in

Though this is the sniper kit, its the same thing for the officer, except ya know, more useful.

[Murkey]

Probably twice when I didn't have time to reload as an SL and a couple more when I had no ammo left for the primary weapon.
Very satisfying (Pop pop pop watchin' motherf**kers drop)


IMO the draw time is just about right, not too fast, not too slow. Would like to see the TT33 over the Makarov, but that's by the by

[risegold8929]

Never (or only once).
From what I can remember, my only kills with the Pistol have been when I intentionally carried it out (before using my rifle). If (and if) I ever run out of bullets, usually nearby Squad Mates will finish the bloke off before I can whip out my pistol.

[Agemman]

Quite a lot. I use it as motivation for my troops; the take-one-step-backwards-and-I-shoot-you-in-the-head kind. Usually motivates them to get into sticky situations.

[saXoni]

Never. I always make sure I reload my rifle after I've fired 15-20 rounds.

[NoNoZ]

2-3 times, with enemy Officer Kit.. same situation

[missinglink]

iyts's strange how all the pidtols have the same firing sounds and near identical reload animations

[Kothra]

Maybe once or twice, but I normally don't get the chance.

There was a time on Fool's Road as a Militia sniper that I went offensive with the pistol, mostly because our team was completely disorganised and the Brits were at our last flag. I managed to get like four or five guys. But it doesn't really count as saving my ***, so yeah.

Also, this was on NwA back when they had a single mumble channel for both teams, and the Brits who went down had no clue what just happened to them.

[Spec]

Pistols are excellent for extremely close quarters. When I do have a pistol and I'm supposed to clear a room, I'll surely use that instead of the rifle, especially when the rifle has a scope. Pistols are extremely accurate on short range while you can retain mobile. You'll have to land a headshot, though, or you'll run out of ammo insanely fast and might not get the required ~5 hits in before the enemy turns around and shoots you.

[sukkizzzz]

Only few times. Assault rifles have so much mags that I reload em after few shots.

[ShockUnitBlack]

Rarely thing as I'm pretty good at keeping my primary reloaded. Can't think of any situations in particular where it's saved my *** though I do keep the pistol when I've used all my primary's magazine and I want to keep pressing an attack (instead of reloading) or if I'm concerned I don't have time to reload (eg I think somebody's going to come through that door at any second).

As a side note, I absolutely refuse to use the Makarov pistol as a sniper. I'd rather just take my chances getting a hit with the SV-98 or Enfield than trying to use that stupid thing.

[saXoni]

Pistols are excellent for extremely close quarters...

Compared to your rifle? Not even close. The only rifle it might actually beat in CQB is the G3, but every other rifle is superior. Having an M4/M16 on burst is a lot better than using the lousy M9, same with the full-auto weapons in PR.

Pistols are horrible in this mod, unfortunately.

[MikeJT]

I reserve my side-arm for disobidient troops.

Just kidding.

I don't know what it is with that side-arm.

Single-player/empty server/locally hosted server for practicing - I can run around like a mad man then turn and shoot a tight man-sized grouping at a wall 15 m away at near full rate of fire.

Multiplayer server, regardless of ping - I can't seem to hit a stationary target dead in my sights 15 m away when I'm perfectly still for 30 seconds before my target comes into my sights.

As an example. I was using the sniper kit for lasing/sniping/scouting on Jabal the other night. I was at a friendly FoB when I saw an enemy in the distance shooting at a friendly squad. I took a shot at him and missed (or maybe hit, it was pretty far). The friendly squad was fully wiped and the next thing I know the guy was coming towards me. I lay down on the opposite side of the crest of the hill and waited for him to come over. He literally walked into my sights and stopped dead. I hadn't moved ANYTHING - not even turned - for about 5 seconds. I was maybe 15 m away. I opened fire, shooting pretty slowly. Nothing connected. He turned and shot me. As I lay there wounded, there was no yelps from bleeding, no stopping to patch. I'm pretty sure not a single round connected.

Similiar thing happened on Kashan when I had just emptied my magazine killing 2 guys when a third one came around the corner, but didn't see me at first. Took a knee and drew my sidearm, he was stopped dead. Aimed at hit and started firing, maybe 10 m away. He just turned and 2 shot me.

I've seen the groupings for this weapon in singleplayer/co-op/empty server. At 10-15 m you can get a pretty tight grouping (less than a mans chest size) on a wall 15 m away whilst firing around 3 rounds every 2 seconds. So I really don't know why I missed all these shots in multiplayer. If I was shooting at moving targets, I'd put it down to lag - but I'm talking about stationary targets, whilst prone or crouched, and unsuppressed.

[Spec]

Compared to your rifle? Not even close. The only rifle it might actually beat in CQB is the G3, but every other rifle is superior. Having an M4/M16 on burst is a lot better than using the lousy M9, same with the full-auto weapons in PR.

Pistols are horrible in this mod, unfortunately.

Maybe I just have a hand for it, but I find it extremely easy to score headshots with pistols while moving. Within the distance of a room or small hallway, I don't even need to use the sights and can relatively reliably hit the head with one shot, and I'm not a very good shot otherwise. Greatly depends on ping though, as Mike said. Maybe I've just been lucky as far as lag was concerned.

[K4on]

deleted.