This is fun thread, aye?!
Shooting a pistol, and developing form, it's a good idea to buy some books and watch videos, from those who are top champions.
FYI, by far the most accurate pistol shooters are the Olympic champions. My Olympic PCP pistol will put em in the same hole at 15Y, at one point earlier in my life I got to where I could average 9 for 10, on 1.25" steel circles at 15Y, offhand. On that note I suggest buying this one,
http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/pump-up/weihrauch-hw40/ We had a cheaper copy of this model. I bought it for my wife to get the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship down. It was capable of nickel sized groups at 10Y and had a decent trigger and sights.
Onward, about single pump pneumatic air pistols, there is the tiniest bit of noise and teeniest amount of recoil. What that does is eliminate those two aspects of pistol shooting, ala - fear of the loud blast and fear of the recoil. The learning curve is greatly shortened compared to even shooting a 22 pistol. My wife would come home from work and we would take 15 minutes each evening to practice. I instructed her and one week later she could hit a pop can at 10Y every time with it.
Then we went to the 22rf pistol and on to her new 9mm. I always remind her when she misses, honey, you need to shoot these firearms exactly like you shot your airgun, at which time she follows through correctly and doesn't punch the trigger, in her case she tends to punch it down when not concentrating on her form.
Some tips - a good medium to lighter weight trigger goes a long way. A longer sight radius goes a long way. Yes, the pistol must feel good in hand. Avoid cheaply made inexpensive pistols. Try to pick a pistol with a low bore to web of hand axis, this helps mitigating muzzle flip. These attributes I just mentioned uncheck a portion of the pistols in this thread.
The most reliable and accurate pistols I've owned were and are the STI 2011's in 40S&W. Get the mags tuned, the extractor too, don't put screwed up reloads in it, and they are GTG. My Glocks malfunctioned more. I've won plenty of matches with both. That being said I certainly wouldn't carry a full sized 2011.
Man I wish I could get a reliable 1.5lb trigger in a Highpower! Well after having the slide fit to the frame of course. It's my favorite feeling pistol. I had one magnaported like 25 years ago. Even though it was miner power factor I'd win our local IPSC matches more often than not.
The arms race, do you old guys remember, lol, Then I got the first G22 in 1990, 16 rounds of major power factor, I won for months until another good shooter showed up with one too.
Arms race continues...Then Para Ordnance P16 came out. I put a RD and comp on it. Restrictions came so I sold it.
Getting more serious, then the STI 2011 arrives, ouch, took it up a couple notches higher. I quit looking for alternatives because every time I try some other wonder nine it's the same floppy flish packaged a different way.
Ramble ramble.
