In general, I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s Resolutions. They seem arbitrary, and I’ve never liked the idea of waiting until the start of a year to set goals. To be sure, goals are important to have and you should set them for yourself, I’m just saying that you don’t need to wait until January 1st to start pursuing them. That said, I do tend to think about where to put the bulk of my time and energy from year to year.
To be frank, 2025 went off the rails a bit for me. Large projects at my day job zapped a lot of my time and energy for pursuing other interests. I didn’t end up hitting many of the goals I set out for last year, such as more pistol competitions and getting my general radio license. That’s fine, life happens. Lessons learned in there, so rather than setting goals like that again for 2026, I’m instead selecting a handful of focus areas that get the bulk of my time.
Precision Pistol Shooting
Call it my fuddification, if you will, but the last several years have seen my attention turning more towards pistol shooting than anything else. It’s not necessarily intentional, mind you. The reality is that the vast majority of my range time takes place at indoor facilities that max out at 50 yards, and typically 25 yards. I simply don’t find shooting rifles at such close distances very engaging, especially if the range puts limits on positional shooting.
When I do get out to longer distances, such as 100-300 yards, it always seems to coincide with testing rifles for print magazines. Which means that if I have 1-2 hours on the range, most of it is spent doing the testing protocol.
So spending more and more time with pistols inevitably resulted in me thinking more about them, and wanting explore more aspects of them. Last year sent me down a 1911 rabbit hole, which I really haven’t recovered from. The 1911 has effectively become my favorite pistol platform, even if I objectively think other modern platforms make for better overall pistols.
The capacity constraints of the 1911 led me to slowing things down and focusing more on precision work, which you might have seen in several of the 2025 postal matches. So now let’s take it a step further.
Doing Hard Things
In several of my interviews with him, and his own books, John Simpson is fond of saying that you really should practice what you suck at. The benefits of getting better at that thing carry over to the rest of your related endeavors. With rifle shooting, that often means spending more time in the standing position than prone. If I translate that to pistols, it means spending more time mastering sight picture and trigger pull for precision than trying to beat the shot timer for a faster draw time.
Pat McNamara is also fond of saying that if you only had 10 rounds to practice pistol, then you should spend it on a paper bullseye at 50 yards with a pistol and strong hand only. The skills you develop for mental focus, trigger control, and sight picture from doing that make you a better shooter everywhere else.
So that’s where my focus is going this year. Precision pistol shooting at 25-50 yards, with a selection of platforms and sight designs.
Competition Impact
As far as I can tell, there are no bullseye matches held in my area. I do not plan on competing in that discipline. Instead, I’ve become fond of the new GPA (Galactic Pistol Alliance) competitions that are popping up at my local facilities. Think of it as IDPA with fewer weird rules.
I also see PCSL pop up here and there, which also interest me.
I also want to get back to some long range 22lr.
Given the direction that my state is going with laws, traditional two-gun action shooting is going to be difficult to sustain. Even if my collection is “safe” given the ways the laws are written, ranges and match directors will get weird about hosting events after a while. Leaning into pistol shooting (all types) and precision bolt action rifle is the easy button for competition shooting.
To support the goal of precision pistol, that leads me tot he next focus area.
Handloading
After nearly 15 years of intending to finally get into handloading, I’ve finally made the commitment to actually do it. When I first thought about it, way back when I lived in Montana, the intent was long range precision. The amount of tools and nerdery needed to be successful at that with handloading was intimidating- so I never did it. But now, with a focus on pistol shooting, it’s a lot more straightforward.
Most of the equipment has already been purchased and set up. Stay tuned for where I go with this one and what I learn along the way.
And That’s It
Yep, that’s it. One lesson learned from years past is that too many goals and focus areas just tends to devolve into some things never getting done or all-around mediocrity. I will, of course, stay on top of my regular physical fitness training and program.
I have one or two other resurging interests this year aside from Everyday Marksman stuff, such as picking up playing guitar again. But those aren’t too relevant here- the point is that they also consume time and energy.
So what should you expect? I’ll keep updating on the main topics we always have. You will see a bit about the focus areas of precision pistol and reloading.
What are your areas for focus this year?
