The 4 Best Handguns for Competition Shooting

Article, General Information

Heading to a Shooting Competition? Bring One of These 4 Handguns

If you have decided it is time to participate in shooting competitions, you will need handguns that are well-suited for the challenge. There might be certain features you are looking for, such as a longer slide, a lighter slide, better grips, tuned triggers, or other customizations. Finding competition-worthy guns can be challenging unless you know what to look for or which guns are competition-ready from the factory. Here are some of those guns for your consideration.

Glock 35

The Glock 35 is built for competition with a longer slide. This gives it a longer distance between the front and rear sights, helping improve accuracy. Being a Glock, it is also perfect for modding, whether it is a slide that has accelerator cuts, a new trigger or connector, or milling for an optic. While the Glock 35 will work well for competition straight out of the box, you can improve it how you see fit to match what you need. The Glock 35 is chambered in 40 S&W, while the Glock 34 is the 9mm version. If you are already familiar with the Glock platform, such as a G17 or G19, this will be the perfect competition gun for you.

CZ Shadow 2

The CZ Shadow 2 offers many good qualities for competition. It has good weight distribution and front slide serrations for easy press-checking, a high beavertail and undercut trigger guard for a high grip, an improved trigger, and a fiber optic front sight combined with a serrated HAJO rear sight. It even has an adjustable mag release button for further customization. It is a favorite in competition already.

Walther Q5 Match

In 2019, much to the shooting world’s surprise, Walther came out with the Q5 Match, a competition-ready handgun. Purpose-built to meet the exacting demands of competition, it offers interchangeable backstraps for customization, LPA sights, ambidextrous mag and slide releases, and a ported, optics-ready receiver. While it is hard to improve on perfection, Walther also released a steel frame version, the SF, to go with the polymer Q5 Match. (Check out the Walther Store on GunBroker).

*WALTHER PPQ M2 Q5 MATCH, 9MM, 15 + 1, Item 947357488*

SIG Sauer P320 X5 Legion

Popular in the USPSA Production Nationals circuit, the Sig P320 X5 Legion has a tungsten-infused grip module to help manage recoil and give it good balance. There are also multiple springs included in the box to help you tune the recoil. The P320 series is already modular, and the Legion is no different. It also comes with fiber optic sights and a skeletonized trigger.