I wholeheartedly support the point of view that pistols are depressingly useless as weapons in ROOst. Every single time I try to show them some much needed love, they fail, time and time again, to live up to anything.
Anecdote:
Arad, yesterday... As a russian AT soldier, I was near the bridge, very near the water's edge on the german bank (not the best spot, but I just couldn't resist the urge to take a few shots at a nearby panzer engaged in some serious tank on tank action). So there I was, I had just taken my first shot at the tank when I heard a gunshot very close to where I was and bullet whizzing by. Unfortunately, I had already hit the reload key and was stuck for a second or two. Another gunshot! I desperately try to unstuck myself (read: undeploy) from this most motionless state of affairs, but am only able to bring up and down the iron sights two times due to shear despair and confusion. 3 more bullets. Finally unstuck, I turn around, still prone, to take a look at the man about to kill me. 180 degrees and 2 whizzing bullets later, I face my foe, 4 meters away, crouched, pistol in his hand. I take out my pistol, just for the show, I don't even move: surely I am already dead anyway. He takes aim, fires his last bullet and... misses. Like he missed his 7 other shots. Now he reloads and strafes around me, actually trying to get closer to me so his next mag might be luckier. I take VERY carefully aimed shots, and finally kill him after 6 shots; he was about 2 meters away from me when he fell.
Trying to chase this laughable memory from my mind, I make my way to the german village and bunker up on the second story of a house. A few minutes later, I hear two german soldiers shooting right next to the house. I move to the window and I see them: one is crouched near a sandbag, taking aim at the russian village, the other is prone at his side, lying in wait. I take out my pistol to shoot them: the crouched soldier is so close I can only aim at his right arm, but I have a very clear view of the prone one. Excited, I take the best aim I possibly can: no need to rush things, and I know how horrid pistols can be. I miss 5 times. 6th time, I hit him in the leg. He turns arounds and starts shooting me. I try to shoot one last, well aimed bullet, but it too lands off target. Then he just killed me.
Morale of this story: pistols in ROOst are a joke.
I would love to love pistols... they just never love me back