Anyone else prefer shooting long guns over handguns?

[Flymph]

I like shooting pistols, because I can keep a hand free while I smoke.

Honestly, if it goes bang or launches a projectile, I will enjoy shooting it. Done the whole archery thing, I shoot traditional. I am only not a fan of compound bows, they're too easy to shoot. Probably shoot more pistols than anything. I'm most likely to use a pistol, and they're easy to throw in on a fishing trip for a little extra fun. Shooting clays has to be the most fun tho. I'd probably enjoy rifles more if I could find a place with proper range to shoot.

 

[awshoot]

I like Pistols, but as I also get older I find rifles much more enjoyable, and you know you spend 1200 on a pistol, its hard to see why, not on a rifle . Not even sure what that means lol.

I don't really understand the pricing either, especially with polymer pistols. There's maybe 200 grams of plastic in one of those plus a small amount metal and yet, you can get a sweet rifle for similar money that will put holes within an inch of each other at a 100 yds.

 

[ron]

In the early 80s I started shooting and reloading for my magnum S & W revolvers.
Crank out loads on my Rock Chucker and go see what kind of groups I can shoot.
Then one morning at the range some older gentleman in a "smokey the bear hat"
said to me "you come to shoot the match son"? I said what match? He said they
are conducting a DCM Garand match. They loaned me a club rifle and sold me
the ball ammo. And I was bitten by the Highpower Rifle competition shooting
bug. Now I mostly shoot vintage rifle and ARs in competition. I like Highpower
rifle for the challenge of improving and learning "the game". I do all my own
work on my guns. I do some pistol shooting 22s and 45acp. Occasionally a
pistol match. I think benchrest competition is too much of an equipment
race or who can spend the most money. Now I find shooting magnum revolvers
not enjoyable. I seldom shoot any magnum revolvers and have sold most of them.

 

[jsparks747]

My friends dad had one and i LOVED shooting it. I want a 500 mag but everyone I know who has shot one say its very unpleasant.

Bring a cast just in case. Your wrist will hurt like heck when you move it afterwards.

 

[Boboclown]

I don't really understand the pricing either, especially with polymer pistols. There's maybe 200 grams of plastic in one of those plus a small amount metal and yet, you can get a sweet rifle for similar money that will put holes within an inch of each other at a 100 yds.

Bruh, obviusly nevr been blesdd by Glocks magical plastic.

Market, its whatever people are willing to pay. AKs were cheaper than they are now, yet now ARs are the cheap rifle to get.

 

[Connor Murphy]

Many times it feels like I am proficient with every other gun on the planet ... As in any gun other than the one I am shooting at the moment...
Andy

Amen, brother. If only I had my.....

 

[41mag]

....that is very similar to the old fishing story guy...."You should have been here yesterday".......

 

[P7M13]

I like shooting both, though I spend a lot more time on rifles.
There was a time when I did not care for rifles and was heavily into pistol at paper, tennis balls and golf balls on a string.
With pistols, I used to struggle with some guns way too much, thinking something was wrong with me that I could regularly shoot a ragged hole with one gun but with another, my hole pattern looked like a connect the dots for a Jackson Pollack painting.
Came to accept that I don't adapt well to some guns. OK, crush that Budwiser can compartment of ego.... Move on....
Same goes for rifle. There's a lot of joy in sub moa shooting at any distance, and watching your steel move violently 2 seconds before you hear the gong.

I now prefer moving and shooting with both rifles and pistols.

What's really missing on my agenda is making the time to go out and shoot.

That's exactly why I like handguns. They require far more work and concentration. I compare it to golf a little bit. You can do everything right on one shot and the ball/bullet goes exactly where you wanted it to go. But the next ball/bullet is a whole new ballgame (pun intended). And get off on one single critical element and you're fishing that ball/bullet out of the lake, so to speak. I have much room for improvement with shooting pistols. It's what keeps me coming back.
I also don't play much golf anymore btw. Five shoulder surgeries make golf a religious experience. Getting old sucks. Sad face.

I find both require equal concentration.

 

[Boboclown]

I find both require equal concentration

I find rifles to be a little more challenging, but then again I take rifles out much much farther than handguns.

 

[Aero Denezol]

I like the challenge of shooting military style rifles offhand. Probably growing up during the Reagan/Cold War era, and watching all those war movies, like Red Dawn, Platoon, etc.

If you find a good pistol for you, then pistol shooting should be easier than rifle shooting. I've been able to figure out every rifle I've ever shot, and most fairly quickly. With the wrong pistol however, you will never shoot well. I've never sold a rifle because I couldn't hit the target; I have sold several pistols because I absolutely hated them.

 

[Flymph]

....that is very similar to the old fishing story guy...."You should have been here yesterday".......

Usually when they say that they're not far off... lol

 

[41mag]

I have sold several pistols because I absolutely hated them.

know what you mean.....I just sold off the last of my Gl&cks after far too many years of being unable to actually hit anything with 'em yet still striving to somehow make-em-work for me. Never did happen.

 

[Boboclown]

If you find a good pistol for you, then pistol shooting should be easier than rifle shooting. I've been able to figure out every rifle I've ever shot, and most fairly quickly. With the wrong pistol however, you will never shoot well. I've never sold a rifle because I couldn't hit the target; I have sold several pistols because I absolutely hated them.

I find it to be opposite to be honest.... Was much easier to find a handgun, but being limited to stuff with small grips helps that easy D). Meanwhile, rifles are another story... Just found the perfect one for a 5.56, but still having issues with .308. I go through .308 rifles pretty quick.

 

[41mag]

still having issues with .308. I go through .308 rifles pretty quick.

same troubled me. Years ago happened across a 'slightly sporterized'
?Rumanian.mil that was just right carbine/balance/etc for my needs.

To this day the only 'rifle' that actually really feels decent is such as a Manlicher style stock, single shot or smallish bolt action....or them dang buffalo guns stuffed with the Holy Black!!

 

[Boboclown]

same troubled me. Years ago happened across a 'slightly sporterized'
?Rumanian.mil that was just right carbine/balance/etc for my needs.

To this day the only 'rifle' that actually really feels decent is such as a Manlicher style stock, single shot or smallish bolt action....or them dang buffalo guns stuffed with the Holy Black!!

I think I may have had that rifle before... Liked it overall, just not the round. Maybe I need to go back to something like that in .308.

I like bolt action rifles. I don't really care what stock it is as long as it works, I'm comfortable with the stock on my Yugo mauser. If it didn't require permanent modification I'd scope it by now.

 

[41mag]

I think I may have had that rifle before... Liked it overall, just not the round.

by odd coincidence, mine was chambered into 308. The 2 stage military trigger was exactly what I wanted at the time as well. It was just right for the heavy elk woods in NE Oregon. IIRC it cost me something under $200 at the 'smiths shop, as one of his little projects that no one else seemed interested in taking home. Took my first elk with it. Somehow someone talked me out of it a mere decade later with a wretched stack of the green ointment to soothe my anguish of letting it be adopted out.....

 

[Crohnos01]

I tend to be much better with long rifles when it comes to accuracy, but I still know how to use a handgun reasonably well..... I think Quigley said it best

 

[speleologist]

I agree with Mr. Bond. Over the last 5 years, I sold off all my handguns but one and bought a good benchrest rifle. I've learned a lot about precision work and hand loading. I still shoot the handgun once in awhile, but the real pleasure these days is the rifle and making smaller and small groups.

 

[Argonaut]

Handguns are fun and useful if you can't carry a rifle. But in any real situation no body in there right mind would voluntarily choose a pistol. In my world, they were strictly a fall back weapon one notch above a knife. Medium caliber rifles are more powerful than biggest handgun calibers and 100 times more accurate. Close range work is most effectively done with a shotgun so, if there was a guy hiding behind a wall in my house......it is no obstacle at all to my 308 and little problem for my 5.56.....shotguns don't penatrate as well but better than a handgun. For sport, to each his own. A rifle range starts at 100 yards and a pistol range at 50 feet. A rifle at 50 feet is just too easy. So, the moral is, if you need to hit something take a rifle or shotgun if you want to play and have fun.....take a pistol.

 

[best defense]

Over the last few years I have learned that I really do not enjoy shooting pistols. I dont know, to me, shooting a handgun feels like work while a long gun is more enjoyment.
Also, I am leaning to less tacticool long-guns, like my m48. I even started only loading 5 rounds into a SCAR mag rather then the 20 it will take.

Maybe I am getting old

*****************************************************************
Yeah, I'm 70 now and my eyesight is severely strained by sights on handguns. I can still point shoot a little, but not what I would call accurately. Almost all of my long guns have optical sights on them. I know it is a crutch, but that's OK, I may only have a few more years before I can't even use those rifles anyway.