Rifles vs. Pistols? Is it just me.......?

[L_Kilkenny]

The older I get the less I enjoy my pistols. The novelty is just wearing off. I don't CCW and refuse to hunt with em due to noise. When plinkin I'd just as soon grab a rifle too. Maybe it has something to do with my desire to stretch range and hit small targets, I don't know. Don't get me wrong, I like the pistols I have but just find them more and more pointless for my hunting and plinkin needs.

I've pretty much desided to let em lay for awhile and contrate on long guns.

Is it just me? When you grab your favorite plinkin gun is a pistol or rifle?

LK

[Modoc ED]

That's pretty much how I am about my handguns these past few years. I hardly ever use them and really don't have much use for them anymore. I'd get rid of them but I keep them because they are a poke in the eye of the anti-gunners.

[kimwcook]

Or you guys could share.

[mescalero1]

More so due to my condition of change of geography, I find my self using ( wearing ) the pistols more often.

[Blaine]

I like my pistols real good. I shoot my SingleSix more than all the rest put together. The 1911 might be next......Quite honestly, shooting has taken a back seat to riding the new scoot this summer. Don't worry, just a temporary situation for summer time.... I often ride the scoot to go shoot the single six and 1911

[Old Time Hunter]

About 90% rifles, but as my rifle primer stock diminishes, it looks as though the pistols will be coming out more. darn it's hard to get a consistent group at a 100 yards with a 9mm

[L_Kilkenny]

Old Time Hunter, Don't dispair. 30/30's run just fine with reduced loads and Large Pistol primers. Got a couple thousand of them with nothing else to do since I sold my .45 acp. I also know of some Blue Dot .223 loads that work well with SP primers.

[jhrosier]

LK,
I go through stages where I will shoot rifles for a year or two and then handguns for a while.
I never gave it much thought as to why.
This was a rifle year until I fell and broke my left arm a month ago.
Looks like it has turned into a handgun year.

Jack

[Kansas Ed]

I go through phases myself. I've been working with a couple of SAA's that have gotten me back into handguns, and finally figured out one of the major issues I had with my 40 S&W that has plagued me for years. So I'm starting to enjoy the handguns again...That, and the last 3 guns I've purchased have all been Colt.

Ed

[madman4570]

Still really like the pistols too. Shoot them about as much as rifles.
Love the Shotguns! Always have always will.In fact other than being for CCW/or sentimental reasons/except for comp shooting with the HBARS, buy far the one gun favored the most is my 1972 18" Ithaca Deerslayer Deluxe 12ga. 1)its awesome home protection 2) Its a fantastic woods gun to 100yds(all you need) 3) its fantastic with that tight choked deerslayer smoothbore for upland birds like quail,chukar,etc. also rabbits and squirrels.With the Rem 2X4 Duplexes also great for turkey to 40yards.Now put in those Brenneke 550grain Green Lightnings or Special Forces(super hard) I think it will work for about anything I need.That gun is super fast both for bringing to the ready along with cycling the other 4 rds. The gun except for open field long shots about does it all.In fact just bought another as new same 18" Deerslayer barrel for it in case I ever wear my first one out.Even shoot skeet with it! Actually love that gun.Came as a deluxe set also with 28" vent rib Modified barrel but that deerslayer barrel does it all and handles so much better.Best gun I have ever owned!

[Grizz]

What, you can have one without the other?

That's like flapjacks without syrup.

That's like a convertable with the top up.

That's like a bow without an arrow, well, not quite.

That's like a guitar without a drum.

That's like wierd man..,

Grizz

[Blaine]

What, you can have one without the other?

That's like flapjacks without syrup.

That's like a convertable with the top up.

That's like a bow without an arrow, well, not quite.

That's like a guitar without a drum.

That's like wierd man..,

Grizz

That's like shooting with Fred without a Grizz....where ya been, ya bum????

[rjohns94]

I carry a pistol each and every day and I have more pistols than I do rifles. During hunting season, I use my bow and flintlock rifle most, then shotgun, .22lr, and in each case, I still have a pistol with me. I can't imagine setting them aside for years to come.

I also shoot my air rifle almost every day.

[AJMD429]

I tend to do the opposite - less long gun shooting and more handgun shooting. I think the reason is that I can more or less 'casually' stroll out back and pop a few rounds at a steel gong using a handgun, without feeling I have to put paper out at 100 yards. I do some 'casual' rifle shooting as well, but my steel gongs aren't rifle-proof (I'm not convinced anyone makes affordable ones which are truly 3,000fps-fmj-proof...) so that shooting is really still 'pistol' cartridges only out of carbines.

Maybe someday I'll get rifle-proof gongs and do more 'casual' shooting with the pointy-bullet guns.

As far as noise, I do tend to shoot the quieter guns more; wish they could be affordably and legally suppressed. I have a 'politically correct' .223 I'd love to shoot more, but it has a stupid Clinton-era 'compensator' instead of a 'flash suppressor' and it is PINNED on; getting a birdcage on the end of that barrel will likely cost more than the barrel did, and then some pinhead legislator will just turn around and pass another EBR ban about the time I pay it off. Sad, too, because the gun is a tack-driver, enough so that I hate to just put another barrel on it by myself lest I mess it up somehow. But it is TOO LOUD - even with plugs AND muffs together. Maybe I should spend some REAL money and get a suppressed barrel on it!

[jhrosier]

.... But it is TOO LOUD - even with plugs AND muffs together. Maybe I should spend some REAL money and get a suppressed barrel on it!

Check out the 300 Whisper (30-221). Even with out a supressor, it is pretty quiet.
There are top ends made for the ARs.
I just started shooting the 30-221 in a bolt gun with cast bullet loads and it is about as quiet as a .22LR.

Jack

[meanc]

I like them both equally.

For every rifle I own I have a pistol to mate with it so they both get shot about the same amount. Same goes for carrying; if I've got the rifle with me more than likely I've got its mate.

[Judge09]

If I'm not working up loads on a particular gun, I'm about split, enjoy them both. Love to spend a day in the woods with my 1894cb and Redhawk, both in 45 Colt, there's not a stump that's safe.

[gamekeeper]

I only wish I had the CHOICE !

[Grizz]

That's like shooting with Fred without a Grizz....where ya been, ya bum????

haven't seen a notice of intent for a long time, just after action stuff. plus usually sat. is free and sun. is family time... plus it's too blinking HOT to be outdoors... I'll get out when the wx gets reasonable...

last time I shot anywhere was off of woods road nr sequim with my wife on the way to MIL's...

BTW I haven't shot your 1911 so we have some catching up to do. Maybe I'll dig out my 7X57 Mauser if we can find room to shoot it...

[Hillbilly]

I am like a lot of you guys... I have room outback to shoot a handgun with a short walk from the porch.

I try to shoot at least 50 rounds a month from a .22 rifle and my SW18 or Colt .22 SAA.

We can shoot centerfire rifle on the back pastures... but as hot as it's been the walk out can be a bit brutal... cant wait until things cool off.

[Catshooter]

How can you CCW without a short gun? You mean some of you guys don't?

It must just be me, I don't understand not carrying . . .


Cat

[madman4570]

Handguns for CCW! Some people do, some dont! I do, only in states where legally allowed with a Pa CCW! Gives me a warm secure feeling!

[COSteve]

I CCW my G23 most of the time but shoot it less than some of my others. Like many, I go through phases. Currently, I'm going through a rifle phase with my new Rossi .357 and little Henry .22 (hence my new interest in this site). Last year I was all over my Glock custom G20/21L developing different 45acp and 10mm loads for it.

[44magHunter]

Or you guys could share.

[BigSky56]

I carry all the time whether work or play and always a pistol as I need both hands free, every thing up here will either stomp bite or scratch you. If I need distance shootin I grab a 30-30. danny

[gimdandy]

I carry all the time whether work or play and always a pistol as I need both hands free, every thing up here will either stomp bite or scratch you. If I need distance shootin I grab a 30-30. danny

Danny,
I really admire a man that can and will ride bronc's
When mounted which system of rifle scabbard have you gone to ? Not because it's best but because it is handiest I have gone to forward vertical offside 3/4 scabbard w/ 20"-16" barrel length otherwise it isn't accessible enough if needed. don't always have a rifle but I always have one of my vaquero's cross draw when in the mtns. , just don't even notice either being there

[Hobie]

I'm as likely to grab a handgun as not.

For me it is shotgunning that has slipped away. I was once hot on the shotgun shooting skeet etc. Now there are no birds to hunt as there once were (quail and grouse). Thinking of taking the wife and going somewhere to quail/pheasant/dove hunt. Miss working with the dogs, too.

[BigSky56]

Gimdandy, I carry a rifle offside muzzle down butt up if I have to use a rope theres nothing in the way when I dally and tug on a cow when I get down I reach behind me and grab the rifle and my pistol I carry in a crossdraw that way if Iam dumped and hung up I can get to it with either hand. Its happened to me. danny

[gimdandy]

BigSky,
I also remember reading about Elmer in "Hell I Was There"being thrown and hung and pullin his 45colt and killing the bronc that had him.

dumped and hung up I can get to it with either hand. Its happened to me. danny
Image

what a feeling that is . Was thrown and hung up only once myself cat hunting but it only lasted 2 jumps and I was out. Never figured that it could happen to me as I ride w/ the largest and longest stirrups I could find and had them built into bulldog taps.

[BigSky56]

Gimdandy, I have a pack horse that I refer to as a MIL horse, thats a horse youd put your MIL on and send them to the hills and hope neither come back, knothead broke my leg he was scrambling around a rock and went down my leg was under him and and my leg was on top a 4" larch limb being pinned and me down hill his feet headed uphill he was trying to roll over to get up and the horn would of hit me in the chest I keep slapping his head to keep him down and thats was going nowhere fast I got my hogleg out to bust him then the family came back down the trail and the SIL jumped on his head and neck pinned him got a limb under him got my leg out got on him and rode 5 miles to fish and soak my leg in a mtn lake rode back out had a spiral facture. As pop said If your going be dumb you'd better be tough. danny

[mescalero1]

Kim,
See why I say , no more horses for me.

[Arminius]

Still really like the pistols too. Shoot them about as much as rifles.
Love the Shotguns! Always have always will.In fact other than being for CCW/or sentimental reasons/except for comp shooting with the HBARS, buy far the one gun favored the most is my 1972 18" Ithaca Deerslayer Deluxe 12ga. 1)its awesome home protection 2) Its a fantastic woods gun to 100yds(all you need) 3) its fantastic with that tight choked deerslayer smoothbore for upland birds like quail,chukar,etc. also rabbits and squirrels.With the Rem 2X4 Duplexes also great for turkey to 40yards.Now put in those Brenneke 550grain Green Lightnings or Special Forces(super hard) I think it will work for about anything I need.That gun is super fast both for bringing to the ready along with cycling the other 4 rds. The gun except for open field long shots about does it all.In fact just bought another as new same 18" Deerslayer barrel for it in case I ever wear my first one out.Even shoot skeet with it! Actually love that gun.Came as a deluxe set also with 28" vent rib Modified barrel but that deerslayer barrel does it all and handles so much better.Best gun I have ever owned!

ONE gun only??? For all duties??

Man you should be banned!



Of course you are right, but thankfully I am not that enlighted - would take a whole lotta fun out of life!

Hermann