Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

[colinbentley]

I am considering joining a pistol club. Have never fired a handgun and really don't know to expect in terms of expectations. Is it as challenging as rifle (bench rest ) shooting ?From whet I have observed I would not be interested in scope or bench shooting for a handgun.What are your thoughts.

[bladeracer]

I am considering joining a pistol club. Have never fired a handgun and really don't know to expect in terms of expectations. Is it as challenging as rifle (bench rest ) shooting ?From whet I have observed I would not be interested in scope or bench shooting for a handgun.What are your thoughts.

IPSC is tons of fun and shooting from a holster really teaches you good firearms handling safety.
Long range silhouette could be enjoyable.
Standing aimed slow fire at paper though is mind-numbingly boring. I had to do it a few times when I was travelling for my "one-in-eight" compliance.
I would never refer to benchrest rifle shooting as "challenging" though so your view of handgun shooting may vary to mine.

[AusTac]

It's the most fun you can have with your pants on!, but is alot more regulated both on the range and storage/paperwork wise than rifles but its all for safety

[GLS_1956]

As one whos first gun ever pulled the trigger on, was a handgun, the answer is yes. As an American I have easier access to handguns, well all guns actually, than persons in other countries. Dad started me and my older brothers, we don't have any sisters, out early in shooting, by him holding the gun, a 22LR revolver and letting us pull the trigger while standing between his arms. But I digress.

In all disciplines a handgun is "harder" to shoot as accurately as a rifle. IPSC and other "action" style of shoots, I shot Cowboy Action, are very fun and help in the generation of skills. Nothing will help you develop skill and marksmanship like Bullseye shooting, either slow fire or rapid fire. But they can be both frustrating and boring, but you'll learn sight picture and both breathing and trigger control. Shooting a scoped handgun from a rest, bench or otherwise, will give you great perspective on the possible accuracy of the handgun. It is also fun to be able to talk about taking your target, be it rabbit or soda can, at a distance of 100+ yards.

Try the handguns, they are fun.

[pomemax]

In terms of what to expect hand guns Harder to be accurate harder to get all the boxes ticked for your licence different storage requirements and a lot more expensive you will shoot a lot more on a average week I shoot about 400 -600 rounds pistol 100 rounds rifle all good
I can not understand people who sell pistols saying only had it 6 months and only fired 200 rounds get your pistol licence then you will understand that lol

[wrenchman]

i shoot hand guns a lot more becouse there are a lot of indoor gun ranges by me most are only 25 yards

[colinbentley]

I somehow , if I pursue pistolshooting, I can't see myself getting into reloading. Wouldn't imagine the same accuracy guidelines would apply over a 25 or 50 meter distance. Or am I wrong ? I have been wrong before, once back in 1964......................

[Wylie27]

It's funnerer

[Wylie27]

Reloading is key to accuracy, just like rifle shooting it's load development for the pistol.

Plus it's cheaper. I can shoot 300 rounds in a day and that's practising with the two Brett's.

[superdave]

Having shot pistols for about 3 years now, I can say that it's a different kind of fun, by that I mean that you have to approach it with a different mindset.

Having got this far I have discovered that my knowledge of shooting was not as complete as I thought it was.

For example I didn't know how much of a difference to my target shooting that the position of my finger on the trigger would make.
Or that a pistol will not necessarily cycle if you hold it loosely.

The only way to find out conclusively is to visit a pistol club, take part, and see if the bug bites you.

[colinbentley]

Thank you for all your comments. I guess I'll have to let someone in a club let me "have a go".

[Cryptic]

In terms of what to expect hand guns Harder to be accurate harder to get all the boxes ticked for your licence different storage requirements and a lot more expensive you will shoot a lot more on a average week I shoot about 400 -600 rounds pistol 100 rounds rifle all good
I can not understand people who sell pistols saying only had it 6 months and only fired 200 rounds get your pistol licence then you will understand that lol

Cant understand that low amount either. I put 200 through my revolver 1st day bought it. Im dreading my semi purchase now my 12 months is up as go through 200 to 500 in revolver a week so semi auto will be a bitch to be loading.

[Bent Arrow]

Do it, I'd be very surprised if you don't enjoy it

[Conallin24]

I shoot pistol rifle and shotgun, been doing this for a little while now. Shotgun is my favourite (at the moment) followed closely by pistol and then not to far behind is shotgun. It's down to personal preference. In pistol I love IPSC and steel challenge. I also don't mind most other disciplines.

[Cryptic]

It's the most fun you can have with your pants on!, but is alot more regulated both on the range and storage/paperwork wise than rifles but its all for safety

Its even more fun with no pants on!

RO doesnt like some of the shirts I have worn now, daresay dropping my strides might get me kicked off range.

[BRNO_Bigot]

It's the most fun you can have with your pants on!, but is alot more regulated both on the range and storage/paperwork wise than rifles but its all for safety

Its even more fun with no pants on!

RO doesnt like some of the shirts I have worn now, daresay dropping my strides might get me kicked off range.

Some of these wowsers have no sense of fun.

But, seriously - I went through a dry spell from shooting 2-3 times a week to not shooting at all for 7 years, then, one day, I was driving through the Wanneroo Shooting Complex near Perth and decided to pop in to PWAC (Perth Western Action Club). I never had before, because it's grown-ups playing "cowboys-and-crooks" - wannabe crap, right?

I introduced myself and asked if I could watch, and it was grownups playing cowboys-and-crooks, and it looked like FUN. One of the guys offered me a few rounds with one of his handguns and I was back into it again. If I'd died there, the undertaker would have had to use an angle-grinder to get the grin off my dial.

So, depending on the discipline, it's great fun, probably more than most rifle shooting, but then Western Action (as it's called here) uses pistols, rifles, and shotguns, so you can have a shoot encompassing all three.

Give it a go.

[AusTac]

It's the most fun you can have with your pants on!, but is alot more regulated both on the range and storage/paperwork wise than rifles but its all for safety

Its even more fun with no pants on!

I'll have to take your word for it mate

[brett1868]

Hand guns are awesome at proving just how much you suck at shooting, the good side is that you'll get great pleasure from the practice and improvements in your abilities over time. There's a bigger sense of achievement in shrinking a 6" pistol group to 4" at 15m then you can imagine.

Perfect handgun for Brother Bentaz....nakedness purely optional..

Rossi12gaPistol.jpg (37.19 KiB) Viewed 5015 times

[Ed9362]

Pistols are just lots of fun. I think long range riles are more a technical sport where pistols are a draw and fire and have fun sport.

Both are great though

[vmaxaust]

Handgun shooting is much more challenging and I believe makes you a better and safer shooter all round. The standard ISSF 25 metre competitions will quickly teach you that it is more difficult to be accurate with a short, open sights handgun fired without a bench rest. It takes a lot of shooting to become proficient to some degree but it's worth the effort.
I really like the 25 metre ISSF matches and Service Match. The variety of handguns is almost endless. I'm not a revolver person but most people are and the choices of handguns is almost endless. The other good thing about handgun shooting is unless you are really keen to shoot handguns very often you can always borrow one from the clubs, shoot and not have to worry about owning your own which entails a minimum annual competition attendance for each calibre you own.

[AusTac]

To borrow one without some knob breathing down your neck wouldn't you still need a cat H? I thought it was the license that came with the minimum requirements and not the pistol ownership? If not i'm going renting!

[vmaxaust]

To borrow one without some knob breathing down your neck wouldn't you still need a cat H? I thought it was the license that came with the minimum requirements and not the pistol ownership? If not i'm going renting!

In the long run you will need the full license. However here in Victoria the procedure is you do an introduction to handguns course..theory and some shooting of club guns. You join the club, do their safety course, do 5 NORI's (notice of receiving instruction). You basically turn up on competition days, borrow a gun of your choice and shoot the comp with regular shooters. They do keep an eye on you and often need to help people getting familiar with the gun and shooting procedure. Once the NORI's are done you can apply for a Provisional Handgun License. The club puts this application in for you if they believe you are mastering the handgun shooting process effectively.
Once your Provisional is through you can compete or just practise whenever you want to using club guns. You cannot at this stage own a gun. There's a 6 month wait till you can apply for the full license. Once again, during this time you can shoot as often as you like at your club. After the 6 months period is over you apply for the full license and once again if the club feels you are proficient they send in your application to LRD. Once the full license is through you shoot whenever you want with club guns. You do not have to do an annual minimum competition shoots.
If you decide you want to buy a gun each club has different rules. Some only allow rimfire types for a period of 6 months full license holding. Some allow centrefires as a first gun but only after you complete a proficiency test target showing you can actually hit 10 scoring shots in one go at 25 metres. In other words, fire 10 shots at a normal ISSF 25 mtre target and each shot must be a scoring shot.
The process appears long winded but frankly once you begin you can actually keep shooting as much as you want.

[AusTac]

Once the full license is through you shoot whenever you want with club guns. You do not have to do an annual minimum competition shoots.
.

Veeeeery interesting... think i might need to do zome further investigation, cheers mate

[in2anity]

I might cause some tension with this, but f***k it;

In my books, once you're zeroed, the physical act of bench-rest shooting is not what I'd call "challenging". Precision reloading is an intricate and time consuming process, so I guess that aspect can be classified as challenging. Being rich enough to buy expensive rifles and gear that are competitively accurate off a bench; now that's challenging (particularly as you get older and your dependencies inevitably grow). IMO in the bench-rest world, more money buys better scores.

There are plenty of disciplines of target rifle that are challenging though; have you tried metallic silhouette? Or how about classical ISSF style prone? Or how about 3-P? Then there's military-style 3-P; now that's bags of fun and virtually impossible to perfect...

[bladeracer]

In my books, once you're zeroed, the physical act of bench-rest shooting is not what I'd call "challenging".

They don't even have to be zeroed do they, they're only shooting for group size not score?

[in2anity]

In my books, once you're zeroed, the physical act of bench-rest shooting is not what I'd call "challenging".

They don't even have to be zeroed do they, they're only shooting for group size not score?

TBH I don't even know the official rules of the discipline; I've never had anything to do with it. I guess I always presumed that precision (differentiated from accuracy) was a factor. If not, then my opinion get's even stronger.

BTW OP, don't get me wrong I'm not at all trying to steer your away from handguns; rather just saying that there's a lot of juice to be squeezed out of rifle shooting if you're prepared to try something new. Of course there may be other factors at play; it's often a lot more convenient for us suburbanites to zip off to the local pistol range rather than a rifle range, and I definitely agree that pistol shooting is bloody challenging!

[Lokvo]

Absolutely it's as much fun as shootin rifles! I wish I was shooting similar disciplines like our U.S brethren like, IPSC or IDPA (think course running speed shooting). At the moment I shoot mainly bullseye (one handed shooting comps) as that's all my pistol club does at the moment.

[doc]

Some good advise from vmaxaust.

Just a few clarifications.

To borrow one without some knob breathing down your neck wouldn't you still need a cat H?

Yes - but a provisional is a Cat-H - just one that you can't own or purchase any pistols under. Apart from that you can legally shoot without someone 'breathing down your neck' once you have one. (YMMV depending on local club rules if they choose to pose any further restrictions on you.)

I thought it was the license that came with the minimum requirements and not the pistol ownership? If not i'm going renting!

You can have a full license without owning any firearms - in which case there is no minimum attendance requirement. Attendance requirement is based on the class (air, .22, centrefire up to .357 and centrefire above .357 IIRC).

Thankfully they were wise enough to realise that some people may want pistol licenses to shoot more than 10 times in their life, but may not be able to make all the attendances (aka - spouses that have an interest and enjoy the odd social shoot).

Once the NORI's are done you can apply for a Provisional Handgun License. The club puts this application in for you if they believe you are mastering the handgun shooting process effectively.

If you plan on shooting regularly (more than 10 times before you get a full license) I would strongly suggest applying for the provisional as soon as you can - do not wait for you to complete the NORI's, or you might find yourself sitting at club shoots unable to do any more shooting for 6-8 weeks whilst waiting for LRD to process your provisional.

However - in saying that - you do not require a provisional if you will only shoot 10 or less times before being able to apply for your full license. (Your full license can be applied for 6 months after the date you join the club. Not the date that you receive a provisional - which are optional but very useful if you wish to shoot regularly).

However different clubs may have additional requirements above and beyond LRD's - so it's best to check with your local club.

[Member-Deleted]

By all means try Pistol shooting it is great and alot of fun.
Did it for years.
But in the long run,after your wallet gets exhausted and the crap bureaucracy of pistol club management,
you will come back and really appreciate rifles again.

[scoobs]

personal preference. i never got into them