Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Bolt action rifles, lever action, pump action, self loading rifles and other miscellaneous longarms.

Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by Ed9362 » 17 May 2017, 11:44 pm

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
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by vmaxaust » 18 May 2017, 5:38 am

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.
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by AusTac » 18 May 2017, 6:25 am

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!
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by vmaxaust » 18 May 2017, 6:47 am

AusTac wrote: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.
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by AusTac » 18 May 2017, 6:53 am

vmaxaust wrote:
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 :)
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by in2anity » 18 May 2017, 8:26 am

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...
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by bladeracer » 18 May 2017, 8:47 am

in2anity wrote: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?
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by in2anity » 18 May 2017, 8:54 am

bladeracer wrote:
in2anity wrote: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!
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by Lokvo » 19 May 2017, 10:38 am

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.
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by doc » 19 May 2017, 3:25 pm

Some good advise from vmaxaust.

Just a few clarifications.

AusTac wrote: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.)

AusTac wrote: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).

vmaxaust wrote: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.
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by Member-Deleted » 19 May 2017, 4:18 pm

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, :evil:
you will come back and really appreciate rifles again. :D
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Re: Is shooting handguns as much fun as rifles ?

Post by scoobs » 20 May 2017, 8:20 pm

personal preference. i never got into them
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