Buddha 3 said:
And therein lies the difference...any idea how much more accurate a rifle is compared to a pistol?
A pistol is designed for man-to-man combat, not for shooting someone at a distance. Rifles are designed to kill up to several hundred yards out.
Simply put: Longer barrel = Higher muzzle velocity = Longer range = Greater accuracy at short distance.
That said, if somebody shoves a pistol through my car window, he can damn well have my car.
I wasnt comparing shooting a moving target with a rifle, to a pistol....just shooting a moving target as opposed to a static one., is more difficult.
Its difficult to do either, without practice being the point and teh fact that I practice shooting moving targets, means it is easier for me to do it...and my bunnies are usually at 50-70 meters not 10m!
48 inch barrel on a .22LR!! Christ...my match rifle has a 30 inch barrel and I thought that was long!
Actually...the longer barrels purpose, isn't to maintain trajectory for longer...its actually there to maximise, or allow potential, for heavier loads, and hence greater muzzle velocity, as Buddha said.
By having a longer barrel, you can maximise the burning proppellant, giving it teh maximum time to accelerate teh bullet....it is a balancing act.
I have a 30 inch barrel on my Fullbore match rifle...but...if you were to put heavy loads in a shorter barrel, you wouldnt attain the same velocity, because the proppellant pops out of teh barrel, and doesnt accelerate teh bullet to its maximum.
Conversly, if teh barrel is too long, it will slow teh bullet down after maximum accelleration is reached.
On slower bullets, a long barrel is actually a disadvantage as you can still affect the position of teh barrel through minor movements etc, snatching teh trigger, and adversley affect teh expected point of impact.
When I had the Border barrel put on my .308 match rifle, i asked how long I should expect it to last.."Oh...about 15 seconds" was the reply...quite shocked at this was I, especially as it cost £600...of course, he was referring to the cumulative time of several thousands shots worth of use!
