Is There Any Possible Situation Where a Pistol is Superior to a Long Gun or SMG

Is There Any Possible Situation Where a Pistol is Superior to a Long Gun or SMG
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Lots of situations. Any place you can't carry or swing a long gun or subgun.

Try using a subgun on a guy in the back seat of your car while you drive. Try to use a longer gun while ridding the DART (or even carry one.) Try getting that long gun while eating at a diner. Oh heck man, unless you can drag that long gun around with you all day (legally) you will see the handgun has it's place cause it's the only one you can conceal.

Deaf
 
Everything is a trade-off

You use a pistol because that's what you carry all day. In a fight, you use it to fight to your long gun, but it would be superior in very close quarters, or in a possible gun retention scenario. Likewise, you can use a pistol one-handed, and have the use of your other hand, whereas a long gun is essentially a two-handed weapon (though a sling can help at times).

For power, accuracy, etc., the long gun is better, but the handgun may be adequate.
 
Gunfight in a phone booth ? The most bizarre radio talk show incident -a caller was phoning from a booth and was mugged , twice , by two different mugers !:eek: The victim had no gun[NYC] so just gave up his money.
A very potentially dangerous place is an elevator.You can't run and a gun, knife ,or even fists can easily be used against you.
 
A Pistol is constantly with you. It can be a fight stopper against multiple close in attackers, armed with contact weapons. IE Parking lot, loading grocery's.

Sixteen rounds of 9mm Ranger 147g non plus P. The ability to hit an eye socket at 7 yds (across a kitchen, intruder standing behind a family member, knife in hand, very still... thank you)

And if it is your only weapon (Concealed) a spare G17 magazine, to compliment your Glock 19, and Surefire 200 lumen on belt, day or night, 33 rounds, beats a sharp stick. Good to go.

A reasonable pistol shot can be a real threat at 100 yds. Yes, a pistol is realistic.
 
All these kids don't know what a phone booth is, but my generation knows it's what Bill and Ted traveled through time in. PARTY ON, DUDES!
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this is the most excellent comment I've ever read :eek:
 
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All these kids don't know what a phone booth is, but my generation knows it's what Bill and Ted traveled through time in. PARTY ON, DUDES!
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HAH! I grew up in Boston where even today you can find a payphone here and there. But anyways I was down the cape last summer and my cellphone died at the supermarket, so I was asking around for a payphone and getting looks like I was crazy. Guess times have changed.
 
Although not related to the post topic, I also miss phone booths. I think getting rid of phone booths is a bad idea. So, if something happens to our cell phones and we cant use a public pay phone, we have to ask complete strangers to borrow their phone? Not my idea of a good time.

And yes, superman uses them quite well. Also a great time-traveling device.
The one con:

If you use one in downtown new york, you may be subject to a sniper's game of cat and mouse. Sounds like a movie......
 
Q: Is there any possible situation wher a pistol is superior to a Long Gun or SMG?

A: When you are paying for all the ammo at the range session?
 
A pistol is always available...

Provided one carries it all the time. That is the main point of 'superiority' if such it is.

One can invent or think of various scenarios wherein a pistol would be of greater utility than a longer arm, but they are specific and few. A longer arm can normally be employed with greater precision and distance than any handgun, under the same conditions.

Or to put it in other words, If I knew I was going to a gunfight, I'd take a carbine at a minimum.

For a person who's business is getting into other people's business (law enforcement, for instance) one would hope the individual agent would have both options at his disposal - pistol on hip, long gun in the transport.
 
When is a pistol superior to a long gun or SMG?

When it's the only gun you have!

Lots of other times too, but the long gun gives us a better ability to hit beyond 15-20 yards for most all of us -- even though a few of us can knock off the odd jackrabbit at 125 yards with open-sighted pistols.
 
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My response is use the one which you can hit with.

I do question some of the posters ascertain that pistols out range shotguns. I personally know deer hunters who routines take deer at 100 yards with a 12 ga using both OO buck and slugs.

Other than a long range handgun shooters and bullseye competitors, most pistol shooters can't hit a fifty yard target let alone one at 100 yards. My ISPA club in AR would not let me design courses because I all ways included 2 fifty yard targets. The start target and the end target. Other than a couple of guys who were hunters or ex bullseye shooters none of the others could hit the targets.
 
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A shotgun with a rifled barrel is very accurate. 100 yard shots are pretty easy with one or two magazines of practice. Anyone who thinks they can shoot more accurately with a pistol than a shotgun equipped with a slug barrel is seriously deluded. Especially when you add sabots into the mix. You are basically shooting a low speed 50 caliber rifle. Modern shotguns come equipped with decent sights.

The only time a pistol is better than any long gun is when you can't get your long gun.
 
Unless the shotgun is sporting a smoothbore barrel because its owner usually loads it with shot shells... which describes most shotguns. Dedicated slug barrels normally get used in one of two limited instances: a state allows hunting with shotguns loaded with slugs, but not rifles; or, a shooter's budget only allows for one weapon, so the hunter buys multiple barrels for a shotgun, and switches according to a given day's intended use.

A handgun is easier to maneuver with, in certain circumstances, such as TunnelRat and others have posted.

And, again as others have posted, sometimes a handgun can be taken places where a long gun simply cannot.
 
ltc44, I recently started playing with 50 yard targets with a CZ75. No problem, so far; will try 100 yards next week.
 
I personally know deer hunters who routines take deer at 100 yards with a 12 ga using both OO buck
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Routinely takes deer at 100 yards with 00buck? Really? Sounds like a bad plan ...... .33" 54gr 00Buck has a BC of .071 and an ititial velocity of around 1300 f/sec ..... by 100 yards, it is well below 800 f/sec ...... how big would that pattern be, I wonder?

.33 cal roundball @800 f/sec (about 75 ft/lbs of energy!) does not even sound like a good idea for deer, even if one of them manage to hit the animal somewhere important. A field point arrow out of a compound bow would have more energy, and probably penetrate better .....
 
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