Rifles that shoot handgun rounds

M

maxinquaye

New member
I have a couple old milsurp rifles and a decent shotgun, but I would like to round out my collection with a good semi-auto and a lever action. I have seen a lot of levers and some carbines that fire handgun rounds - from the Ruger PC9 to the winchester levers that fire .44 mag. I would like to pick one up for the obvious advantages of the ammo being compatable with my pistols and possibly cheaper then rifle, depending on calibers. But I have my (unfounded?) doubts about the power, range, accuracy of these rifles. I guess I just cannot imagine that firing a pistol round through a longer barrel would give you comperable performance to a rifle round like .223 or .308, etc. Am I wrong? Please explain to me the relative merits of carbines and the ballistic differences.
 
Concerns about power, range, and accuracy relative to rifle rounds are well grounded. Despite picking up some velocity from the longer barrel, they are still pistol rounds. Sharing ammo between handguns and rifles is a reasonable rationale, and the rifle/carbine should improve the pistol round's performance to some extent - at least in terms of power and range. But if yours is a rifle application, get a rifle that shoots rifle rounds.

That said, I've owned a PC-4 and have a Marlin lever action in .44 Mag. I regret selling the PC-4. Both are cool guns. And that, in my opinion, is the best reason for buying them! :)

I'll be interested to hear how others respond on this one.
 
Here is a link to a thread on Handguns about a carbine conversion unit for a 1911 pistol, turning it into a semi-auto carbine.
[Link to invalid post]

Regards,

Ledbetter
 
Thanks for the info Ledbetter, that is, um, an interesting addition to a 1911, but does not really interest me. Could still use info on the relative ballistics of handgun vs. rifle cartidges.
 
An old rule of thumb is that each inch of barrel adds 50 fps muzzle velocity. A lot depends on caliber, load, etc., but this might help.

The short light carbines are fun, but personally, I never saw much advantage in putting up with the bulk and weight of a rifle and then having only a slight increase over pistol power.

The common pistol/rifle ammo factor was more important when the nearest store was a three day ride than it is today, and the ammo weight factor is less with rifle calibers like the 5.56mm/.223.

Jim
 
Well fellow millsurper if you want to go for a double look into the Spanish Destroyer Carbine in 9Largo (9x23) Sarco has some (or did )

Mine is very fun.
 
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