Historically, there have been many instances of both rifles and pistols
chambered for the same cartridge. Perhaps the earliest and most romantically
famous would be the colt "frontier model" pistol and the Winchester 1873 model
rifle, both first issued in 44-40 caliber. When fired from the longer barreled
rifle, the bullet will indeed have a higher muzzle velocity, thus longer
range, etc. Basically, there is a minimum barrel length needed for the bullet
I usually explain this in terms of greater "impylse" (Force X delta time) in
the longer barrel
Jim Goff
Pima Community College
JGOFF@PIMACC>PIMA.EDU to reach maximum velocity with a gib