Just an idle question. If I wanted to economize, could I buy a rifle and a handgun which used the same cartridge?
They most certainly do. I’m sure there are more examples, but I know from experience that .22 caliber bullets can be used in both pistols and rifles. I’d wager that the larger the round, the less likely it is that you would see it be used in a pistol.
There are plenty of carbines that shoot handgun ammo. For example, Beretta makes the CX4 Storm in .45, .40 S&W, and 9mm varieties.
As for handguns that shoot rifle ammo, it isn’t to hard to find ones that shoot .223 rounds. Handguns that shoot more powerful rifle rounds are pretty rare, but can be found. And if you want something really impressive, you could get this revolver which fire .600 Nitro Express rounds.
In fact, “long gun chambered for a pistol cartridge” is one definition of the word “Carbine” ( the other definition is just “short version of rifle X”)
.45 Colt (AKA long colt) and .357 magnum are traditional cowboy rounds that work well in six shooters and lever action rifles. And there are numerous manufacturers of each. There are lots of .44 magnum examples too. Puma/Rossi chambers a model 92 rifle in .454 Casull, a magnumized 45 colt intended for strong revolvers.
9mm .40 S&W and 45 ACP all have one or a few models of long guns available. But these are far less popular than the examples above, and a couple examples of the 9mm have ceased production.
All of the above are rifles chambered for handgun cartridges. There are lots of examples of “hand cannons”…handguns chambered for rifle rounds. The Magnum Research BFR is a 5 shot revolver chambered in .45-70 gov. Lots of rifle cartridges are/have been chambered in the single shot TC contender pistol.
I’m no gun expert but a friend had something like this:
http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/g2ContenderPistols.php
Depending on how many barrels you want to buy you can make it shoot just about anything a handgun can handle.
Economy doesn’t have much to do with it. Handgun and rifle cartridges are generally designed for different purposes. Handgun cartridges generally have powder that burns quickly through a short barrel length and results in a slower and less stable bullet. Rifle cartridges generally have a longer powder burn time and produce a much faster bullet that is more stable over long distances. I am using the terms slow and fast in relative terms. The powder burn times are incredibly short even comparing it to a blink of an eye but extremely important for this question.
That said, you can buy plenty of handguns that fire the same cartridge as a rifle or have one custom made. As already mentioned, .22 center fire long rifle rounds are easily found in both rifle and pistol forms. There is no need to stop there though. Firearms enthusiasts are notorious experimenters and have made just about everything imaginable. There is such a thing as a 30.06 handgun for example (a very powerful and popular rifle cartridge) but you you probably wouldn’t want to shoot such a beast in handgun form more than once or twice if you wanted to keep your wrists attached to your arms. It isn’t practical for anything other than a stunt.
You could get a handgun that shoots just about any rifle cartridge and vice-versa and it would work but there would usually be an extreme mismatch of design between the cartridge and the gun for the intended purpose.
I have a Marlin 1894 Cowboy II that is chambered for .357/.38 special. They also make them in .44 magnum. Beautiful gun and my personal favorite. I have a .357 revolver, so yes, I have a long gun and a pistol that use the same ammo.
There are a variety of rifles like this.
Like Chimera, I too have a Marlin 1894, albeit not the Cowboy. Mine is chambered for .44 Magnum. Cowboys liked the idea of having their handguns and rifles chambered alike so they didn’t have to carry two types of ammo. The drawback, at least in my case with the .44 Mag round, is that accuracy drops off sooner, beyond 100 - 150 yards it’s problematic.
Building on your question, OP, the Taurus Judge will fire the same .410 shell that a shotgun would. I saw a few of those at the range one day as a kid and it totally blew my mind.
.44/40 was one of the earliest cartridges that satisfied these criteria. You could get the Colt Single Action Army/Peacemaker and the Winchester '73 rifle chambered for it.
The most famous caliber for both rifle and pistol is the .44-40 Winchester, which was used in 1873 Winchester and in the Colt Single Action Army. It was very popular, since people could carry a single type of round for both rifle and pistol.
.223? .44/40? .45-70? Small potatoes! Here’s a pistol chambered in 50BMG. 
Granted, it was just a prototype that was never produced for sale, but at least somebody was foolhardy enough to do it.
There seems to be some mixing of terms here.
.22 Long Rifle is a rimfire cartridge, not a center fire cartridge.
As for answering the OP, the FN Five-SeveN and FN P90/PS90 both fire the same 5.7x28mm round, as well as some of the other examples mentioned here.
I could fire that one handed.
Once. :eek:
Sorry, that it what I meant. It was a typo.
The indoor range that I used to shoot at was handgun only and would not allow carbines using the same cartridge as an allowed hand gun. Apparently the longer barrel length allows the bullet to develop more velocity.
I have both an M1 Carbine and an AMT Automag III. Both fire .30 cal Carbine ammo.
I do believe that’s because the bullet is exposed to the combustion process for a longer period of time.
P90 and the 5.7
fire the 5.7 round
That’s still a consideration today, for logistics reasons.
The military (US & NATO) do give extra consideration to pistols & rifles that can use the same ammunition.
For example, the M16 rifle can use the same cartridge as used in a lot of NATO guns (indeed, the 7.62 cartridge was originally introduced in 1891 for russian guns – many versions of guns have been introduced since then, all using this size cartridge).