Anything can happen, in either a rifle or a handgun, depending on how a raft of variables work with and against each other. On Tin Cup Creek in 1955, I took an easy, can't-miss shot at a standing buck with an untested load in my .30-06 Improved. I had been shooting 180-grain Bronze Points but had instead -- that day -- a batch of cartridges loaded with heavier bullets (220-grain Core Lokts) and several grains less of the same powder (IMR-4350, IIRC). I expected to shoot a bit low but shot several inches high.
My ballistician professor said that was a common occurrence and explained it as a function of the two bullets' exiting the muzzle at significantly different points in the arc of the vibrating muzzle.
The difference in impacts could easily be otherwise -- even the opposite -- with other bullet weights, powder charges, and barrels.
