Spread, Accuracy mechanics

[Renamon]

I have been playing a lot with a small group of friends and I highly prefer the pistols as my ragned weapon choice, but recently I noticed something strange when I ran out of pistol bullets and had to switch to my Assault rifle. (I am not too far into the game, have the Basic Braton-MKI and the Leto pistol) As much as I experienced it the Assault rifle has a much smaller spread and much longer effective range then the pistol, while not doing much more damage then the assault rifle. While this can be explained that the pistols were ment to be side arms and the emphasis is on using a rifle I still found it strange, does this change later in the game? Am I better off just staying with Rifles?