I've used both and now prefer my ML. I have been able to get rifle level accuracy using BH209 and my CVA Optima (1" or better groups at 100). If I was just starting I would probably go with shotgun. I like to reload and messing with the ML using different powders, bullets, sabots etc, to get the best accuracy is fun to me. Its taken a few years of playing with bullet selection, sabot selection and powder selection to get the accuracy I wanted.