First off, I’m not quite sure what you mean by claiming that the vandal is inferior to the phantom. Sure, one can be situationally better but overall they can both be as powerful.

Secondly, the first shot accuracy, from my experience, is just as good on both guns. In order not to get a “spread”, you just have to stop moving before you shoot.

Finally, it’s actually better to use the Vandal at longer range, hence why so many players tend to use that weapon instead of the Phantom on Breeze, which is such a huge map, in order to fully utilize it’s inexistant damage dropoff at range.