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When recoil begins, the greater mass of the rifle means greater inertia, which means it takes longer for the rifle to begin detectable recoil.
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Given that the momentum (the quantity that is proportional to recoil) of a typical rifle loading far exceeds the momentum of a typical pistol loading, and given that the typical rifle barrel length far exceeds the typical pistol barrel length, my gut feel is that it all pretty much cancels out.
I'll run some numbers and post the results.
Ok, here are some rough estimates.
Firearm, Recoil velocity, Barrel Dwell Time
Beretta 92FS, 9.2fps, 0.6ms
1911, 11.7fps, 0.8ms
AR-15, 3.9fps, 0.9ms
Remington 700, 8.0fps, 1.1ms
The .223 comes in with a pretty low recoil velocity, but the rest of the firearms have roughly comparable recoil velocity (8, 9.2 and 11.7fps).
The barrel dwell time is pretty similar across the board (0.6, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.1ms). So the rifles have a little less recoil velocity but a little longer barrel dwell time. The two effects should help to cancel each other somewhat.
So given that barrel dwell time and recoil velocity are pretty similar, at least between the very limited sample in my quick & dirty calculations, it would seem that muzzle rise is the best candidate for why POI changes more significantly with bullet weight in handguns than it does in rifles.
That makes sense when one notes that the POI change also tends to be more pronounced in revolvers than in autopistols. Again, it's muzzle rise that makes the difference. While they both begin recoiling as soon as the bullet begins to move, in the autopistol, that early recoil motion, while the bullet is still in the bore, is slide/barrel movement. Muzzle rise begins primarily when the slide bottoms out against the frame at it's rearward travel, long after the bullet has left the barrel.
However, recoil in a revolver tends to result in immediate muzzle rise.
Therefore, there tends to be less difference on the target between different bullet weights when shooting autopistols than when shooting revolvers.