Best Handgun / Caliber for wife

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It has probably already been said but it is my contention that it should be first of all one that fits the hand, second one that is easy to handel and reload, third one that can be shot accurately, four one that will stop or at lest change the mind of the bad guy.

I'm sure these things have been discussed here on this topic and don't wish to be repeative.

For my wife I got her a Baretta, Chetah, in .380 auto, not that I am a fan of .380's but it is a weapon that fits the needs of her ability to handel the weapon and to load it by herself with out outside help whivch is a must for a self defence weapon.

My wife does not have the strength to rack the action of a Simiauto pistol, which is why I chose this particular one because it has a tip up barrel, that allows a round to be droped into the chamber, I also got her a Magazine load asister that allows her to load the Mag's. by herself and makes that process very quick and painless. but with a full mag in the Mag well locked in place and a round droped into the Barrel and locked in place the weapon is now ready to cock the hammer, remove the safety and squeese of the first round in defence or at a target, which automatically brings the next round into battery.

I just wish tis feature was offered in a bit larger Cal. like 40 S&W, but I guess we cain't have everything.

And before you state the ovious she doesn't want a revolver. And I have learned several things over the years dealing with her if She ain't happy no-one in this house is happy.

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Take her to the range, rent all the 9mm's, find one that fits her hand and she can handle. My wife didn't like the G17 or 19 and she was all over the target. She liked the XD and P89(?) and was able to put everything in the target. With the glocks she had a lot of lateral variance (extreme left to extreme right), part of that may have been her grip. I assume she used a similar grip with the XD, all 12 rnds in the circle, I think that's what made her the happiest (15-20yds). Now she is practicing and improving, I have my XD 40 back and she has a weapon she can call her own. She ended up with the XD9.

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Photo from NRA Foundation

She saw this and wanted it...she doesn't even wear pink!!! It's not black, I thought I was going to be putting down $750 on the HK USP in "toupe" (dirt colored), just because it wasn't black.

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ronb5538 wrote:

Best Handgun / Caliber for wife... shooting?

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:what:

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ronb5538 wrote:

Best Handgun / Caliber for wife
Ok guys, what's the wife shooting?

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My wife likes to shoot .38 Special out of my Taurus 617 .357. It is Stainless Steel and as a larger 7 shot snubby the felt recoil is very low.

She shoots a good 3 to 4 inch group.

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ronb5538 wrote:

I got the surprise of my life this past weekend.  As usual, I went to the gun club for my weekly round of shooting targets.

To my amazement, my wife asked to come along (she's never held a gun in her life).  She shot my Dan Wesson 38/357, and my Taurus 85.  In all she sent about 60 rounds down the lane.  Then said the Dan Wesson was too heavy, and the Taurus snubbie kicked too much then asked what gun would be best for her.

She likes the boom of the 38 so I don't think she would like a 22.  Besides, I want her to shoot something that will be good for her protection (my God she's talking about taking the concealed weapons training course).

Ok guys, what's the wife shooting?

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Consider this. A .38 spl wadcutter will take out a bad guy. It can be fired in a revolver designed for .357 magnums. The recoil of the .38 is actually not bad at all, and in a stainless revolver the weight of the pistol helps control it. There are a variety of grips available from houge and pacmyer that can improve grip and reduce recoil for mid sized revolvers.

The revolver is less complicated and for beginning shooters easier to understand, shoot, and maintain than almost any auto pistol. Moreover if the gun does not fire, pulling the trigger brings a fresh round up without a complicated order of fire. They are very reliable when you really need it. They do not carry springs under tension when loaded and hammer down, so there is almost nothing to go bad sitting in a holster or drawer, and they are inherently safe in that condition.

As she practices you can increase the loads and work he up to full house .357 magnum if that is necessary. The .357 is a proven defensive round.

Most gunfights are carried out at ranges less than 10 yards (usually less than 7), and are over in less than three shots. A 3 to 4 inch revolver can handle that easily. Not a lot of need to deal with extra ammo, or complicated reloading drills in the beginning.

As she gets better, she will obviously want to explore other options, but if she decides that carry is not her bag (no pun intended) a revolver will have cost you less, and will not lose as much value as an auto on resale, but it will make a fine household defense gun. With more experience she may want to move to a semi auto pistol, but for now I would recommend against that.

I would look to a mid sized S&W (this aint politics folks it is self defense), or a ruger. If cost is a real issue Taurus makes some nice revolvers.

Some here have suggested you let her make the choice. At this point she does not have sufficient experience to make an educated choice, so you must her guide her to something that will not turn her off.

If you simply must go against conventional training techniques in this decision, then go with a semi that has a .22 caliber conversion unit available and can shoot either double action or single action, like the Witness from EAA, a CZ, but stay away from single action only semi-autos like 1911s and their clones until she has more experience. In fact you can buy an EAA in one caliber and convert it to any other standard pistol caliber for great flexibility. You could buy the 9mm, .45 or .40 S&W with a .22 conversion kit, and move her later to what ever caliber she likes by buying a slide, barrel, and magazine.

Regards

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HankT wrote:

...SNIP
I think that, generally, women are not "into guns" but that the big majority of them grok self-defense.  I think that women citizens, as a group, might very well perform better than men as a group, given enough training, experience and time.

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I have trained a few hundred women and girls in shooting sports, and I can assure you that women are better at it than most men. There are a few primary reasons why.

1) They do not have any preconceived ideas about how shooting is accomplished nor do they suffer from male bravado. They listen to the instruction, follow it, and ask when they don't know something so they get the right answer.

2) They are more in tun with their bodies and have better control over breathing grip, and follow through then most men.

3) They are inherently multitaskers, and are not distracted by outside influences.

4) Once motivated, they will work on a concept until they "get it"
Regards

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Hawkflyer wrote:

ronb5538 wrote:

I got the surprise of my life this past weekend. As usual, I went to the gun club for my weekly round of shooting targets.

To my amazement, my wife asked to come along (she's never held a gun in her life). She shot my Dan Wesson 38/357, and my Taurus 85. In all she sent about 60 rounds down the lane. Then said the Dan Wesson was too heavy, and the Taurus snubbie kicked too much thenasked what gun would be best for her.

She likes the boom of the 38...

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Consider this. A .38 spl wadcutter will take out a bad guy. It can be fired in a revolver designed for .357 magnums. The recoil of the .38 is actually not bad at all, and in a stainless revolver the weight of the pistol helps control it. There are a variety of grips available from houge and pacmyer that can improve grip and reduce recoil for mid sized revolvers.

The revolver is less complicated and for beginning shooters easier to understand, shoot, and maintain than almost any auto pistol.

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+1 on the idea of a .38. Maybe a nice Smith J-frame steel rather than a lightweight. A 640 or a 60 or 60LS, something. Women should shoot revolvers starting out.

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HankT wrote:

...SNIP

Women should shoot revolvers starting out.

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Everyone should to start.

It allows the instructor to do a lot of things to help the student understand the process, and the problems. Flinch is particularly easy to detect and correct when you can load an empty chamber and surprise a flinching student with a jumping pistol when the hammer drops on the empty chamber. It is particularly nice because you can shoot really light loads to start, and work them up slowly.

Your advice as to models is a nice choice. It is important to avoid the superlight models. Steel frames are perfect, and the small and mid sized are the right size for most small hands. Add nice grips and you can make a very good shooter out of a novice very quickly. In the proper holster the weight is not an issue for carry.

The only problems relate to transitioning people from the revolver to the semi-auto. A lot of things are different, and they have to unlearn one set of muscle memory and learn a new set. But it is not realy difficult for most people.

The other issue is the hammer spur on revolvers bothers some people, and distracts them in double action fire. It is vision issue, but some people see the hammer moving in double action fire, and are distracted from the front sight. This of course destroys their accuracy, and upsets the follow through.

Shifting them to SA only for a while usually cures the problem.

Some here have mentioned that women may have a problem with cycling the slide. This is quite true for any locked breach pistol. That would be almost everything above a .380 auto, there are exceptions to this. That is a big part of why the .32 and .380 autos are so popular among women and smaller men.

The fact is most calibers from .380 down, carry nicely, are "cute" and they are small. They even come in colors now, and some women like that. But those calibers are not potent enough in my opinion. They will work, but only with good shot placement, and usually multiple hits center mass. That is tricky for most beginners. They can do it at the range, but cannot when under pressure.

Part of the transition training to Semi is to teach how to overcome the stronger spring in a locked breach weapon. But the technique required to apply the correct leverage requires some non standard handling that should only be taught after the person is over the initial strangeness of the activity itself. Even the smallest woman can be trained to handle a full size .45 auto, if you teach them the leverage tricks required to operate the slide. Once they learn to "ride" the recoil they are good to go.

But IMHO revolvers and fundamentals are the place it starts for any beginning shooter.

Regards