k0ua
Epic Contributor
Someone already mentioned this but it really needs to be the first decision. Will the woman actually use the weapon if needed? She needs to be sure she will use the weapon otherwise don't waste the time and money to get a firearm and a CCW. MANY people will NOT defend themselves. Many years ago I was in a defense tactics class and the instructor laid out a scenario that took out all of the variables of using deadly force and asked who could pull the trigger. Only about a third of the class raised their hand. :shocked: How those people got that far into the process and training without raising their hand to that question was shocking to me. Scary it was.
First let her pick the handgun. It should be whatever fits her hand. Look for a range where you can rent some weapons and let her shoot them to see what works and does not work. She needs to have confidence in the weapon and her ability to use it. Going to the range will allow one to find which cartridge works best for her in a given weapon. I would start at 9mm and go from there. Generally speaking, larger framed handguns handle recoil better than smaller weapons but larger weapons make concealed carry more difficult. Furthermore, women's hands are often smaller than men and a smaller frame weapon is needed for a good fit. Some weapons will recoil more than others due to design and materials, lighter is easy to carry, but that can lead to more recoil. Recoil does not bother me that much until the handgun gets into the magnum power range but I have good hand and arm strength. It really is an individual thing that balances the needs/wants for concealed carry, weight, size and bulk vs capacity, caliber, and fit.
Once upon a time, I was shooting with my wife and I was giving her hints on how to improve what she was doing. No yelling or screaming on my part at all but there was a bit of resistance from her to do what needed to be done.That day, or the next day, we went to a gun store that has a woman owner/firearms instructor. The lady spent 2-3 hours with my wife! :thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing: She let my wife hold a bunch of handguns to find a fit and they then went off to shoot at a laser target for quite some time with some of the handguns. The woman instructor was making suggestions which my wife dutifully followed. What was funny is that these were the same comments I made but which were met with resistance. :confused3:
So find an instructor the lady will learn from.
Which cartridge to use is really what round the woman can best carry and shoot. A .22 LR is better than nothing.
I have seen women who have trouble racking a slide. Really hard for me to understand it but I have seen it. I think this can be overcome with technique and doing some simple hand strengthening exercises. Having said that, I would not let difficulty of operating the slide prevent her from getting a pistol as long as there is someone who can do it for her.
The reality is that for most incidents where a woman is going to use a handgun, she is going to have a very short time to use the weapon, and if it malfunctions, she very likely will not have time to fix it. Tap, rack and go is not hard but it does take practice and I don't think most men, much less women, have practiced enough to have the muscle memory to clear a failure to fire without thinking. I have fired thousands of rounds in pistols and I have had some failures to fire and I did not even think about what to do, I just did it, but I have spent the practice time. The rounds that failed to fire were practice rounds and I have never had a duty round fail to fire. Knock on wood.
I have seen a revolver jam and it aint pretty. Dang scary.
Never seen anyone who has trouble pulling the trigger though. That one really is odd. Having said that I would NOT get a DA/SA handgun. The DA trigger pull on the handguns I have fired has been around 12 pounds with the SA about 5-6 pounds. Training to pull a 12 pound trigger with accuracy AND then training for the less SA trigger is a PITA. Given one can buy modern pistols that have the same trigger pull from the first round to the last, I don't see any reason to have a carry handgun that is a DA/SA. The trigger pull should be the same every every time.
Later,
Dan
Pretty sage advice Dan. As for the "husband" thing, I have seen that countless times. If you are the woman's husband, forget about it. Most wives won't take critique even the best intentioned and carefully worded critique from their husbands. Get someone else to train your wife on technique. Get an "expert". You likely aren't. And even if you are, you don't count. As for the the revolver, semi auto choice. I still say leave it up to the woman if she can handle the semi auto, and shoots it well and can load, clear malfunctions and manipulate it safely, why not? Of course the revolver drill is easier, and if there is any doubt she can operate a semi auto, then revolver it is. Some women really like revolvers, but some don't. I always introduced both, and let them fire as many rounds as possible through both, and fully load, unload, and manipulate both. There is something to be said for the simplicity of the revolver even when neglected, but they can and do fail occasionally. But not very often.
