Posted: 7/8/2010 10:13:01 PM EDT
Good news...My wife wants another pistol. 
Bad news...she has small hands. In the past she has owned a small frame S&W .357. To much power she was scared of it. She also had a 9mm semi. She was scared of the slide, and the gun twisted in her hand when she shot it. What would be a good gun/caliber for her? My twisted mind was thinking a 9mm revolver? or should I look for something smaller? Thanks zac |
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A J-frame S&W isn't a bad thing; but load it with non-plus-p .38s instead of .357s or hot .38s. There's plenty of good defensive ammo out there.
Also, sacrifice a little bit of the weight savings and get a steel-frame gun; a model 60 would be great. (9mm has a much higher pressure than .38spl, and moonclips are one more thing to keep track of.) |
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like posted above, have ya tried low recoil 38's? and moon clips are another thing to deal with. Steel framer will soak up some recoil,
3rd gen smiths are nice as well 6906.. all steel, little heavy. Just picked up 1 like this for the wife, she has tiny hands too, but this fits nice. double stack 9mm. They come in the steel slide/alloyframe also 
3913... steel slide/alloy frame. Any 39xx model would be nice. single stack 9mm. Also have all steel to soak up some more 
I believe the 908 is the economy model of the 39xx series, but not positive. 
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If you want a revolver, I suggest looking at a non-Airweight snubnose revolver in .38 Special (like a S&W Model 36, S&W Model 40 or a Colt Detective Special). I would give her some light .38 Specials. I personally find 124gr .38 Special to be very pleasant to shoot in Airweight and non-Airweight revolvers and is a great entry-level .38 Special round for recoil-sensitive shooters.
If she gets more comfortable with the 124gr rounds, you can then try her on heavier loads and maybe even +P. A hit with a 124gr .38 Special is better than a miss with a +P round, imo. |
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Quoted:
Good news...My wife wants another pistol.
Bad news...she has small hands. In the past she has owned a small frame S&W .357. To much power she was scared of it. She also had a 9mm semi. She was scared of the slide, and the gun twisted in her hand when she shot it. What would be a good gun/caliber for her? My twisted mind was thinking a 9mm revolver? or should I look for something smaller? Thanks zac No autos. What do you mean by small frame 357? I'd say j-frame or k-frame shooting 38's. |
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Not sure what you mean by she's afraid of the slide but my Kahr CW9 doesn't seem to recoil/flip as much as a number of 9mm's I've owned. Plus it's lightweight and extremely comfortable.
In revolvers I've settled on the Ruger SP101 with a 3" barrel and soft Hogue grips. It has the heft and ergonomics to shoot even heavy loads comfortably. The 3" barrel adds to pointability and balance plus a few fps velocity. I settled on it after a long search for my daughter's first handgun. Now I've got my sisters into this model. One tip, the trigger needs working over which makes it much more pleasant to shoot. Then there's the ammo issue of using light 38 Spec loads for practice and familiarity then moving up the power ladder as needed. |
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She'll have a hard time working the slide on a Walther, you might want to rethink that.
She can always shoot .38 Specials in the .357. The S&W M547 is a 9mm. The three inch round butt is a real nice gun. It has a very unique ejector and it's fun to shoot. The 9mm is tame in the heavy steel frame. 
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| The old S&W .38's are always a good choice. They can be had pretty cheap from many different places. For example: http://www.jgsales.com/index.php/smith-wesson/revolver/cPath/16_211_431 |