[rav373]

Shopping for a Home Defense Handgun - Case Study by a Female Reporter

What other suggestions do you have?

 

[Popeye]

DON'T!

Let her choose it for herelf. Even if you choose the same weapon she would choose, your choice will be "wrong".

Also, look here: http://www.nationalgunforum.com/concealed-carry/37498-10-tips-choosing-concealed-carry-handgun.html

and here: http://www.nationalgunforum.com/concealed-carry/24028-choosing-concealed-carry-gun-seniors.html

 

[TacticalNERD]

What he said. Take her out and rent everything you can get your hands on. She will tell you what is most comfortable for her

I've been looking at the XDs(I'm going for .45 ACP, but they make a 9mm).

 

[opamailman]

Let her choose the weapon. My wife likes revolvers but chose an LCP380 for carry purposes. I would have blown it and bought her a revolver.

 

[kechi]

to the OP: thanks for posting the article.

 

[AbnormalSpring]

My wife wants a sig mosquito in pink for her cc

 

[DPM]

My boss was having issues with this one. He and his wife went off gun shopping for her the other day, she REALLY liked the Kimber Solo, which is all fine n' good, however, she CANNOT rack the slide. Needless to say he didn't let her get it. The criteria for her gun: No plastic! Must be compact. Must be semi auto. Must be 9mm.
I said good luck lol.

 

[larry]

Shopping for a Home Defense Handgun - Case Study by a Female Reporter

What other suggestions do you have?

I am not sure how many read the article you posted but I noticed what I consider to be a lot of standard rookie mistakes in her decision making process. And Popeye is right on you have to let her choose. Buying a gun for your wife is part of the learning process of basic gun ownership. I recommend a basic gun course for her to get started. Then she needs to understand the differences between guns and calibers. It is very important to learn to shoot properly. The gun you purchase for her is a very important factor in developing her skills. I recommend a 22 to start with and this will get her started in a good way so she is not flinching and will allow her to get use to handling a gun. Also with a 22 you will get some malfunctions and misfires, this is good for developing a basic understanding of the gun and how it functions. Once she has gotten use to the 22 and fire a few thousand rounds through it then you can purchase your defensive handgun buy going through a learning process again. In the article the lady talked about not making a mistake in buying the first handgun and buying a second as a mistake. True but buying a gun that will scare her and develop a flinch when she shoots it is not good either.
The fact is if you buy her the 22 to start off with then when she gets her defensive handgun down the road I bet you both will still be shooting the 22 down the road and probably more the your defensive handguns. JM02

 

[kechi]

Thanks for your advice, larry, but I don't see a good reason to buy a first gun with the intention that it's not the one you actually want and will need to buy a second one. Maybe that's because of my circumstances (college student i.e. poor, also homeless i.e. not much place to keep my important things except my car) (ps - when I say homeless, I mean no place of my own. I have plenty of friends and relatives that I stay with).

In the class I took, the people who did not bring a gun rented a Glock 17, so far that's the only one I've tried. As for the flinching, I did plenty of that. There were 28 people in my class, half of the class was up at a time, so 14 of us were on the line, and three instructors were going down the line one by one helping each student shoot. Well as I was waiting my turn, every single shot made me flinch a lot, and I had to control my hyperventilating and instinct to turn and run. I did it, and when it was my turn I really did not notice any more problems, and for the rest of the class I was fine.

To me the Glock 17 was uncomfortably heavy and bulky having to carry it around all day for two days. And that was unloaded.

 

[C-D-P]

My boss was having issues with this one. He and his wife went off gun shopping for her the other day, she REALLY liked the Kimber Solo, which is all fine n' good, however, she CANNOT rack the slide. Needless to say he didn't let her get it. The criteria for her gun: No plastic! Must be compact. Must be semi auto. Must be 9mm.
I said good luck lol.

Maybe suggest trying out a little larger gun. Those compacts and sub compacts have a heartier spring to deal with the lighter slide weight. Makes em harder to rack for folks with less arm and grip strength.

 

[DPM]

Maybe suggest trying out a little larger gun. Those compacts and sub compacts have a heartier spring to deal with the lighter slide weight. Makes em harder to rack for folks with less arm and grip strength.

Now you see that's exactly what I had suggested but she wouldn't have it lol, some people cannot be pleased.

 

[C-D-P]

It has been my experience that this push back happens more often than not when a husband is teaching and helping his wife find a gun. Maybe ya should take her out to a training course where they let her shoot several different pistols. Let her do the course by herself.

 

[Popeye]

It has been my experience that it is highly unlikely that a 'significant other' can teach a woman to shoot.

She will accept what I have to say about improving her shooting and completely ignore what the 'significant other' has to say, even if I say the same thing he said. I don't know why this is but it is.

 

[horselips]

New female shooter? Revolver. Either a Charter MagPug or a Ruger SP101 to start with.