girlfriend needs a pistol. LOW RECOIL

[billdenn89]

hey guys. I need to buy my girlfriend a pistol for personal protection. it has to be medium sized pistol.( about the size of a beretta 9000c) Im really shying away from a semi because of my fear of a malfunction. I dont think that she would be able to clear the jam in a stressful situation. I already bought her a S&W bodygaurd. she has a huge problem with the trigger on that gun due to how long the pull is and how far forward the trigger swings. I was probably looking toward a wheel gun for reliability. (6 for sure!!) I was leaning towards a tarus m380 revolver. she is very recoil sensative. a 380 in a revolver platform just makes sence to me for her. what do you guys think. I dont feel like buying her a 38 spcl. and downloading it. thanx any suggestions are welcome . any sugg for caliber or guns

[Brick]

Try finding a used S&W Model 10 with 2" barrel. It'll be .38 Special so no problem there, use wadcutter target loads for "up close and personal" defense with low recoil.

Or check out the diferent versions of .327 Magnum revolvers (Ruger SP 101 and S&W M632). I think Charter Arms and Taurus also have something.

Last if you go back to semi-auto take a look at the various Beretta Cheetah and Tomcat variants. .32 ACP is as low as I'd go but if you do use Winchester Silvertip ammo.

[Philbert]

hey guys. I need to buy my girlfriend a pistol for personal protection. it has to be medium sized pistol.( about the size of a beretta 9000c) Im really shying away from a semi because of my fear of a malfunction. I dont think that she would be able to clear the jam in a stressful situation. I already bought her a S&W bodygaurd. she has a huge problem with the trigger on that gun due to how long the pull is and how far forward the trigger swings. I was probably looking toward a wheel gun for reliability. (6 for sure!!) I was leaning towards a tarus m380 revolver. she is very recoil sensative. a 380 in a revolver platform just makes sence to me for her. what do you guys think. I dont feel like buying her a 38 spcl. and downloading it. thanx any suggestions are welcome . any sugg for caliber or guns

She needs to buy her own pistol. This is a legal requirement (handguns cannot be transferred between most private individuals in PA), and a good idea from the perspective of her getting a gun that works for her.

Pistols that are nice to shoot are less nice to carry, and vice versa. She needs to decide how to make that trade-off, then work on becoming proficient with that choice. My advice would be don't be too quick to rule out any solution, like the .38 special or some kind of semi auto. Some professional instruction and practice can make all the difference.

[cruzans]

Most will probably disagree, but for my daughter, I'm getting her a Taurus 327 magnum. If you need a little punch, the 327 magnum round is pretty nice, and for low recoil, you can shoot 32 S&W Longs - a decent round with little recoil. Plus they have great deals on 327 mags now, got mine for $238 out the door new.

[Steve_NEPhila]

The original post in this thread shows a rigid and narrow view point that does not allow for a reasonable solution. The problem here is that you (original poster) are buying a defense weapon for another person, expecting it to work out well. A Smith and Wesson bodyguard is a terrible weapon for a new shooter and in my opinion is a weapon for experts only. It takes the skill of an expert to make a bodyguard a mediocre defensive weapon.

In all seriousness, get out of the drivers seat on this one. Let this person in your life choose a weapon that works for her. Until you step aside your future attempts to pick a defensive weapon for her will be failures exactly as you have recently experienced with the bodyguard.

By the way, revolvers are not "girls guns." Why do you fear she cannot clear a malfunction under stress... let me guess, everything she knows about guns came from you. Take that couple of hundred you were going to spend on another gimmicky handgun and buy her some training courses.

[algoesfast]

This comes from if my wife can do it anyone can. Been down the long trigger pull, cant charge the slide etc. My wife likes her Bersa thunder 380 but has difficulty pulling slide to the rear. So she got a Taurus TCP in 380. She can operate that one well. Trigger pull was easy for her. And she now likes my Bersa BP9CC. A little hard for her to lock slide back put she can do it. Recoil on all of them she has no problem with.
I mention the semi's above because double action revolvers she could not pull the trigger on most. The rest that she could pull she was not accurate at all. Not an easy task to find a gun that will work for her. Try to find a range you can rent some and see how she operates them. And if she is accurate with them. Good luck.

[vicious]

Just get her a glock 19 and some training. I've seen an 11yo girl run one in a high round count course, malfunction clearance drills and all.

[SigSauer226]

Just get her a glock 19 and some training. I've seen an 11yo girl run one in a high round count course, malfunction clearance drills and all.

^^^^THIS^^^^

Glock 19, easy to conceal and easy to shoot. My friend's girlfriend bought one and she loves it.

[Misery Loves Shotguns]

I really don't want to sound mean or anything but how recoil sensitive can a person really be? This whole thing sounds to me like you're setting her up for a 'get it and forget it' situation. Buying a gun for someone who you don't think can clear a malfunction or handle recoil is like buying a car for someone who doesn't have a driver's license and has no intention of getting one. It doesn't make any sense and it's likely going to do more harm than good. My girlfriend is short and has little hands but she shoots my 9x19 handguns once in a while and she shot my XD .45 before I sold it without any problems. In my experience, recoil control is all muscle memory that comes with putting more and more rounds down range BUT in this situation, that's like kind of like saying if you're allergic to cats you need to spend more time around cats. Unless there is something wrong with her that I don't know about, I think it's a training issue. I think she needs to figure out a proper grip and stance that allow her to handle the recoil better. Have her read these responses that people are posting because they've got some good points and if she isn't willing to put the effort into learning to handle the gun, she doesn't need to have one. Having a weapon can either make you an asset or a liability . . .

I'm not trying to be a dick or trash your girlfriend so don't take what I'm saying the wrong way. Where I'm coming from though, the only people I've ever known who were 'recoil sensitive' didn't follow instructions and didn't care enough to learn to shoot properly. My mother, her husband, a handful of friends I've tried to teach about guns are good examples of this . . . My girlfriend is a very casual shooter and despite being constantly surrounded by guns when she's at my place, she hasn't really learned much either in the three years we've been together.

[Misery Loves Shotguns]

The original post in this thread shows a rigid and narrow view point that does not allow for a reasonable solution. The problem here is that you (original poster) are buying a defense weapon for another person, expecting it to work out well. A Smith and Wesson bodyguard is a terrible weapon for a new shooter and in my opinion is a weapon for experts only. It takes the skill of an expert to make a bodyguard a mediocre defensive weapon.

In all seriousness, get out of the drivers seat on this one. Let this person in your life choose a weapon that works for her. Until you step aside your future attempts to pick a defensive weapon for her will be failures exactly as you have recently experienced with the bodyguard.

By the way, revolvers are not "girls guns." Why do you fear she cannot clear a malfunction under stress... let me guess, everything she knows about guns came from you. Take that couple of hundred you were going to spend on another gimmicky handgun and buy her some training courses.

I agree with you 100%. Along the lines of a terrible weapon for beginners, my mother and her husband have a Sig P250 with DAO trigger. She's shot it once (could barely even hit the man-sized target at 7 yards) and her husband has never shot it. I tell them all the time that they wasted their money and they're wasting their time thinking it will help them if the first time they shoot it is the time they NEED it. Fine motor skills break down under stress and combine that with never shooting the gun in the first place, you're going to miss by a mile and the attacker will probably laugh at you before he kills you.