Comfort and fit > Stopping power?

Bigj4708

Inactive
Hello this my first post and first time here . My question is when chosen a weapon for home safety and protection should the buyer look for a weapon they are comfortable shooting ie not too big a round and feels right in there hand or. Should they look for stopping power . I am asking this as I am shopping for a handgun for my wife . I have been under the mind set that I need to find something that first is comfortable in her hands and has a correct finger location on the trigger and grip for her smaller hands, as well as a weapon she is not afraid to fire ie she wont shoot my 44 . At this point she seems to like a S&W 9mm sw9ve with laser sight that i found it seems to fit her well and she has shoot a 9mm in the past .
However her father feels that I should buy a weapon with a greater stopping power and have her shoot it until she becomes comfortable with it . While talking about this with him he made some valid points as to his feeling on this subject so i thought I would post it here and see what the majority would think on the subject.

I would like to first ty for your time and post as well appoligies for my poor spelling and puncation . :)
 
Caliber is always 2nd to comfort and feel. At least it is for me.
My wife has shot larger calibers than the 9x18, but she likes the feel and ergonomics of the cz82 better than my other handguns. Guess what she grabs when something goes bump in the night?
 
IMHO, shoot what you shoot well.
If you don't enjoy shooting it, you won't practice...and won't attain/maintain proficiency.
And if you can't hit it, you won't stop it.
 
TY guys

My wife's father says that he read during a home invation more often then not the Home owner just making enough noise with a fire arm will run off intrudder . I counter this argument that if she isn't comfortable shooting the weapon she may not fire it so there would be no noise . He then said that I needed to take her to the range and have she shoot the bigger weapon until she became comfortable with it . I understand his point of view big bangs get noticed ect.. and that a one shoot stop is better then having to pull the trigger several times . yet so far I have tought my wife that well placed shoot with good form are better then large cail. weapons blowing big holes in things . I have also tought her that if the need should ever arise once she has our children secure and identafied the threat . should she need to use the gun to keep shooting until it stops moving even if this means reloadding
 
ANY gun is louder than loud, inside a house. The only difference between a .380 Auto and a .44 Mag, is how much permanent hearing loss there will be.

As far as the sound of a gun shot goes... the bad guy doesn't care how "big" it sounds. They'll continue doing what they came for, or run like hell.

Go for comfort and a reasonable cartridge (no .22s or .25s, and I suggest 9mm or .327 Federal be the "low end" of what you look at).
 
9mm is plenty for a woman's home companion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... Sounds like her father is being a little too macho with his concerns...

Having a gun that SHE is comfortable with and confident with... and that she actually LIKES... is way more important than big bore hoopla... especially when we're talkin' tried and true 9mm... Gimme a break...
 
You also have to think how much are you going to stop . I think every 44 round I have would end up some place outside the home ,maybe in the neighbors, and I don't have that many neighbors or any close ones.
 
I suppose I COULD carry any caliber I want but I choose the 9mm. Reason=
portability,
mag capacity(most of the time I don't carry more than 1 extra mag and sometimes just the mag in the gun),
muzzle blast,
abillity to shoot it well with weak hand,
the fact that all my semiauto pistols use the same ammo.
I've shot test media and killed several vehicle injured deer with my Ruger KP95 and have confidence in it's ability to resolve a conflict.
 
The 9mm is an excellent choice. Modern bullets do a lot better job than just 20 years ago. If she feels like she can move "up" from 9mm in the future, just go with the +P options.
 
. I am asking this as I am shopping for a handgun for my wife

This is your first mistake. The wife should be shopping for HER OWN handgun, PERIOD. The gun SHE chooses' should fit HER hand, not yours. If she is comfortable with the gun in her hand she will practice with it, gain proficiency with it and enjoy shooting it. Would you buy the wife a bra hoping it fits, or shoes hoping they fit????? I doubt it so let her choose HER gun.
 
I wanted my wife to get a pistol and in retrospect I was driving the entire process.

I think it was more of an excuse for me to get another gun and have fun shopping for it than anything else.

I can't think of any instance where my wife did the reverse to me. I never had her tell me "I think we should get a Toyota for you..." and then drag me around to dealerships to test drive Toyotas or anything like that.
 
The 9mm is a fine round and out of a gun the size of the Sigma recoil should be very managable. Try to find a place that rents guns and turn her loose.

I own the Sigma 9mm and it's a very accurate gun. Great gun for the money.
 
Revolver or pistol that she shoots well, a miss by a testosterone mandated caliber is useless. Don P put it right, her hand, her gun, her choice.
 
As others have said, power that misses the target is a waste of power.

Also, even "powerful" handgun rounds are often not reliably capable of one-shot stops, so the ability to hit with quick follow-up shots is important.

Of all factors, though, the one I'd rate as most important for defense is neither "comfort" nor "power" but reliability.

The weapon should feed its selected ammo with clock-like reliability, and cycle equally reliably. The user should practice with it sufficiently so that all basic operations are committed to muscle memory, so there's no fumbling under stress.

That last part of the reliability equation, though, lends itself more to "comfort" than "power." Most shooters, especially novice shooters, will not practice nearly enough with a gun that is too powerful, or too uncomfortable.

So, all things being equal, you want the most power you can get in a platform that is ultra-reliable, and that is still comfortable enough for the shooter to practice with it as much as is required for true proficiency.

For most people, by which I mean the general public and not shooting enthusiasts, that means a medium to service sized handgun in .38Special or 9mm. Acceptable power levels and platforms will vary with each shooter, of course, but on average those two are probably optimal.

(Personally, I like .45acp and 1911 or BHP platforms, but I shoot a lot and am fairly large.)
 
First thing you need to do is find out how much gun she can handle. Go to a range and shoot as many guns as you can and find what works best for her.

My GF decided she wanted something to carry when home and when out of state as we both have the Utah card. She was new to shooting so we shot everything I have, every gun my buddies have and everything the ranges had available. At the end of the day she decided on a Ruger LCP. We were going to get the LC9 but it was too much snap for her in such a small package. She really liked my 229 and 226 but both were too large for her to carry comfortably.

Since buying the LCP she has run well over 1000 rounds through it without a single failure except for the first couple of mags when the gun was new. It's also the largest caliber she is currently accurate with and we decided that 7 rds of .380 on target was better than 15 rds of 9mm off target.
 
Calibers from 9 mm on up seem to perform pretty similarly in ballistic gel and, to the extent that we can make comparisons without controlled studies, in flesh. Since no handgun caliber is a reliable one-stop shot, a lot of people choose 9 mm so that followup shots can be quicker and more accurate. IOW, if the elimination of the threat is going to depend on the placement of the second or third shot, they choose a caliber that enhances the second and third shots rather than the first.

As far as a bigger bang, I cannot imagine an assailant standing there and trying to figure out if it was a 9 mm or a .45 report that he just heard. He is either flapping feet (if he has any sense at all) or fighting - but hopefully bleeding while doing either.

Fathers-in-law can be hard to deal with when they are heavily opinionated. Ask me how I know.
 
What she is comfortable with is the correct answer. She will use it, learn it, not be afraid to fire it, and that very well could save her life. If you feel the 9m/m is not big enough learn how to engage with multiple shots. Remember though when threat stops shooting must stop or the defender becomes the attacker.
 
I don't think this is too far off topic but there's a dynamic here that affects the situation. Her father is just that - her father. He might have an old habit of instructing/telling his daughter what to do and what is best for her. She's an adult now and married to you at that. It may not work too well if you approach the situation the same way as her father attempts to.

If she's going to have a chance at ever liking it all on her own letting her have some choices might help. It makes a huge difference when we do something if we actually want to versus going through the motions. It's bad but whenever I'm told to do something very specific by relatives in a situation where a choice should be mine I grow resistant to it even if it's a good idea. I'm with the folks that say let her try what she wants and eventually she may grow comfortable enough with a given caliber / design that she will branch out due to curiosity. That may take a while, and heck if she tries a 45 because she's shot so much 9mm she's bored of it - she may not even need to switch ever! If she's shot her particular gun so much that she's curious about others, great!

Oh and whatever she picks/how she shoots remember to emphasize nice things about how she did to keep the whole experience a positive one. (I feel like I need work on that).

Perhaps viewing some ammo tests of 9mm might make you feel better about the caliber. See if you can find videos of Corbon or Buffalo Bore ballistic testing - pretty stout stuff. I saw a picture last week of ballistic testing that had all 4 popular carry calibers with rounds side by side 9mm, 40, 357 sig, 45 and the bullets were all parked at about the same depth. Maybe TailGator has seen it too. Wish I could find it for ya.

(*preaching over :D*)
 
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