conceal gun for my wife

C

carp

Inactive
I've been looking for a small guns for my wife for conceal carry. She is not new to guns, she has shot shotgun with slugs for deer. She has shot my 357 with 357 rounds and 38 special round.

I was looking at I believe its called a J frame, S&W 642. I figured it would fit in her bag and if she needed to ever use it and there was a problem she don't have to worry about racking another round in, she just needs to keep pulling the trigger.

The question I have is a 38 special too much in a small frame gun, and will it kick too much?
 
I have a S&W 442. It's the same as the 642 except the 642 has a silver instead of black coating on the alloy frame and a stainless cylinder. I think both are great options, but have her try one out first. My girlfriend doesn't have the strength to pull the trigger on my 442. They can be had for around $380, so finish wear from carrying it is no sweat on a gun that cheap. The recoil is pretty snappy as it's just a 15 ounce revolver. The +P rounds will really wear you out if you shoot a bunch. It's not a pistol that I take to the range and want to shoot a couple hundred rounds through it. That said, it's a great concealed carry option and surprisingly accurate.

The five small holes are from my 442.

img1381a.jpg
 
My wife carries a 637 in her holster purse, she can fire it single or double action.She also has a Walther PPK/S, and and Colt Dectective Special.They all have exposed hammers for single action fire.Maybe a LCP would work for her,they're small and light.
 
Carp:

A 442 or a 642 Smith, with some practice, are deadly conceal carry guns. When my grandson was twelve he could handle my 442. However he wouldn't shoot my Smith model 27.

Semper Fi.

Gunnery sergeant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired
 
My wife carries a Ruger SP101 357, compact an fits in her purse well. She makes custom purses, so fit pistol perfect. I only load it with 38 rounds for her. She is very comfortable with the way it shoots with the 38's. The pistol is on the heavy side which helps the recoil an she likes the heavy pistol vers the light weight ones.
 
The biggest problems most ladies seem to have with pocket revolvers are the trigger pull and recoil. If she can handle a full-size .357, then a .38 snubby shouldn't be too much trouble. Spending the $20 to rent one first would be money well spent.
 
Why are you looking for a gun for her?

As a rule, a self-defense gun should be researched and purchased by the person who intends to use it. If she's not invested enough in the process to do her own research, she should not own a firearm.

Also as a rule, lightweight snubbies are experts' guns. They require a great deal of skill to shoot well. With a short sight radius and poor sights, they are difficult to aim. They heavy DA pull makes it difficult to hold the muzzle on target while pulling the trigger, especially for people with limited hand strength. Recoil on these little guns ranges from "nasty" to "brutal" depending on the ammunition, which makes it unlikely the new shooter will put in the range time it requires to become a skilled shooter. If she's not already an expert handgun shooter, a J-frame (especially the lightweight variety typically sold for concealed carry) is not the best choice.

If she's not already an expert handgun shooter, but decides she wants a revolver, I suggest looking at mid-size, all-steel models for her learning phase. Later she can transition to the more difficult little guns.

pax
 
I agree with pax but I will make a suggestion: Ruger LCR

Light, small and in the way of revolvers its got a really good smooth DA pull that's not super heavy like other DA revolvers. Its on my wife's short list of guns to get.
 
+ 2 to Pax, buying her a Personal Protection gun is not like buying her a sweeter. She really needs to make that choice herself. You can help her all she wants you to but, it is for her protection and it has to work for her.
 
Wait! I've got an idea!

Go buy yourself a Ruger Super Redhawk in .44mag. Its a DA revolver that's big, heavy and shoots a hard hitting load.

Now give her the gun and have her go practice with it in DA at the range. After she's gotten good with that and can hold fairly decent groups with it while shooting DA only you can take her to a gun shop and let her decide which little revolver she'd like to buy for ccw.
 
Sure, Hansam, that was my point. :rolleyes:

You know, sometimes I think it's absolutely pointless to talk to people on the internet. They forget there are human beings on the other side of the computer screen. You probably wouldn't be rude to me in real life, and in real life if you were I could gauge how much of a :D to put with my :rolleyes: (to match your rudeness level, of course). Without body language cues, all I'm left with is that I provided a good piece of intelligent advice based on more than a decade of work at a fairly busy professional firearms training school -- and you slammed back with a snide comment. Whatever.

For the OP: I meant what I said. Look for a mid-size, all-steel revolver for her to learn to shoot with. Send her through a few classes (or better still, take some with her) using that gun, then let her select her own concealed carry firearm based on her own research and experience. Don't hand a difficult and nasty little gun to an inexperienced shooter and expect her to save her own life with it.

pax
 
she has been shooting my dan wesson 357 and she's not bad but the gun is too big to fit in her hand, that is what the problem is.

She has done some of her own research, i wanted her to have a semi auto and she wants a revolver.

The problem we have is where we are from there is no range that you can rent guns from i just need to know if a 38 in a small frame will kick alot if you know what i mean.

thanks for your input
 
Actually Pax I wasn't being rude to you. I wasn't even poking fun at you at all!

If you read back a bit I agreed with you regarding making the OP's wife research her preferred EDC gun.

My latest post though was only partially in jest. My wife regularly practices with my Super Redhawk. In her words - her .45acp's recoil feels like an airgun after firing several cylinders through the Super Redhawk. The DA trigger on the Super Redhawk is very long and heavy too so after practicing on that AND learning not to flinch/pull in anticipation of the recoil of a .44mag she's steady as a rock with her Bersa UC 45. The Ruger LCP is like a toy to her now... you should see her doing a mag dump, reload and mag dump with it... and keeping all her shots in a 12" group at 10yds.

What I had started her on was loading only a couple live rounds into my Super Redhawk... and the rest were empty cartridges. The rounds were randomly loaded so there is no pattern. As she squeezes shots off it gives her a chance to see if she's flinching/pulling while she squeezes or not. It also teaches her NOT to anticipate the shot and just to let it shoot.

Oh and Carp... if she's been shooting your .357mag and decided the gun's just too big for her then let her test other guns - and if the drive to a range with guns you can rent is a bit long then make a day out of it and get as much time out of it as possible for her to check out different guns. Especially have her try out the Ruger LCR. Really the way I see it is its not too much to ask if it means your wife will find a gun she'll be comfortable shooting and may one day rely on to save her life and/or safety...
 
And if you insist on getting her a small revolver, insist also that she dryfire it daily- that will help with dreadful trigger pull by building hand strength.
 
My wife has a 642 and it is no biggie for her to shoot though she doesn't like 130 or 158 +p loads. I don't like them myself.
 
Let ME put it in perspective - I went through 4 expensive revolvers and three automatics until my wife picked out her CZ 2075 RAMI, and has been in love with it ever since. I was the same kind of "I know what she NEEDS" and fell just as flat on my face as you will. If she doesn't like it, won't shoot it because of recoil/noise/etc., she's never get proficient with it, carry it, or be able to depend on it when her, or your life depends on it.
One last thing, let someone else teach her, saves a LOT of grief later on, trust me.
pax knows what she's talking about, and has such a great website for lots of very good solid info.
 
My wife carries the Smith 637 Airweight...the one with the hammer...she's never had a problem drawing during out practice sessions, but a hammerless model makes more sense. Since we shoot at combat distances (up to 15 yds), we practice double action only...and her groups out that far can be covered with a 5" paper desert plate. Plenty good enough for defense. Rod
 
Take the wife to several gun shops. She should handle as many guns as possible. You wait in the car and let her do the picking out the gun.

She should narrow the choice down and then shoot as many of her choices as possible. If you belong to a club, perhaps they have 'pistol' night. Go and ask members to let her shoot whatever she can. May take a couple trips. We had Tue night pistol night and several times shooters (men/women) would come by wanting to shoot. All members would let em shoot couple mags full.

If you have to rent several and shoot em. A range will write off the rent if you make a purchase. Do it. Actually let HER do it.

Check a 357 w/ 38s for now. May want to 'upgrade' after a few hundred pops.
 
Took my wife with me to several gun shops. She picked up everything under the sun and the LCR won out. She loves it. Revolvers are much less mechanical and the way to go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top