Sorry for the long post, but I like to provide as much info as possible to help from the get go.
Well here is the story... My mother is in her 70s, but she is not the typical 70 year old... Lets just say her own Mom is 100 and still out doing yard work everyday! Mom is independent and says on the go... bust busy with projects all the time. So she is a very active 70 year old.
Well my Mom has never owned her own gun. However, in the past, she had shot a few of my dad's guns. They have been divorced for some time now, so Mom lives alone.
Lately there have been more home invasions in the surrounding area, so she thinks its time for her to get her own hand gun for Home defense.
I took the first step and lined her up for a class with an instructor... to be sure she knew the rules and had someone unbiased that she would listen to guiding her. She felt a semi auto was too complicated for her to deal with, so she was set on a revolver. She rented a revolver at the range and at that time loved it. It was a Ruger sp101 with a 2.5 inch barrel. It was loaded with .38 special.
http://www.ruger.com/products/sp101/specSheets/5720.html
We didn't want her to jump the gun, so we took her to shoot again at another range with other guns. This time we rented a Smith and Wesson, but I can't remember what exactly. Needless to say she did not like it. She preferred the Ruger and its weight. Just to be sure and to give her some options, we let her shoot some of our Semi Autos. She shot my LCP, Berretta 96 and Walther p22. We rented a Beretta 92 and she shot my spouses 40 caliber glock. She again said she did not like the complexity of the semi autos, but loved the sights on the Berettas. Now she says "get me a revolver with Beretta or glock style sights!" LOL!
Long story short, she was in a car wreck not long after and needed foot surgery, the gun hunt was on hold... This was a year ago, Christmas. She is finally ok and back on her feet again without a boot and we revisited the gun purchase.
She harped on me to get her the gun she shot first with the trainer, but with decent sights! I did some digging and found out exactly what it was for her and discovered the exact one actually came in a Wiley Clapp talo version with better sights! Yipee! I figured I was set, I filled her punch list. Semi Auto style sights on the exact gun she shot.
http://www.ruger.com/products/sp101DE/specSheets/5774.html
So I told her... lets just be sure and rent it again before you pull the proverbial trigger... LOL! This past weekend, I took her back to the range and we rented the very gun she was in love with. She loaded it and unloaded it herself perfectly. Shot it well. Still griped about the hard to see and line up crappy sights... But she was not in love like before... She is complaining about the long heavy trigger pull now. She said she could live with it if she had to, but she didn't want to finish her box of ammo... She was done after about 40 rounds. So getting her to take it out to practice might become a less desirable pastime. Of course, because I found a version with her requested sights!
So I need you guys help and experience. I don't have any revolvers and don't have much experience shooting them. I shot the ruger while we had it and I was not really bothered by the trigger. However I'm still scratching the surface with my own shooting experience. I have probably only 3-400 rounds total (lifetime) under my own belt. (first gun bought in 2012 after a break in, when there was a shortage of everything. ) So I'm still too new to really be able to advise her on anything. My fingers have not really reached that level of detection apparently. Heck anything compared to my daily CC LCP seems great! LOL!
Pros and cons with the SP101 for her...
Pros...
1. the weight of the revolver helps with the recoil & she was comfortable with the weight of the ruger.
2. Easy operation and simple to load and unload
3. Crappy sights, but can be fixed by buying the talo version!
4. heard customer service is awesome!
Cons:
1. trigger pull. Made her finger sore after some time shooting. Felt the long pull made her waver off target, as she was pulling and pulling before it finally went off.
I had her cook the hammer prior to shooting to help with the long pull, but she didn't really like it. She actually had better grouping without cocking the hammer.
I mentioned getting a gunsmith to work on the trigger to make it lighter, but she says she does not want to make it so light that she accidently shoots her dog pulling the gun out at night. I told her this is why we don't put our finger anywhere near the trigger till we are pointed at the target. Straight trigger finger out of the guard till you are ready.
So what do you guys think? is there another revolver with a lighter trigger pull with similar recoil and weight and semi auto style sights? There is so much out there I'm really overwhelmed. What should I steer her to? I'm trying to at least get her to buy a .357 that she can use .38 special in and eventually step up to .357...
Do I just need to get some .357 snap caps and take her to gun stores to try triggers on everything we can get our hands on? Will this method give her a clear idea of the trigger pull? I just prefer to have a good idea of things to look at before I hit the stores. Seems the area we are in... when 2 women walk in a store, we either get ignored, or we get guys who try to force mouse guns on us... It gets so bad, I just end up ordering guns online to avoid the BS.
Thank you for any suggestions or direction of where to look!
Well here is the story... My mother is in her 70s, but she is not the typical 70 year old... Lets just say her own Mom is 100 and still out doing yard work everyday! Mom is independent and says on the go... bust busy with projects all the time. So she is a very active 70 year old.
Well my Mom has never owned her own gun. However, in the past, she had shot a few of my dad's guns. They have been divorced for some time now, so Mom lives alone.
Lately there have been more home invasions in the surrounding area, so she thinks its time for her to get her own hand gun for Home defense.
I took the first step and lined her up for a class with an instructor... to be sure she knew the rules and had someone unbiased that she would listen to guiding her. She felt a semi auto was too complicated for her to deal with, so she was set on a revolver. She rented a revolver at the range and at that time loved it. It was a Ruger sp101 with a 2.5 inch barrel. It was loaded with .38 special.
http://www.ruger.com/products/sp101/specSheets/5720.html
We didn't want her to jump the gun, so we took her to shoot again at another range with other guns. This time we rented a Smith and Wesson, but I can't remember what exactly. Needless to say she did not like it. She preferred the Ruger and its weight. Just to be sure and to give her some options, we let her shoot some of our Semi Autos. She shot my LCP, Berretta 96 and Walther p22. We rented a Beretta 92 and she shot my spouses 40 caliber glock. She again said she did not like the complexity of the semi autos, but loved the sights on the Berettas. Now she says "get me a revolver with Beretta or glock style sights!" LOL!
Long story short, she was in a car wreck not long after and needed foot surgery, the gun hunt was on hold... This was a year ago, Christmas. She is finally ok and back on her feet again without a boot and we revisited the gun purchase.
She harped on me to get her the gun she shot first with the trainer, but with decent sights! I did some digging and found out exactly what it was for her and discovered the exact one actually came in a Wiley Clapp talo version with better sights! Yipee! I figured I was set, I filled her punch list. Semi Auto style sights on the exact gun she shot.
http://www.ruger.com/products/sp101DE/specSheets/5774.html
So I told her... lets just be sure and rent it again before you pull the proverbial trigger... LOL! This past weekend, I took her back to the range and we rented the very gun she was in love with. She loaded it and unloaded it herself perfectly. Shot it well. Still griped about the hard to see and line up crappy sights... But she was not in love like before... She is complaining about the long heavy trigger pull now. She said she could live with it if she had to, but she didn't want to finish her box of ammo... She was done after about 40 rounds. So getting her to take it out to practice might become a less desirable pastime. Of course, because I found a version with her requested sights!
So I need you guys help and experience. I don't have any revolvers and don't have much experience shooting them. I shot the ruger while we had it and I was not really bothered by the trigger. However I'm still scratching the surface with my own shooting experience. I have probably only 3-400 rounds total (lifetime) under my own belt. (first gun bought in 2012 after a break in, when there was a shortage of everything. ) So I'm still too new to really be able to advise her on anything. My fingers have not really reached that level of detection apparently. Heck anything compared to my daily CC LCP seems great! LOL!
Pros and cons with the SP101 for her...
Pros...
1. the weight of the revolver helps with the recoil & she was comfortable with the weight of the ruger.
2. Easy operation and simple to load and unload
3. Crappy sights, but can be fixed by buying the talo version!
4. heard customer service is awesome!
Cons:
1. trigger pull. Made her finger sore after some time shooting. Felt the long pull made her waver off target, as she was pulling and pulling before it finally went off.
I had her cook the hammer prior to shooting to help with the long pull, but she didn't really like it. She actually had better grouping without cocking the hammer.
I mentioned getting a gunsmith to work on the trigger to make it lighter, but she says she does not want to make it so light that she accidently shoots her dog pulling the gun out at night. I told her this is why we don't put our finger anywhere near the trigger till we are pointed at the target. Straight trigger finger out of the guard till you are ready.
So what do you guys think? is there another revolver with a lighter trigger pull with similar recoil and weight and semi auto style sights? There is so much out there I'm really overwhelmed. What should I steer her to? I'm trying to at least get her to buy a .357 that she can use .38 special in and eventually step up to .357...
Do I just need to get some .357 snap caps and take her to gun stores to try triggers on everything we can get our hands on? Will this method give her a clear idea of the trigger pull? I just prefer to have a good idea of things to look at before I hit the stores. Seems the area we are in... when 2 women walk in a store, we either get ignored, or we get guys who try to force mouse guns on us... It gets so bad, I just end up ordering guns online to avoid the BS.
Thank you for any suggestions or direction of where to look!
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