New gun for wife?

Last blond I went out with had a chrome-plated colt 45 1911 in her purse fully loaded cocked and ready to rock. Shocked the heck out of me--I'm sure anyone else would be too.
 
I have had a little expierince with the 32. My dad has an ancient PPK that my grandfather got when he was in Germany for the war. I don't know if that gun was dirty or what but it was very unreliable.

If you had to wonder, there is a good chance that it was. I've known a few old-timers with "ancient" .32s. I've been lucky enough to shoot a Mauser HSc and a CZ 50 in addition to the Walthers. In every case, the guy might have shot it twice a decade and might never have cleaned it. I was glad they still worked at all! :eek:
 
The Glock 42 is really nice. A little large for a pocket pistol but still great for carry. Because they are a little larger than the LCP they are not painful to shoot and they are accurate too.

The LC380 is also very pleasant to shoot and the slide is super easy to work but the trigger isn't that great.

My wife and I both own a P32. The trigger is longggg but I am surprisingly accurate with this little pistol. 32 acp is quite expensive these days and as others have posted stick with FMJ for two reasons: You greatly reduce the chance of rimlock (the .32 acp has a slight rim unlike most autos) and penetration is not good with .32 acp hollowpoint but is acceptable with FMJ.

WWI started with someone being killed by a .32 acp and Hitler's reign of terror ended with one.
 
Me and the wife looked at a few more guns today. Bersa Thunder, S&W Shield 9, and Glock 42. The Bersa was a deffinate no, she liked the Glock pretty good and the shield I think she was indifferent towards it.
 
I'd have your wife shoot one of the smaller 9mm's prior to purchasing one. A while back, I took mine and her friend shooting. They tried a number of pistols and it gave me some insight. I had them try a Bersa 380, Sig 232, S&W Model 638, S&W Model 27, M&P Compact 9mm, CZ-75B.

Contrary to what the internet says, recoil on all of those .380s was pretty light and the grips and trigger reach were proportional. The Bersa was a borrowed pistol and I was very surprised at how well the ladies shot it, they didn't have much trouble racking the slide, either.

Long story short, they thought the steel 9mm was too heavy, the revolvers trigger pulls were too heavy to control and thought the M&P compact in 9mm had too much recoil. (We were using 115 grain target loads.) Going into it, I was confident the 9mm's would win out, but both preferred the Bersa and Sig 232 by a wide margin.

Also consider mode of carry. These two ladies did not have a wardrobe that would accommodate anything other than purse carry. For purses, they didn't like any of the conceal carry models...less than ideal to have a 5 lbs striker fired auto with no safety carried in the same compartments as anything that could snag the trigger, keys, etc. For off body carry, a pistol with a safety might make some sense, in the case of a purse snatch it might take someone a second or two to figure out how your pistol works.
 
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Sig 232 and lc9s would be my suggestions. Small and simple. 232 is a da/sa though so will take a bit more training. LC9s has a safety though unless you get the lc9spro which has no safety. I personally like the safety. I am not wyatt earp so if my life depends on the time it takes to flip off a safety I may just die anyway. Does give me just a slight bit more confidence though in my waistband.
 
My wifey picked herself a S&W SD9 VE. She didn't like the LCP or the Beretta Pico and some other small ones. She shoots it pretty decent too. A nice little pistol.
 
Just don't want to buy a piece of junk. I was informed the solo carry would only fire a certain size bullet due the spring strength.

The worst feature of the Solo (IMO) is that you cannot clear a malfunction unless you drop the magazine. (verified by Kimber CS)
 
Kimber recommends heavier bullet, premium defensive ammo for use in the Solo. Mine did not like 115 gr range ammo, but has no problem with 124 gr. I know others who shoot 115 gr all the time with no problem.

Not sure what you mean about dropping the magazine to clear a malfunction. Some, but not all, malfunctions require dropping the mag, but the Solo operates the same as any other semiauto pistol.
 
Since my last post on this subject, I've picked up two NIB guns in .380; the Beretta 84FS and the Browning BDA. Both are excellent guns with low recoil; they fit in my "man purse" easily. Some would say they're only one gun because they look alike and are made by the same company. They might be a bit much for her to handle because of the heavy recoil spring, which makes cycling the slide a real chore. That can be a side effect of blow back systems.

In response to several comments about the SOLO (Kimber), I'll add, my gun handles the recommended ammo perfectly. My malfunctions to date have been with 115 gr round nose ammo, which fails to feed much too often. The only way to clear is by removing the magazine. Don't know why. Do know the only way I can be sure the gun will cycle correctly is to LOCK the slide BACK, insert the magazine and then release the slide. It will not accept the magazine correctly with the slide forward. Weird!
 
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