Recommend a revolver for my wife please....

K

karstho

New member
I have no experience with revolvers, but own a few semiautos...


My wife is beginning to see the light about the need to posess a handgun as a means for self defense, but is rather timid about them. She is unable to rack the slide of any of my Semiautos including my Kel-tec P32, which I bought in the hopes she would find it less intimidating. She has shot both of my 9mm pistols and complained that the recoil was too much for her.. The idea of a revolver appeals to her cause they seem less complicated for her to operate... However, too much kick and I'm afraid she will give up on it too...


Any recommendations??? I have never shot a .38 revolver, but would assume that it is somewhere near the recoil of the 9mm, correct?????? If so, would a smaller caliber offer much chance of stopping a bad guy? Bear in mind she may be so scared in the event she needs to use it, that her shot placement may be poor....

Also price would need to be reasonable too under $400.00 if possible.


thanks

Karstho
 
karstho,

.38 is probably the right place to start looking, although she may want to consider a .32 magnum (don't be alarmed by the name; it's really a kitten). Your choice will have to be guided in part by how and where exactly she want to use it. Does she intend to carry the gun, and if so, how? If she does, you face the inevitable dilemma of smaller size and lower weight vs. relatively greater recoil. Smaller revolvers are also, of course, more difficult to shoot accurately. A revolver is probably an excellent choice for her, but it would be good for her to try to fire a couple of different models to see what she feels confident and comfortable handling. I'll refrain from saying more (or, more likely, leaving it to wiser minds) until you fill in a little more detail.

cw
 
Hard to compare recoil considering the wide variety of loads you might choose in the .38 and the variance in size and weight of the gun you choose to fire it in.

If you get a little 2" aluminum or titanium gun it's gonna be much worse than most 9mm's. A 4" M-10 will likely feel like much less recoil than most 9mms. With that caveat I'd say that basically though if your looking at a 3" 6 shot gun yeah you can get a decent load that feels in or even less than the 9mm range recoil wise.

My personal picks would be to have your wife try out a 3" Model 65 or GP-100. If either of these fits then great, the bigger guns soak up more kick and are easier to hit with. Lot of women in our office though find the trigger reach on either to be a bit much so they tend to go with the Ruger SP-101 or S/W model 60 (both 5 shots). Both are available with 3" barrels which a lot of people find easier to hit with than the 2" versions. Either of the Smiths go for just a bit over your price range and the Rugers are right at it. Either can normally be had almost new for well under $400.

Just my 2 cents :)
 
Same situation with my wife and the slides on semis. We finally settled on a 649. .38 spl in a small or medium frame has served and still serves some PDs all across the country. Look for a gun that fits her hand, has a smooth trigger and can handle +P. No one is undergunned with such a weapon.
 
One thing I've learned...........

in 42 years of marriage is that things go better when my wife makes her own choices. Let her fire a variety of weapons and callibers and then let her make her own choice. Be a help but don't make the choice for her. Good shooting:)
 
I recomend the Ruger SP101 in .38 with a 3 inch barrel. It has small rubber grips, has some heft to it to tame recoil, and is very well made. Go with the 2 inch barrel if concealability is an issue, but the 3 inch will be easier to control. As far as ammo the Federal PD is what I like with low recoil and effective expanding. The only negatory I can think is the trigger. It is a little long and heavy but not prohibitive. This can be worked on.

Your wife will be scared to death the first time. Take her to an expert and have her get some training from a person who understands a first timer's fears, especially a ladies.

I choose this revolver for my wife. She was very frail and small, but don't mess with her when she had the SP101 along. And it meets your price criteria as well.
 
Patience.
Get her shooting well with a .22.
Expose her to a variety of larger cartridges.
Don't rush into it.

Let her choose, but help her make an informed choice.

Sam
 
.38 special in a 4" barrel GP 100 revolver has almost no recoil-- subjectively, it feels only slightly more than a .22 LR. IMO, ANYONE can learn to handle the recoil of a mid-frame .38 special revolver--its a very mild recoiling round. 9mm has more recoil than .38 special, and 9mm recoil is sharper with more muzzle flip IMO. Get your wife a heavy revolver like a GP 100, and I gaurantee you that with practice and training she will master the recoil. Make sure your wife likes the gun of course, and that it fits her hands well. Do NOT buy a snub nosed revolver--they are lighter in weight, recoil more, and are harder to hit with than a duty sized revolver. The MININUM barrel length I would recommend is 3", with the perferrred length being 4".
 
Find guns and try. My wife has a model 66 S&W and 3" SP-101. The Smith is her house gun. Try the 4" Rugers and Smiths. Try the smaller 2 1/2"-3" small frame revolvers from the same companies. Stay with 38 - 38 +P - .357 mag. Buy a gun that can shoot all three. Do not buy without her trying each gun. The .22 is a great place to start, but not a defensive caliber. I have introduced a few women to shooting and usually start with .22 pistol, or rifle and then progress. Two things get women interested in shooting.

1. Can handle gun and shoots like a pro.

1. You always clean the gun.
 
A question from an ignorant batchelor; if a woman finds racking back a slide against a 16 pound recoil spring with both hands once per 7 - 17 shots discouragingly difficult, how is pulling through a 12 pound double action with one finger every shot going to be easier? I don't understand the mechanics. Or do you teach them to shoot a revolver single action? That is ok for target shooting, but then what?

By the way, I know one lady who found racking the slide difficult, but not discouraging. So she racks the slide once a day; when she first loads up at the range. After that, the gun is either being shot, is cocked and locked, or is at slidelock. She does not close the slide empty until done for the day. Hubby cleans.

I know two women whose men furnished them with DA revolvers even though they had trouble with the DA and did all their shooting SA. When alarmed, they cocked the guns as they were accustomed to doing. When the danger passed, they tried to decock them... BANG! Fortunately no injury or major damage done, although the second missed the water bed membrane by about half an inch.

Another woman bought a S&W 3913 LS. It had to be suitable, it said "Ladysmith" right on the gun. I saw her shooting and realized it was taking her both forefingers to pull through the DA first shot. Not good. But I can't see how a revolver would have helped.

I don't know the answer, but it is more complicated than just "get the poor weak dumb thing a sixgun."
 
Get her shooting well with a .22.

luckily the one time she tried to shoot my 9mm at an indoor range and was scared stiff, a nice fellow a few stalls over sauntered over with an old .22 revolver and a box of ammo and said " have her try this...." She did, and was comfortable with the recoil... I couldnt thank him enough....Now to find the next caliber that has some more stopping power....

More info.. she is seriously thinking of trying for a carry permit due to the fact that she works at a hotel front desk, and is prone to being left alone and out of earshot from other employees.. There have been 4 tenants arrested in the last 3 months for a variet of reasons, and on some of these arrests, she was the one who keyed open the door for the L.E.O's to do their thing. She is worried now that one or more of these criminals may take it personal with her (among other things..)


For the time being I have hooked her up with a bottle of pepper spray and gave scrict instructions to spray the attacker and run like hell to a public area... To hell with the front desk or any of the contents therein.....

One last question.. any good .22 revolvers in the 100.00 price range used that would be reasonable to practice with??? I am not really into wheelguns(yet?) so dont want to invest a whole lot in one....
 
Jim, your not the first to notice this.

FBI ran into the same thing when they first started hiring female agents. They initially required all applicants to be able to pull the trigger a certain amount of times to weed the weaker people (presumably females) right off the bat. It was later learned that with the right exercises during the initial training phase basically anybody could overcome this. Just a thought...
 
My wife is 4'9 1/2" and 85 pds. Her feet are smaller than my hands. She can rack a Beretta, and a Glock with great effort. She could not use a factory DA revolver without great difficulty. Her M66 has had a trigger job, toothpaste/polishing compound coating the interior and thousands of dry firings. Springs were slightly lightened and it now has one heck of a trigger and she shoots her gun easily and with great accuracy. She can load it, shooting it and make it sing. I'm hoping to match her skill someday.
 
My wife has pretty much appropriated my Stainless 3 inch Smith Model 60-3. It is a DAO version, no hammer spur, and, of course 5 shot. With 125 grain NyClads, it is easy for her to control, and fun to shoot. The little Smith fits easily into her purse,along with the custom leather to hold it secure.
 
Okay, with the further information you offer, it sounds like the revolver is basically a sound choice--particularly because she's already shown she can shoot one (or did she only fire single action at the range?). The kinds of choices that have been mentioned are along the right lines. A smallish, but not too small or too light, .38 revolver like a Smith & Wesson model 60 or a Ruger SP101 would be perfect. If you went with the Ruger, I think it's also available in .22, so she could have one for fun and practice and one for business (though obviously you want her to shoot the business gun enough to be familiar and comfortable with it). You can get one of these for $400, but not both; although you might find a cheap .22 of similar make if you scrounge around. Neither of these is light enough that she's going to want to throw it in her pocket every time she heads out the door, but a woman has more options than do most of us guys for off-the-body carry, and it also sounds like her job as a desk-clerk puts her in a stationary place where you (reasonably) would like to see her armed--and a few extra recoil-absorbing ounces aren't going to hurt you there. Personally, I'd look for one (or preferably both) of these for her to try.

cw
 
I agree with Chris W. about the .32 magnum.
You can get a smaller, lighter gun without a lot of recoil.
It's a good round.


Take her to a gun shop and have hold a bunch to see which ones feel good in her hand.

Check with your local range and see if they rent guns.
If they do have her shoot the ones she liked in the shop.
If they don't rent, see if any of their regulars have the guns she liked, because most of us love to show off our toys and would jump at the chance to help a new shooter(especially a female) pick their first gun.
 
The 32Mag is indeed a round worth thinking about. A small steel-frame Taurus as the platform for this caliber makes sense; Taurus trigger pulls have been reported as being lighter than most others by several reports around here.

The only "gotcha" is that you need to carefully select the best carry loads for this caliber. Texas Ammunition has a neat little 85grain high speed load, pulling 1,000fps or more from a 2" barrel. Georgia Arms has a 100grain JHP with a good rep too. These guns can shoot 32S&W and 32S&WLong as a "light load"; the latter are still in Winchester's catalog.

These guns are the same size class as a 38snubbie but they're six-shooters instead of five. All of the small 6-shot DA 32Mags by Taurus, S&W and Ruger SP101s in .32Mag eat out of the same speedloaders, available from HKS.

One possibility: Ruger SP101s in 357 are easy to find as range rentals. Load it with mild .38s and see how it fits her hand. If it's OK, look for one of the rare .32Mag SP101s, possibly with a 4" barrel. They turn up on www.gunsamerica.com and www.gunbroker.com fairly often, though you'll seldom see one on a retail shelf:

http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976260777.htm - a 3" variant, possibly the rarest SP101?

http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=5114268 - wow, another 3" :).

http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=5114313 - there's a 4"

Ergos will be identical to the .38/357 variants, so you can check her out on one of those.
 
I think the best choice for a woman is a S&W M60 with a 3" barrel, a real rear sight, and a good trigger job. The main problem is that factory guns are sold with too heavy a DA trigger pull for many women. You will not be able to let her try it out unless you have a friend with an already altered gun. My wife has a S&W M36LS. She likes it but the recoil is too much for some women. I have seen her shoot 200 rounds in a row and then complain that we have run out of ammo. I would not want to shoot that much with it. The very short barrel and lack of rear sight can make accurate shooting difficult and the cut off grip is very small. My wife shoots 357 Magnums from her 4" S&W 686, with 38 Specials it has almost no recoil but the gun is a bit heavy for some women. MY wife thinks the 3" M60 is the best balance of weight, accuracy, and recoil.
 
My wife's first gun was a S&W Model 66 2 1/2" .357 that she "borrowed" from me. She can shoot and hit with magnums but she sure doesn't like them. With .38s she has no difficulty whatsoever. This gun is still hers for use and usually serves her as a "house gun".

Her second gun was a Kahr K9 Elite 98 9mm. She has no difficulty racking the slide or pulling the DAO trigger. She is quite effective with this gun. Recoil is a non-issue for her with this gun.

Her most recent addition is a S&W 638 Airweight Bodyguard .38 Special. I got her this one because she was constantly griping about the weight of the all steel Kahr in her purse and I was afraid she was going to quit carrying it. She notices a bit more "kick" from this gun than the Kahr 9mm or the S&W 66 with .38 ammo, but less "kick" than the 66 with ..357 ammo. She shoots it pretty good, but does notice the fixed rear sight notch is a bit less user friendly than the "real" sights of the other two. Her pinky also hangs off the boot grips of this one giving her less purchase on the gun.

The 2 DA revolvers have stock factory triggers. The 66 is fair to good, and the 638 is poor to fair. Both could benefit from a trigger job to smooth out the pull. I believe that the smoothness of the pull is much more important than the lightness of it. Anyway, I believe a good trigger job on the revolvers would improve her shooting significantly.

She also shot my full size Kimber 1911 .45 the other day. She racked the slide with a little difficulty but then went to town. She shot this gun as good as any gun I have ever seen her shoot.

She shot my Ruger Vaquero 4 5/8" .45 Colt with 250 grain "cowboy ammo" some time back. She fired one shot at an aluminum soft drink can at about 25 yards. The can went flying through the air. I took the gun back before she showed me up any worse. After all, one good shot can be written off as luck, right?;)

The point to all this is that a woman can shoot any gun that a man can shoot with the proper training. Now physical strength and stature play a significant factor in how well a gun fits them and how user friendly it is to them, but most can be overcome with proper training.

If she is recoil sensitive, don't go any higher than a 9mm or a .38 Special for now. Take care not to go too far below these either for fear of lack of effective stopping abililty. .32 would be my absolute basement, and far from my first choice.
 
Man, I can't believe people suggest a J frame .38 for an inexperienced person who lacks hand strength. These little guns are killers on recoil and would totally intimidate a new female shooter.

CRSam had it right. Get a medium frame .22 Long Rifle revolver with an 8 or 9 shot cylinder. I have a Taurus M94 with a 4" barrel that I like very much. This gun will not abuse her with recoil or blast. She will not avoid practice with it for fear of being slapped around. If later on she feels like she wants to move up to a .38, get a medium frame pistol, not a J frame. If she feels good with the .22 and doesn't want anything bigger, that's OK. A couple of .22s in the belly will make any intruder regret his choice of houses to enter. A hit from a .22 does a Hell of a lot more damage than a miss from a .454. More people are killed every year from .22 wounds than any other caliber.
 
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