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Helping a woman get a new EDC

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crispins

FJB
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
846
Messages
1,634
Loc
Pigeon Forge, TN
Smaller girl

She currently carries a Taurus .38 but has admitted that it scares her and she is afraid to fire it.

I pushed her into the .38 as I think it is the right gun for someone who doesn't want to go to the range often, who would not be able to quickly handle a F2E.

However, I fully get that a gun you are scared to fire is not good at all.

She likes, and wants to carry a 9mm.

My big concern for her is a limp wrist that doesn't let the gun eject the fired round.

Are there brands that are better than others?

Is a Glock better than a Taurus for that?

My thoughts are to get her used to the .38 but she has it in her head that it hurts to shoot and I am concerned that will cause her to be hesitant to pull it if needed.

Thoughts?
 
Needs range time and professional training.
 
PAE said:
Needs range time and professional training.
Click to expand...
Agreed but that is not likely in the near future.

She has done a 12 hour course and has been to the range and shot a few times but really does not enjoy it and time is not really there for me to keep her going.

I am looking for info on a semi that will least likely jam if shot with not perfect form.

Anything but that info is not really going to mean shit for this situation
 
I have a small frame sig P245, the P239 came in 9mm and 40sw.

FMPOV its the smallest form good quality semi auto pistol.
 
There is no magic model that wont suffer f2es caused by poor form and control. Find one that fits her hand that has a little weight to it and get her to shoot it correctly. Whether its a pistol or revolver. A solid firm grip will eliminate both problems. Buy her a training session with a competent instructor, not you, that can objectively show her the fundamentals. My wife is tiny and can shoot .357 jframe with no issues, but I spent time teaching her (and dozens of other people) proper grip, stance and control.

Secondly are you shooting .38 +p+, +p or just regular .38 specials? Get a few boxes (lol sorry) of .38spec target or cowboy rounds for punching paper and get her used to shooting that. If she doesnt like shooting a steel .38 revolver shes not going to like shooting a poly 9mm any better. FWIW a 9mm has more recoil than a .38+p.
 
Is she expecting to get attacked between the kitchen and laundry room?:lmao::flipoff2:

Take her to a place that does ladies training and allows her to try different guns. That way she doesn't feel your toxic masculinity and somebody else can tell her she is doing it wrong. :flipoff2:
 
The wife has a Walther CCP that she really likes, she shoots it well and it recoils very softly.

CCP M2 + | BLACK

The Walther CCP M2 Black is the easy to rack 9mm with glove like ergonomics and extremely easy to manage recoil thanks to the Soft-Coil gas system.
waltherarms.com waltherarms.com

One of the best things you can do is take her to a well stocked shop and have her handle the different pistols.
If you can go to a rental range and try out a few even better.

Let her decide what fits her hand and what she wants, I was thinking my wife would like a Ruger LC9S, because they are very compact and easy to conceal. That wasn't the priority for her as much as it is for me.

My current CCWs are a Sig P938, a Sig P365 and a CZP-07.
 
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Not much to offer as I EDC a Glock30, and sometimes my DE in a shoulder rig but...

My Dad had a snubby .38 (prolly a Taurus, too) that hurt like Hell to shoot (and not +P or +P+ either). The only other gun that I shot that even came close to that level of pain was a Walther PPK in .380. However, a neighbor lady (my shooting range wife :) ) has a S&W MP9 that she can shoot for over an hour without any complaints and her hands are average female size (smallish).
 
PAE said:
Needs range time and professional training.
Click to expand...
This.

Is there a range that allows you to "rent" pistols? I did that with my wife and she settled on a XDS. Not my first choice, but it's not my gun and that's what she was most comfortable with.
 
Wife wanted something similar, wound up buying her a Shield .380 EZ. Built more like a 1911 than a shield, but light, easy to shoot and large enough that it doesn't have the suck factor of some of the pocket guns
 
i have small hands, buddy recently got a glock 43 to add to his carry roster. it fit my hands well and was slim. if getting one in CA wasnt such a PITA i would add one to my collection, still may when i got some cash to burn.
 
When she got her open carry permit she took an 8 hour course at a woman owned range.

it was during the 50 round shooting test that she quickly found she did not like the gun, a Taurus .38 with just regular ammo in it, as it was painful to shoot.

She then used one of the instructors guns, a S&W 9 mm which she said was very easy to shoot and she did the rest of her shooting with that.

She does not want to become a firearm expert or spend lots of time at the range, but she does want to be comfortable enough to be able to fire it.

So I am just trying to help her but I know ultimately she needs to spend more time at the range.
 
I'm not a woman but, I actually shoot my Glock 43 better than most of my other pistols. I don't think recoil is bad but I'm also not new to shooting. I've never had a F2E with it and several newer shooters have shot it.

Just thought I'd mention it since it hasn't been previously.
 
I have had LOTS of women who could not jack a round in an automatic consistently.

I could coach them up and teach them to hold the side and move the frame and get them so they could do it OK, but they just couldn't do it as effortlessly or consistently as a male. That's just a fact. .... well not a fact, but an anecdote to consider.

Second thing I see in most threads like, is a man applying what he wants in a gun for a woman.



That being said, my daughters trains on whatever I have laying around, but she carries a S&W 38 airweight J frame snub nose revolver with a bobbed hammer and hogue grips

I had a trigger job done on it, first thing, because the trigger was flat out junk, straight out of the box. it had like a 10 lb trigger pull. it was ridiculous.

It is small, light, reliable, and deadly, but it's so light there isn't a lot of mass there to absorb the recoil.
In a life and death situation, you would never notice it being hard on the hands, but for the joy of target shooting..... You need something else in the arsenal. She shoots it enough to hit with it, but for range days it doesn't get the rounds some of the others get.
 
grumpy356 said:
I have had LOTS of women who could not jack a round in an automatic consistently.

I could coach them up and teach them to hold the side and move the frame and get them so they could do it OK, but they just couldn't do it as effortlessly or consistently as a male. That's just a fact. .... well not a fact, but an anecdote to consider.

Second thing I see in most threads like, is a man applying what he wants in a gun for a woman.



That being said, my daughters trains on whatever I have laying around, but she carries a S&W 38 airweight J frame snub nose revolver with a bobbed hammer and hogue grips
Click to expand...



What I wanted for her was light weight (her Taurus weights just 13.5 oz's which is even lighter than the Airweight you alked about), simple to use, safe to carry.

I really feel like a .38 does that.

I think sending her to the range with full grain bullets was a mistake.

I have noticed that they make a .38 in 50 grain which might have been better for her to get used to and become comfortable with the pistol.

That might be a good next step, let her see that the gun doesn't always have a bad recoil (her opinion) then load it with the self defense rounds for her to carry.
 
I'm not following your logic here.

If the 9mm felt better to her then the 38 and they were different guns it's probably because different guns fit people differently. Some 1911 chew the crap out of my hand and it doesn't matter what ammo or caliber it is. Others have pinch points, others don't align naturally. I also have small hand and like Sig 229 but I have to change out the grips to get a good fit. The HK P2000 fits way better and my more recent Styer MA-1 is very nice as well.

As well FMJ shoot no differently then HP or SP or whatever other type. Generally all ammo of that caliber are going to be very similar. If she like a 9mm then find her a 9mm she likes.
 
posford said:
Wife wanted something similar, wound up buying her a Shield .380 EZ. Built more like a 1911 than a shield, but light, easy to shoot and large enough that it doesn't have the suck factor of some of the pocket guns
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Another vote for a Shield EZ.

I carry a G43 or G33 depending on which vehicle I'm driving.

A G19C if you can find one would also be a good choice.
 
I would get rid of the Taurus, or carry it yourself. Small revolvers are notoriously difficult to shoot well. Sounds like she has already decided she doesn't like it and most women will dig in their heels.
There are a lot of choices in small 9mm semiautomatic pistols. Just don't get another Taurus.
 
The Sig P239.

40647-176bf8f8a12e53f156d2b6d5f27963fb.jpg
 
Wife loves her pk380.

The shield 380 ez , I keep trying to get her to want but she hates the grip safety.

Walther ccp in 380 is another I'd like her to fondle.

Point is, different strokes, different folks. The 380acp is a great round and I still think beats a tazer or bear spray.

There is more stuff built for her market specifically now than ever before
 
After trying several pistols, my wife narrowed it down to a S&W model 60 3-1/2”357 firing 38’s and a M&P Shield 9mm EZ. She decided on the 9mm and is really happy with it. After shooting it, I was impressed with it too.
 
posford said:
Wife wanted something similar, wound up buying her a Shield .380 EZ. Built more like a 1911 than a shield, but light, easy to shoot and large enough that it doesn't have the suck factor of some of the pocket guns
Click to expand...
My 72 YO you can't have GI JOE's cause guns are bad mother picked up one this year, She can rack it no problem.
 
You might want to get her some low recoil ammo and see if it helps. My wife has a .38 also and what I'd shoot has too much snap for her but she shoots the low recoil critical defense ammo quite well and likes it.
 
There’s a lot that could be at play. Many women are scared of guns in general, so the first time it’s loud and jumps they want to be done with it, whether or not it actually “hurts to shoot”.

95% of them are also never going to carry on their person, at least IWB, so leave the “concealable” aspect out of it and get something that is easy to shoot. I’m not arguing that it’s substantially better to have it on you than not, just that they aren’t going to do it. Get them a purse holster and fanny pack, most of the time it’s going to be left in the car or on a nightstand.

A J-frame revolver is one of the hardest guns to shoot even marginally accurately, same thing for the mouse gun .380’s.

Personally, I’d step back to a .22 and outdoor range where there aren’t a dozen people banging off rounds inside a tin can next to her. Ideally, you could find a ”pair” of .22/9mm that she can practice and carry with.

I think the whole “racking the slide/one handed manipulation/mag changes are complicated under stress“ arguments are dumb. Yes, they need to be able to load, unload, and clean the thing safely, but if they ever have to use it in self defense there should already be a round in the pipe, and the shooting is done when they run out of bullets.
 
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