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wifey wants her own
- Thread starter Turtle
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Tinman
I'm just enjoying the show!
Worse things to have than a gun monster on your hands 
Take her to your favorite gun store, preferably with a HUGE selection of stuff, make them take one of absolutely everything that catches her eye out of the case and let her carress them all (take pictures to remember the event by J/K). Then when she's all done, ask her what SHE liked, not the clerk, not you, not the gun rag writer, what felt good too her. If they've got a range and rentals, rent something similar (same gun if possible) or find someone who's got one, and let her shoot it. If she's still loving it, WRITE THE CHECK,
and thank God you've got one that likes to play on the range with you.
Having said all that, my rather small wife prefers the Kahr 9mm series because of the small grip size, and a 9mm 1911 because it has a short light trigger, it's also a little heavier and the recoil is really light. We did the 38 thing, she had issues with the heavy trigger with her small hands. Did the 380 thing, most are just as big as the Kahr, or so small and light (kel-tec) she had issues with recoil. If she's not looking defensive, the Walther P22 seems to be really popular for its cost to shoot, as well as small hand ergonomics.
Before some ladies start flaiming, my wifes biggest complaint with most firearms is they are designed for a mans hands that are much larger than hers, I have heard this from other women as well. Just playing the odds here.
Tinman....
Take her to your favorite gun store, preferably with a HUGE selection of stuff, make them take one of absolutely everything that catches her eye out of the case and let her carress them all (take pictures to remember the event by J/K). Then when she's all done, ask her what SHE liked, not the clerk, not you, not the gun rag writer, what felt good too her. If they've got a range and rentals, rent something similar (same gun if possible) or find someone who's got one, and let her shoot it. If she's still loving it, WRITE THE CHECK,
and thank God you've got one that likes to play on the range with you.Having said all that, my rather small wife prefers the Kahr 9mm series because of the small grip size, and a 9mm 1911 because it has a short light trigger, it's also a little heavier and the recoil is really light. We did the 38 thing, she had issues with the heavy trigger with her small hands. Did the 380 thing, most are just as big as the Kahr, or so small and light (kel-tec) she had issues with recoil. If she's not looking defensive, the Walther P22 seems to be really popular for its cost to shoot, as well as small hand ergonomics.
Before some ladies start flaiming, my wifes biggest complaint with most firearms is they are designed for a mans hands that are much larger than hers, I have heard this from other women as well. Just playing the odds here.
Tinman....
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Jay
Gotta watch us old guys.....cause if you don't....
ok, how 'bout this....... she should shop for guns using the same comfort criteria she uses for shoes......... except she must realize that she needs to be concerned with hand comfort, not foot comfort......... just in case she's a ditz......
+1 to everything Tinman said.
Another tip: make sure she actually tries to operate everything on the gun, including stripping it for cleaning, if they'll let you. When we bought my P226, there was one gun I held that I couldn't even rack the slide on. The 226 is a full-size semi-auto, though, and in DA can be a little tough on the trigger pull.
But definitely let it be her decision. It has to feel good to her, and she has to be comfortable with it herself, or she'll never touch it.
That said, [shameless plug] I recommend a Sig P250 [/shameless plug].
Another tip: make sure she actually tries to operate everything on the gun, including stripping it for cleaning, if they'll let you. When we bought my P226, there was one gun I held that I couldn't even rack the slide on. The 226 is a full-size semi-auto, though, and in DA can be a little tough on the trigger pull.
But definitely let it be her decision. It has to feel good to her, and she has to be comfortable with it herself, or she'll never touch it.
That said, [shameless plug] I recommend a Sig P250 [/shameless plug].
You might also consider one of the old tried and true stand bys from S+W like a lightweight snub 38. Some of the newer ones only weigh around 14 ounces. A hammerless version makes a really nice compact purse gun. I would not go above a 38 caliber because of recoil. This eliminates the problem of racking the slide.
Amen
Amen to Pami on having her try to operate the guns. My wife doesn't have particularly big hands but is very comfortable shooting and handling a Glock M23 which she considers hers. However, though she is quite strong, she has a lot of trouble operating the slide on a Beretta 84F! Not much difference in size but huge differences in firepower/recoil/ease of operation. The Beretta is as comfortable, maybe more so, just holding it but operating the slide is much more difficult.
DRob
Amen to Pami on having her try to operate the guns. My wife doesn't have particularly big hands but is very comfortable shooting and handling a Glock M23 which she considers hers. However, though she is quite strong, she has a lot of trouble operating the slide on a Beretta 84F! Not much difference in size but huge differences in firepower/recoil/ease of operation. The Beretta is as comfortable, maybe more so, just holding it but operating the slide is much more difficult.
DRob
Tinman
I'm just enjoying the show!
I had a couple more thoughts, if she's trying guns like the Sig250, or the M&P, or any of the others with interchangeable grip panels, don't just tell her "well we can change the grip to fix that for you", make them do it and see if that fixes any problems.
(holy crap, I think this is the first time I've ever used this on the net) to what Pami said about working EVERYTHING on the gun. Guess I wasn't very clear on that one.
on the issue of the airweight 38, I generally advise against that for a regular shooting gun for a new shooter. They tend to be a little stiff in the recoil department unless you're using extremely light handloads YMMV.
Sit down and talk with her about what she wants the gun to do before you go to the store. That will help her to gel her thoughts before she goes in and has everything including the kitchen sink to look at. If she's really organized, have her write the shopping list of things she wants it do, and then she's got a reference when she gets to the shop. Explain that like any other man made device (car, stove, TV, etc) some are more reliable, accurate, etc. I wouldn't even consider letting her look at some of the sub-par brands. Of course then again, the big names have such a wide selection these days, there really is no need to look beyond.
Last thing, the clerk, a lot (not all, if you are one, take note not offense) seem to have a well formed opinion on what every gun owner needs to buy. If they are steering her in a direction she doesn't want to go, or is counter to what she said she wanted the gun to do, ask for someone else. Don't subject her to the gun shop commando approach. It will only sour the whole experience for her, and possibly end up with a gun she doesn't like.
Sounds like a lot of work huh. Unfortunately, this is your only opportunity to buy the FIRST gun for her. If you screw it up, you could be many years and lots of therapy $$$$ undoing the mistakes and getting her back into the gun thing.
Tinman....
(holy crap, I think this is the first time I've ever used this on the net) to what Pami said about working EVERYTHING on the gun. Guess I wasn't very clear on that one.on the issue of the airweight 38, I generally advise against that for a regular shooting gun for a new shooter. They tend to be a little stiff in the recoil department unless you're using extremely light handloads YMMV.
Sit down and talk with her about what she wants the gun to do before you go to the store. That will help her to gel her thoughts before she goes in and has everything including the kitchen sink to look at. If she's really organized, have her write the shopping list of things she wants it do, and then she's got a reference when she gets to the shop. Explain that like any other man made device (car, stove, TV, etc) some are more reliable, accurate, etc. I wouldn't even consider letting her look at some of the sub-par brands. Of course then again, the big names have such a wide selection these days, there really is no need to look beyond.
Last thing, the clerk, a lot (not all, if you are one, take note not offense) seem to have a well formed opinion on what every gun owner needs to buy. If they are steering her in a direction she doesn't want to go, or is counter to what she said she wanted the gun to do, ask for someone else. Don't subject her to the gun shop commando approach. It will only sour the whole experience for her, and possibly end up with a gun she doesn't like.
Sounds like a lot of work huh. Unfortunately, this is your only opportunity to buy the FIRST gun for her. If you screw it up, you could be many years and lots of therapy $$$$ undoing the mistakes and getting her back into the gun thing.
Tinman....
Tinman
I'm just enjoying the show!
Just for a little humor, my wife’s first gun story. Nope, didn't follow a bit of my own advice. Went to the gun shop, decided it was time for her to get her own. Brought home a really great (to me) Sig 232. We went to the range, and she hated it. She couldn't work the slide, it had the old heel release for the mag, and she could never get the mag out, couldn’t get the last two rounds in the mag, and to top it off, it had the (then new) grip panels with these nice palm swells that didn't let her get a good grip. She shot it that one time, wouldn't clean it (I had to) and it never went back to the range.
Fast forward 2 years, being the bright person I am, I thought well we'd try something different. So I took said 380 to the gunstore and traded it on a Kahr K9. Brought it home, and again the trip to the range. Again, because of the fat rubber grips, she could not get a good purchase and was constantly shooting low left (real confidence builder). She still had issues with the slide, and couldn't effectively reach the mag release without completely breaking the firing grip. So again, gun comes home, I clean it, and it sits in the safe unfired.
Time passes, and I again get the idea that she needs her own gun to really own this hobby. This time, I research what other women (mostly gun writers) say about what a woman needs in a gun. Back to the shop with K9 in tow, no wife yet, why would I take her to buy her gun after all I read what Paxton and Gila had to say on the subject so I was an expert right (stop laughing). I promptly found a small airweight 38 revolver. It was even pretty, what more could I ask for, no more mag release, no more stuffing the last two rounds in the mag, no more slide to work right. Paid the man and brought home my latest victory for HER. A quick trip to the range, and my hopes were quickly dashed. Again with the low left shots, again with the trigger she couldn’t reach, only now because of her small hands the metal backstrap is beating a huge bruise in the palm of her hand. You can guess what happened with that gun.
Finally, I have an epiphany, more like a ball bat in the head but that’s just semantics. Why don’t I take HER to get HER gun. Totally new concept. It only took about 4 trips to the gun shop, and two fights later for me to figure out that maybe my opinion really wasn’t that important to her gun. Again, totally new concept. So I finally back off and let her try them out (I didn’t even touch them for the last trip). Low and behold she finds one she likes. Only issue is she’s back to the Kahr P9 this time. I gently remind her of how much she hated the last one. She tells me this one’s different (she was right by the way) so we take it home and she has HER first gun. Apparently the rest were just mine with her name on them, go figure.
Because of the polymer frame, the grip circumference is much less, so she can reach all the controls. We still had the last round in the mag issue, a mag loader fixed that issue, a little training on how to work it fixed the slide issue (I did get that part right at least). After the trip to the range, she wasn’t as impressed with her new toy. It seems the sharpness of the checkering on the poly frame were causing some irritation in her hands (it was only a little lost skin, I don’t understand the complaint). Being the dutiful husband, I set to sanding the crap out of the checkering, back to the range and still no joy. We invest in some fingerless lifting gloves and that cures the lion share of the problem. Then I find out about Brookes Tactical and their A-Grip product. One fuzzy suede grip later, she’s happy again. We travel along for a short while in peaceful range bliss, then the babies come along, and I can’t get her back to the range to save my life, but that’s another story.
This is definitely a case of do as I say, not as I did. It’s and expensive path.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
Tinman....
Fast forward 2 years, being the bright person I am, I thought well we'd try something different. So I took said 380 to the gunstore and traded it on a Kahr K9. Brought it home, and again the trip to the range. Again, because of the fat rubber grips, she could not get a good purchase and was constantly shooting low left (real confidence builder). She still had issues with the slide, and couldn't effectively reach the mag release without completely breaking the firing grip. So again, gun comes home, I clean it, and it sits in the safe unfired.
Time passes, and I again get the idea that she needs her own gun to really own this hobby. This time, I research what other women (mostly gun writers) say about what a woman needs in a gun. Back to the shop with K9 in tow, no wife yet, why would I take her to buy her gun after all I read what Paxton and Gila had to say on the subject so I was an expert right (stop laughing). I promptly found a small airweight 38 revolver. It was even pretty, what more could I ask for, no more mag release, no more stuffing the last two rounds in the mag, no more slide to work right. Paid the man and brought home my latest victory for HER. A quick trip to the range, and my hopes were quickly dashed. Again with the low left shots, again with the trigger she couldn’t reach, only now because of her small hands the metal backstrap is beating a huge bruise in the palm of her hand. You can guess what happened with that gun.
Finally, I have an epiphany, more like a ball bat in the head but that’s just semantics. Why don’t I take HER to get HER gun. Totally new concept. It only took about 4 trips to the gun shop, and two fights later for me to figure out that maybe my opinion really wasn’t that important to her gun. Again, totally new concept. So I finally back off and let her try them out (I didn’t even touch them for the last trip). Low and behold she finds one she likes. Only issue is she’s back to the Kahr P9 this time. I gently remind her of how much she hated the last one. She tells me this one’s different (she was right by the way) so we take it home and she has HER first gun. Apparently the rest were just mine with her name on them, go figure.
Because of the polymer frame, the grip circumference is much less, so she can reach all the controls. We still had the last round in the mag issue, a mag loader fixed that issue, a little training on how to work it fixed the slide issue (I did get that part right at least). After the trip to the range, she wasn’t as impressed with her new toy. It seems the sharpness of the checkering on the poly frame were causing some irritation in her hands (it was only a little lost skin, I don’t understand the complaint). Being the dutiful husband, I set to sanding the crap out of the checkering, back to the range and still no joy. We invest in some fingerless lifting gloves and that cures the lion share of the problem. Then I find out about Brookes Tactical and their A-Grip product. One fuzzy suede grip later, she’s happy again. We travel along for a short while in peaceful range bliss, then the babies come along, and I can’t get her back to the range to save my life, but that’s another story.
This is definitely a case of do as I say, not as I did. It’s and expensive path.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
Tinman....
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Tinman
I'm just enjoying the show!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it was much more painful to live.
Of course if I couldn't laugh at my mistakes, I'd have to laugh at others (oh wait I do that too, nevermind).
Tinman....
Of course if I couldn't laugh at my mistakes, I'd have to laugh at others (oh wait I do that too, nevermind).
Tinman....
Guys, I think I posted this in another thread here, but it's worth repeating:
A woman letting you pick her gun for her is like her letting you buy her underwear. You're going to pick what you want to see her in, not what she is comfortable wearing everyday.
Tip of the hat, Tinman, for figuring out on your own that it's HER gun, and SHE needs to choose it. Far too man men sour new women shooters by forcing them into something that is completely wrong for them, and by bypassing that all important psycholgical association of "I picked this out. I like it. It is mine."
Great job!
A woman letting you pick her gun for her is like her letting you buy her underwear. You're going to pick what you want to see her in, not what she is comfortable wearing everyday.
Tip of the hat, Tinman, for figuring out on your own that it's HER gun, and SHE needs to choose it. Far too man men sour new women shooters by forcing them into something that is completely wrong for them, and by bypassing that all important psycholgical association of "I picked this out. I like it. It is mine."
Great job!
It took 25 years, but I finally got my wife to the range. She shot my Ruger MKI and she shot it very well. I have not pushed her to shoot any of my guns. She mentioned that she would like to shoot my daughters Bersa .380. The next time we all go to the range I am going to have her shoot the MKI again before she shoots the Bersa. From there I will slowly move up in power and recoil, but I want to make sure I don't go too far.
Once I know what she can handle, I will take her to gun stores and have her look at different guns until she decides what she wants.
I'm taking this slow so I don't push her back out. I'm hoping that she will decide she wants something that can be used for self defense and eventually get her CHL.
Once I know what she can handle, I will take her to gun stores and have her look at different guns until she decides what she wants.
I'm taking this slow so I don't push her back out. I'm hoping that she will decide she wants something that can be used for self defense and eventually get her CHL.
Crystalship1
Master
spartan933
Expert
So, my beautiful, sexy, smart, and fashion fanatic fiance likes to go shooting with me, a lot. But, she has a little bit of trouble with my 9mm and .40. Both autos. She has some of the basics down but they are full size and she has some difficulties operating the controls and pulling back on the slide. Anyways, we go to Cabelas the other day because she wants to get her first handgun.
I want her to because she is going to school in a rough neighborhood next year to get her masters degree.
Anyways, she really like the Desert Eagle .50, the S&W 500, and a few other large caliber pistols. She was like, "Oh, don't worry, this will fit in my purse." The guy behind the counter couldn't stop laughing.
We didn't buy one for her that day, but I am considering getting her the Walther P22 so she will have an easier time learning, etc. and it won't be as expensive as a Desert Eagle.
What I am afraid of is that she will not like it simply because she didn't pick it out. Any recommendations or criticisms of the P22?
I was thinking of telling her that James Bond uses the same gun. She thinks the new Bond is the hottest guy on the planet, next to me of course.
I want her to because she is going to school in a rough neighborhood next year to get her masters degree.
Anyways, she really like the Desert Eagle .50, the S&W 500, and a few other large caliber pistols. She was like, "Oh, don't worry, this will fit in my purse." The guy behind the counter couldn't stop laughing.
We didn't buy one for her that day, but I am considering getting her the Walther P22 so she will have an easier time learning, etc. and it won't be as expensive as a Desert Eagle.
What I am afraid of is that she will not like it simply because she didn't pick it out. Any recommendations or criticisms of the P22?
I was thinking of telling her that James Bond uses the same gun. She thinks the new Bond is the hottest guy on the planet, next to me of course.
Jay
Gotta watch us old guys.....cause if you don't....
The P22 will closely approximate the slide function of your 9mm, and .40 cal. Obviously not as stiff of a spring, but enough to teach her the proper technique for operating the slide. Once she gets the mechanics down, she'll be fine. I won't presume to tell you what you may already know about ladies and slides, so at this point I'll just say there are several methods that have worked well.
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