I have read most of the posts with some interest and everyone has good points. Consealed carry doesn't seem to be the most important item in this case. Control however is most important. I've shot with a lot of people from the 350 pound muscle bound football player to the 90 pound young lady that looks as fragile as Audrey Hepburn. The little girl fell in love with a Kimber .45 consealed carry. The big guy loved the .50 AE. It is all in what you like to shoot. If it hurts or isn't fun you won't practice and become proficent. My advice is try different guns of different caliber and decide what you like to shoot best that will get the job done. Remember this, IF you ever have to use it, your life will change forever, and "it is better to be tried by twelve than carried by six".

 

So true! I talked again with the people that I know today. We have an appointment on Saturday, October the 13th at a local shooting range that rents arms to see what she likes. A good friend of mine is bringing his arsenal out as well, including, among other things, a .357 and a .38 special, both wheel guns.

Until this thread I never really gave much thought to concealed carry. But with all you gun totin' nuts out there I'm thinking more about it. It's around $150 locally to take the concealed carry class, I think I would do it. The wife on the other hand.... who knows? We haven't talked about it. She did get excited tonight when I told her of the plans to teach her to shoot, try out a bunch of arms at the range and get her a gun for X-mas this year. She's cool!

Thanks again for the replies, everyone has helped me tremendously in the sidearm arena. This is one of the best sites on the net, and this is only one reason why!

I'm still watching this thread for more responses. A person can never be over educated. Keep teaching me!

 

100% positive. Okay, 99% positive. It may be in the future, but right now they are not allowed to import it because of the way the whole import scoring system on guns works (I don't know how it works so I couldn't begin to explain it, but that's the reason). If Glock starts making their guns in the U.S. then that may change.

 

Earlier I suggested you look at the little Colt Autos because your original post stated you wanted automatics. My preferred handgun for a beginning female shooter is a good reliable revolver in 38/357.

The 38 loads are inexpensive and easy to shoot, most people find it to be a very comfortable round to work with. After they become acclimated to the 38 round you can step them up to the +P loads and eventually the 357 mag rounds in the same gun.

The revolver is also an easier weapon to fire in an emergency situation. No spring loaded slides to have to pull back, which can cause confusion in a moment of panic. No safeties to be concerned with, no jammed rounds or feeding problems. In general, if you keep a revolver clean it will fire every time you pull the trigger.

I might include that I am talking about a quality revolver, not a cheap Saturday night special. Be sure you let her try them out, she may possibly prefer the revolver over a pistol.

True you won't have 15 rounds to spray at an individual with a 6 or 5 shot revolver, but it only takes one anyway. Thats where practice, practice, practice comes in .

 

Larry I agree with the accuracty statement but today's criminals are usually not alone and often times you might have to duck and cover with an armed assailant coming at you.

Having extra capacity is not only smart but it might save your life.
There several reasons LE's are not using wheel guns (deaths)as their primary weapons...

 

Glock all the way. I've owned colts,berretta's,sigs,ruger,s&w,and right now I carry a glock .40 It is by far the best shooting and most reliable gun I owned. If you get in a situation that requires a quick draw, the last thing you want to do is have to **** a hammer or flip the safety. Of course that is just my opinion but I have been in those situations before. That is why I no longer have my berretta. When I pulled it out of the holster it would catch the decock lever--not a good deal at all. Glock makes models called C's or compensators --they allow you to shoot higher caliber and more rounds with very little recoil and have a model with a grip to fit about any hand. Just to let you know I shot a 100% on my test for concealed carry license with a glock.

 

just a thought but we dont use glock they are in a word a cheap gun and do not meet the standards we hold for use in a side arm we have long switched over to the hk usp and it has proven itself time and time again in some very harsh cond that your gun will never see i prefer the 40 cal has the stoping power and yet has more cap then the 45. Now i know all the glock nuts will get down on me for bashing glock but in the military spec op side we do alot of testing and can buy what ever gun we want and time and time again HK has won out over the glock, im sure in civ use its a great gun but for use with us we use hk.

 

no bashing here. I have not used a H&K so I don't know. Tell me more about the differences and why the H&K is better. But, I will say the Glock is NO cheap gun and it has out performed any other gun I've shot.

 

With all thats been said... Pistols are ok, but I favor these:

My little Yugoslavian friend....

 

That's 100% correct. The .380 Glock does not have enough points to allow it to be imported. That is unless something was changed with the process in the past few months that I'm unaware of.

 

Something that has not been mentioned yet is a shotgun. Since the poster is looking for a home defense weapon, a defensive shotgun has alot of advantages over a pistol. It's much easier to hit the target, which is something to consider in a time of stress. Also, it has alot less penetration than a conventional bullet. This is very important in home defense situations as there may be somebody on the other side of the wall that you are shooting at the bad guy from that you do not want to hit. Since the weapon is primarily for a female, maybe a pump or semi-auto with a 20 inch barrel in 20 gauge or .410? Come to think of it, I saw an add for a Taurus revolver that shoots .45 colt or .410 shotgun shells. Might be too much recoil, but i'd consider it too.

 

For my .02 worth

We have several hanguns in our house and my wife accuratly can shoot all of them, 9mm, 357, target 22 etc. She prefers a Walther p-22 for target shooting. Buy her the factory laser to go on the front of the trigger guard. It will increase her ability to enjoy shooting. We have the spin around targets setup in our range out back. She needs to get comfortable shooting her pistol. Then she will be more likely to be able to protect herself if the need ever comes up.

I purchased her the p-22 and laser together for $412.00 out the door. She can shoot the 22 all afternoon for under 10 bucks in ammo.

TallTom

 

I have to vote for a wheelgun. One of the smaller framed revolvers in steel for weight. .357 caliber shooting .38 Special. Easy to manipulate, pull trigger it goes bang, controllable and you should be able to find one that fits your wife's hands. Ruger SP101 comes to mind. Small but not too light and very reliable.

Hondo

 

How about this??? Harrington and Richardson "Handy Gun"



This is a .410 pistol... It's a single shot crack Barrel... Mine (judging by the serial #) was made some time between 1898 and 1900... I had to fix the triger from 100 + years of use, but now it works fine... Sad thing I almost lost it in Hurricane Katrina, but I dug it along with the rest of my guns out from the mud in my house!!!


As you can see It took 6 days of diggin to find it!!!

This is the Hungarian Femru .380 I mentioned earlier... My Uncle took this side arm off of a German Officer he killed in WWII...


I was able to restore all of my guns, a guy and his son did it for me... For ($400!!!) The only problem is the H&R Handygun the grip swole up and cracked from the water saturation, so I have not been able to shoot it until I get another grip.

This is most of my guns...

 

HALFPINT23
(crossdraw, horsehide belt holster of my own manufacture)

Kate
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I see you are in Wa. My college roommate became a WASP. When he joined they carried N frame 6 inch Smiths, crossdraw. He hated it. They opened a window that enabled officers to go to strong side 4 inch L frame Smiths. I had my FFL at the time and rushed him the L frame in time for the window. I can understand where you are coming from because the WASP was slow to move away from the crossdraw.

But if I may make a suggestion: Get rid of the crossdraw holster. It was banned by every P.D. I can think of in my state. It was popular back in the 60's. However, there were incidents wherein officers were injured or killed due solely to the crossdraw holster.

The problem is: If the assailant is close to you at the moment you attempt to draw your weapon, your draw can be blocked. This immediately places you in a life or death struggle over your weapon. The even greater problem is: During the initial phase of the struggle the muzzle of the weapon is ponting directly into your belly! Any discharge and you will probably die. This is why most P.D.'s got away from it.

Strong side is really the only way to go. It is much more difficult to block a strong side draw and the biggest plus - throughout all phases of a strong side draw the muzzle points away from your body. A premature discharge is directed either into the ground or at the assailant. Think about it.

This is not directed at you but at some of the other posts. I dislike the concept of spraying rounds at an assailant. In my county last year the Sheriff's Dept. chased a guy. He refused to stop for a traffic violation. About 9 officers boxed him in. Here, if your vehicle rolls 1 inch in the direction of an officer, it is attempted murder of a peace officer. His SUV rolled and all 9 officers opened up. They fired app. 122 rounds in a matter of seconds. They hit the guy ONCE. However, they hit every house on the block multiple times. There were a lot of mad citizens.

I'm a Life Member of the NRA. I have gotten the American Rifleman for decades. Every month the first section I read is the Armed Citizen. I cannot recall one incident where a citizen fired enough rounds to empty a revolver. Usually when the bad guy sees the gun he runs. For those that don't it's 1, 2 or 3 rounds and he's running or dead. I cannot recall ever reading about a firefight wherein a homeowner exchanged 10, 20 or 40 rounds with the bad guy. I believe a revolver is an excellent home defense weapon. Well maintained it is virtually fail safe.

People tend to go for what is popular. In the 1950's single actions sold well. In the 1960's and 1970's it was the 'Snubnosed .38'. When the U.S. Military went to the Berretta it was not because the 9mm was a great manstopper. After all that had been the debate for decades. The proven manstopping ability of the .45 vs the additional capacity of the 9mm. You must remember the 9mm is a .38 caliber round.

The military went to the 9mm: 1) Because the M1911 was an old platform. 2) Because all member nations in NATO and SEATO were standardized on the 9mm. In the rest of the world the 9mm is considered a large round. Some countries reserve it for military and police only. At present it looks as though the 9mm is on it's way out with the U.S. Military. As stated earlier Special Ops units prefer .45 or .40 and the performance of the 9mm overall has been unimpressive. The .223 is also being dropped in favor of a more powerful round.

Bottomline: The average civilian gunfight still goes down at a distance of less than 21 feet. You do not need a .357 at that range. I still like the .38 special loaded with 200 grain Round nose lead or I sometimes will load a mild hollowbased wadcutter lead target load. The HBWC cuts a big wound channel and has a mild recoil which enables accurate follow up shots. I purposely do not use hollow points or any form of expanding or fragmenting projectile for the simple reason that if I shoot some guy, he dies, and I wind up in court I do not want to fuel the DA's argument that I premeditated the murder. 'Had it not been this guy it would have been some other unfortunate soul for whom he was lying in wait with a virtual cannon loaded with bullets designed for one thing and one thing only - to kill!' Don't need it.

The idea is to terminate the attack and survive. No where does that mandate killing the assailant. If he dies as an unintended result of the termination of his assault - stuff happens.

One last pain: Some guys are advocating the heck out of the .380. The .380 is actually a 9mm Browning Short. Why not suggest the .38 Colt Long (Which caused the development of the .45 ACP), the .38 Colt Short or the .38 S&W Long or the .38 S&W Short? All of those calibers are outclassed by the .38 Special. The .38 Special is not a .45 ACP but I would take it any day, with all of it's loading choices, over a 90 grain .380!