I know this is old, but I thought I'd post a follow up. I forgot all about this thread.
No revolvers! While that is pretty much all I like any more, she doesn't. I still tried...she would hold them a half a second and set it back down.
We checked out many of the slide actions. The final four ended up being; SIG Mosquito, Bersa Thunder, Walther P22 and Ruger MK.
SIG; I knew a couple people who had SIG's. Two factors eliminated it. When I checked with the owners both had finicky problems with ammo selection. One finally settled down after about 500 rounds, but could still only shoot higher velocity stuff. The other had to stick to one or two particular bullets. Now in hindsight I can see where that would be a real problem this past year. The other factor was the grip didn't fit her hand right.
Walther; It was okay, probably would have been a winner. Except I was concerned about durability.
Ruger; (secretly I wanted this) Too big, and she didn't like the way it fit in her hand.
Bersa Thunder 22; Winner. She liked the balance a little better than the Walther. I liked all the reviews I read. I got it for $300 AT. After a few hundred rounds through it the gun settled down and didn't have feed/eject issues. The rear sight adjustment screw came out. So I ordered some spare parts and an extra magazine. It's now at around 2000-3000 rounds and seems to have smoothed up pretty good. It shoots into a ragged hole at 10 yards, I can keep them all in an 8-10" circle at 25 yards...I better get my eyes checked I suppose. After about 400 rounds or so through it, it definitely needs cleaning or we start to experience FTE problems. Carbon buildup in the breech area gets pretty bad. All in all though she's very happy with it and I'm satisfied this little gun will last a long time.
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Oh yeah, I also added a Ruger 10/22 about a year and a half ago. I got the one with the Walnut stock and no band, then dropped some XS ghost sites on it too. She likes that one a lot. It gets a lot of range time by anybody who gets their hands on it.
