I put a lot of thought (and a little experience) into what one handgun I wanted my wife to use and carry around with herself all day long. I'm fond of the woman; and I wanted her to choose the, '
right gun'.
Somewhat to my surprise (and embarrassment), back in the days when we were dating, I took her to a gun range where I suddenly found out that she's much better than average with a gun in her hands; but, then again, she received firearms training while she was still an adolescent from an older Firearms Instructor who had served as a sniper in the Finnish Army during the Russo-Finnish, '
Winter War' of 1939-40.
(The Finns had a reputation for being highly accurate and deadly with their rifles; and the Russians truly didn't like, '
playing' with them!)
Can't say that I'm all that fond of the practice; but I know a great many women prefer to carry their EDC's inside their pocketbooks; and I don't see this habit changing anytime soon. I wanted my wife to carry a handgun that she didn’t really need to be constantly aware of (because most women don’t do things like that, anyway); and around which there is no built-up residue of pseudo-intellectual mechanical safety that might — all of a sudden like — spring up out of her handbag and ‘bite her in the butt’.
So a revolver with a simplified, '
manual of arms' and a GENUINELY safe firing mechanism, it was going to be. After looking at and handling a lot of different small (and smallish) revolvers I (or '
we', actually) decided on a Ruger SP101 with the following necessary physical features: a slightly longer 3 inch barrel, an exposed hammer spur, and a soft rubber Hogue Monogrip.
The 3 inch barrel was chosen to provide better accuracy — especially at somewhat greater distances. (I've taught my wife to never wait until the very last moment before responding to a potentially deadly threat.)
The exposed hammer spur was chosen for, pretty much, the same reason as well as to compensate for the fact that — in my experience as a firearms training instructor — better than 90% of the people who show up at the range with revolvers are largely unskilled and inept at firing a pistol in the double-action mode. (Good double-action revolver shooting is NOT something that most people know how to do well.)
The soft rubber Hogue Monogrip lends a lot to the SP101 and is a, '
vast improvement' over the standard small, thin, and slippery factory stocks. Now after, something like, 7 years of carrying this somewhat diminutive SP101 it has turned out to be an excellent choice for her to have made. What complaints have I heard, though? OK, here goes:
(1) It's too heavy! (A, '
biggie' criticism — Right!)
However the woman is married to someone who knows a lot about CQB pistol gunfighting; and, I have repeatedly assured and reassured her that the first time she finds herself caught up in a deadly social situation:
THE EXTRA WEIGHT OF HER RUGER SP101, ALTHOUGH DEFINITELY INCONVENIENT FOR DAILY CARRY, WILL BE WELL WORTH HAVING THE MOMENT SHE HAS TO TAKE AIM AND BEGIN TO FIRE!
(2) She doesn't like carrying a pistol on her hip because it forces her to wear a belt and makes her hips appear to be too large. (Not true! Besides, I've always thought that a woman with a gun on her hip is, somehow, more exciting.)
(3) Conversely, her SP101 — or, probably, any gun for that matter — takes up too much space in her handbag; and makes the bag inconvenient to use and too heavy to carry. (Sometimes you just can't win!)
(4) The 357 Magnum practice ammo is very expensive; and it never seems to go on sale. (She's right; but, this has only been a particular problem since I sold off all of my reloading equipment, and can no longer provide her with plenty of comparatively inexpensive, but still high quality, practice ammo.
(5) It was extremely difficult to find a suitable (nice quality) belt holster for the 3 inch SP101; but, after a lot of looking, we finally managed to find one.
On the other hand she has had no problem managing the recoil and shoots double-action well; but, then again, I made sure that she knew how to, '
rock 'n roll' with a gun in her hand(s). In addition to this, now that the both of us are, 'starting to feel our years' it's nice to know that exposed hammer spur is there should either of us ever actually need to use it.
I use it on all the forums I frequent.
