Soft Shooting, Easy to Rack, Good Sights Suggestion

My wife has weak grip strength and she really liked the 380 EZ she test fired at the range a few months ago. Another option is the Walther CCP. Both pistols were designed with easy rack and easy shooting in mind. An EZ model without a thumb safety would be a good choice for a lefty.

herrwalther said:

An EZ model without a thumb safety would be a good choice for a lefty.

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While I am of the school that says you don't need a manual safety on such a gun, both EZ models, .380 and 9mm, are "Available with or without ambidextrous, manual thumb safety."

Craig_VA said:

While I am of the school that says you don't need a manual safety on such a gun, both EZ models, .380 and 9mm, are "Available with or without ambidextrous, manual thumb safety."

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I strongly dislike ambi safeties for new gun owners. That is twice as much surface area for a safety to be accidentally taken off. The grip safety on the EZ makes a thumb safety mostly redundant anyway.

Skylerbone said:

Update: I finally got dad to leave the house, albeit with a mask, to get hands on the EZ. Our local Theissens had both the .380 and 9mm and as luck would have it he preferred the 9mm but wants the ported PC version with upgraded sights. I’ve spent the past hour poking around the web and have yet to find one in stock.

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The Performance Center 9mm EZ isn't listed on their website so I don't think it has come out yet. The 9mm EZ is pretty new itself, so a PC version will take awhile. They do make a 380 EZ PC, so a 9mm is plausible.
https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/sm...-center-m-p-380-shield-ez-m20-380-acp-handgun

herrwalther said:

The Performance Center 9mm EZ isn't listed on their website so I don't think it has come out yet. The 9mm EZ is pretty new itself, so a PC version will take awhile. They do make a 380 EZ PC, so a 9mm is plausible.

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The S&W site lists three Performance Center 380 EZ, and the photos show all of them with manual thumb safety. This contrasts with the regular M&P 2.0 model which is available with or without that safety.

Grand Power K100, I think they make a smaller version too. The rotating barrel really reduces recoil, it is 9mm.

Skylerbone said:

Thanks to all who responded, I ordered him the 9mm version of the EZ over the weekend from Bud’s and even managed to talk with a custom holster maker who promised a lefty and double mag carrier by the first week of June. I know dad is excited and I hope everything comes together as an potential EDC for him (if I can get those revolvers out of his brain).


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I think you'll like it.
Bought one for my wife and it is incredibly easy to operate.

I would recommend .380 in a Kimber Micro or a SIG P238. The single action will inherently rack easier than a striker fired unit.

If he can stand a little more recoil you may want to consider a 9MM Kimber Micro or the SIG P938.

Great choice. My wife recently purchased the EZ in .380 with the laser and safety. Her hands are getting worse and she was losing proficiency with her bodyguard. That is one sweet gun.

Dudedog said:

All steel 1911 in 9mm is pretty soft, and he had a 1911 so he should be familiar with it.

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Another advantage of the 1911 (and other hammer fired guns) is you can "split" the racking force into to parts, manually cocking the hammer and then cycling the slide.

I would think it would not be the recoil spring weight that would be the problem with racking the slide , but , gripping the slide and overcoming the recoil spring weight . So I would think make it easier to grip the slide and there are a multitude of things on the market for this ( Glock slide covers that stick out on both sides ) . Just something for his thumb and finger to register on . Once you decide to go this route the pistol choices and calibers open up . Finding a pistol that fits this narrow application out of the box , that's going to be tuff . Not a fan of .380 anything because its a short bullet that doesn't engage much rifling and most ( I repeat most ) don't shoot well ( yes I did buy one ,PK 380 , still have it ) . For instance , CZ PO-7 in 9mm , ( endless holster choices ) polymer lower but heavy enough for mild recoil and a full grip that spreads out the recoil . Change the decocker to a safety for cocked and locked carry ( it comes with it ) . He can cock the hammer on an empty gun dropping the force required to rack the slide by a third . Buy the Cajun deluxe trigger kit ( you can pull my review up on that ) that I believe comes with one step lower recoil spring ( or just buy the spring only ) . Have a dovetail milled in the slide for some kind of slide racker that sticks out on both sides . Buy some sights that work for him ( XS big dot ? ) . I know this sounds involved but it really isn't . I just think building something that is tailored for him would be the way to go instead of trying to find something that works , kind of , sort of , but not really . As we all know if we don't like a gun we won't practice with it much . Just a suggestion .

The Browning 1911-380 had some feeding problems, needed "long" ammo - did those get resolved ?

C0untZer0 said:

The Browning 1911-380 had some feeding problems, needed "long" ammo - did those get resolved ?

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I bought the 1911-380 in 2016 that suffered magazine problems due to weak mag springs. It worked perfectly for the 1st few magazines and then started to early release the 7th round into the barrel hood. I played with COL length without much success and bought another magazine which worked well for 4-5 loadings and then started doing the same thing.
Off to Browning at that point where they, among other things, replaced the magazines, permanently fixing the problem (5-600 rnds so far). I believe the company that made the mag springs must have choked on the heat treat and that seems to have been corrected based on my experience and the lack of current comments regarding the 1911-380 on the Browning Owners Forum.

I would recommend the 1911-380 except as noted above, lack of aftermarket and Browning support. Their customer service seems to be helpful but the plastic rear sight on mine has worked loose from recoil so I had to put a spot of epoxy on it.

Can he qualify with a 22? Oops nevermind