Need a recommendation please

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Jgjgjg

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After a decades long haitus my wife (not a gun person) has expressed interest in getting her chl and being armed.

many years ago i gave her my P228 and she does well with it. She’s been having hand trouble. Not carpal tunnel but that’s a close enough condition to give you a picture.

At the range yesterday we found that while she still shoots a punk sized group, she no longer has the hand strength to rack a slide and double action is borderline too hard a pull.

So, thoughts on a purse gun for her?
 
If she can't rack a slide, I'd go with a revolver. Some double actions are surprisingly smooth. I would take her to a range that rents firearms and see what she likes.
 
Some light 9mm polymer pistol with lighter trigger. I hear the sigs have decent triggers. Most are around 5#, could go 1911 route too. Good luck. Take her to a gun store and have her dry fire some. Ruger lcr is a lightweight revolver with good trigger I hear also.

Let us know what you end up with!
 
  • Check out the American Rifleman, they recently had an article on the challenges with aging, and some solutions
  • With double action becoming an iffy proposition, stay away from a revolver. You could go single action, the micro 22’s. A small centerfire single action might be too big for a purse....
  • The EZ Smith’s are getting a lot of notice
  • A tip up Beretta....
  • As stated above, go to a range that rents and let her try an assortment
 
Last summer, my wife and I completed the Idaho Enhanced Concealed Weapons class together, and she ran a hundred rounds through her Smith Shield 380 EZ in about an hour. It didn’t bother her arthritic thumb joint, nor her carpal tunnel syndrome wrist one bit.
It was kind of funny - our oldest daughter loaned her own 380 EZ to my wife to try out before my wife bought one for herself. But right after my wife bought her own, our daughter, on the advice of her then fiancé (now husband) traded her 380 EZ in on a 9mm EZ. My wife hasn’t shot that one yet, but our daughter claims the 9mm version is almost as easy to rack, and doesn’t kick much harder.
 
My wife has terrible hand and wrist problems. She can shoot 32 H&R magnum just fine, though.

This is what she has by her bed on the very rare occasions that I am not home.

Charter Arms have a kind of odd "toy-like" DA trigger, but it is definitely not stiff. She can shoot it DA easily.

Charter Arms 32 Magnum

Charter Arms 32 Magnum

 
Jgjgjg said:
After a decades long haitus my wife (not a gun person) has expressed interest in getting her chl and being armed.

many years ago i gave her my P228 and she does well with it. She’s been having hand trouble. Not carpal tunnel but that’s a close enough condition to give you a picture.

At the range yesterday we found that while she still shoots a punk sized group, she no longer has the hand strength to rack a slide and double action is borderline too hard a pull.

So, thoughts on a purse gun for her?
Click to expand...
Shield EZ
 
Def. the S&W E-Z. Small revolvers are difficult for most beginners to shoot well, and revolver DA triggers are not conducive for people with issues with hand strength.
 
We do this often, "I/my wife/my child/my mother/my father/etc. has limited strength and has trouble racking the slide and what gun should I get?"

As a small statured guy in my 60's, it's always a head scratcher to me folks recommend a revolver.

With my current abilities, I'd much rather be able to use my large upper body muscles to rack the slide once (proper technique could make this easier for any individual), and get somewhere between 7 and 19 shots with a 5 pound trigger pull out of a semi-auto pistol than than 5 or 6 shots with a revolver with a 12 pound trigger that relies on the strength of the very small muscles in my trigger finger.
 
Last edited:
^I agree. If hand strength is an issue, then a 10-12lb DA trigger pull from a revolver isn't a great recommendation. The S&W .380 EZ that's been mentioned several times is worth a look.
 
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