Pistol for very small hands

The 1911 and the Browning Hi-Power are both good options for those with small hands.

SIG P6/225 may be another, though I've not handled one. http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/Critical Look at SIG Sauer P225.htm

The Hi-Power's and Handguns site will also have lots of stuff on the 1911 an Hi-Power if you are looking for information on either or both.

If you have issues with slide racking, this may be helpful from "The Cornered Cat" http://www.corneredcat.com/article/running-the-gun/rack-the-slide/

The Cornered Cat also has lots of good general gun information for women.

Kahrs all have very short trigger reach. Operating the slide takes some effort though. The new HK VP9 may be a viable choice with it's cocking wings and adjustable grip panels.

My first thought was the S&W Shield. My second thought was the Kahr line. My SIL has small hands and likes the Kahr P9. Here is the trick: hold the slide solidly with your left hand and push forward on the frame with your right hand. The leverage this way makes it a lot easier for those of limited strength in their hands. Personally, I prefer the Shield, but that is just me.

my mother is the same size and I picked her up a glock 42 for her birthday and she loves the thing as well as all of her friends. She shoots it well and can manipulate it way easier than the lcp she had before that. She can also run my 17 pretty well.

CW9
Ruger P345 has a very short reach, especially in SA

Make sure your wife has the chance to actually run these guns before you buy.

Factors ( and they are quite variable) include:

1. Recoil
2. grip circumference
3. Trigger reach AND trigger pull .
4. Strength of the recoil spring ( how hard is it to pull the slide back. This can be affected by how hard or easy it is to grip the slide.

My wife is 4'10", 58 years old...... She likes the 9mm XD , likes the Sig 238 ( 380) for carry ( has claimed both of these guns).

Hates my Kahr PM9 . Has no interest in my Browning Hi Power with thin grips or HK P7 or any Glock or Keltec 380 or M&P Compact ( that one surprised me).

Take home message....guns are a very personalized fit...let her decide and then you decide if you can adapt to "her" gun....

Good luck , be patient and persistent ! mike

Maybe a Beretta Model 84 (13 round magazine), or a Model 85 (8 round magazine), might be the way to go for the two of you. Both guns are chambered in .380, have a traditional DA/SA set-up, have easy to rack slides, and offer little in the way of felt recoil when fired. Controls are easy to reach and ergonomic and the overall grip shape (more so with the slightly slimmer Model 85), is very favorable to those with smaller sized hands.

Take her to a well inventoried LGS. Have her try the fit and operation (trigger pull, racking the slide, grip, etc.).

Better yet, if you have a gun range nearby that has an assortment of guns to rent.

Small slides are harder to manipulate for some. My wife can rack the slide of the M&P40, Kimber Pro Carry, and LC9. But not the small 380's, or low slides like on some of the CZ's.

The Kimber Pro Carry @ 28 oz. is a light 1911 style and they have them in 9mm. There may be other light 1911 that I'm not aware of.

Maybe even the new Colt Mustang, if she can check one out.

How about a revolver? No slide to worry about and many have relatively short trigger pulls.

I have no idea how well this would work for either of you but there's a couple of key words in the OP that made me think of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd6yiyYm63o


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coLytAnGgpo

I'd recommend taking a look at the Kahr K9. Very thin and the DA trigger is very easy to pull through

Click to expand...

Another vote for the K9. Perfect gun for smaller statured shooters with small hands. Also just heavy enough to lessen felt recoil, but light enough to not fatigue the arms of smaller folks.

First off, read this! RACK THE SLIDE

That's the standard text on teaching a smaller/less strong person how to manipulate an autopistol easily. As she says, it ISN'T strength. It's TECHNIQUE. There's a whole lot of other stuff at Kathy's site that would be interesting and useful for you guys, but start with that.

Second thing, yes guns are a very personal fit, and it is very often surprising which combinations of factors appeal to one person but don't work for another. My daughter's tried a lot of different handguns (starting with a Ruger Mk II and a 1911 ... when she was three, moving up to a S&W 629 at seven...) including some mid-sized guns a lot of folks recommend for small statured people.

She utterly claims as her own -- and now one and only -- my full-sized xDM 9mm. And at twelve years old she's able to shoot through the whole IDPA classifier with it pretty respectably, working from a Blade-Tech drop & offset holster. Glock 19? Khar? 1911? Ok, but no thanks. She loves that big honking 19+1 round 4.5" barrel xDM.

Again, she's 12. She doesn't have very large hands. That doesn't matter. The gun fits her.

I'm not saying an xD is the pistol your wife needs, I'm saying get a variety of stuff in her hands and see what she can run well.

Sig P238/938 fit the bill pretty well. Single action trigger, small grip, and the slide is easy to move. My wife has small hands and the same height, she loved the 238. Just not the price tag.

All good ideas.

Here are a few more based on your original post.

Issue: Size of your wife’s hands.

You probably need to lean towards a single stack if going with a semi-auto.
This is the easiest way to make a better fit for her or
of course you could use one of the many good revolvers that might fit.

Issue: Racking the slide.

Most of the new guns (not all) that are small have strong springs.
Racking the slide could be a real issue. You could solve this by leaving
it loaded with one in the chamber. If that bothers you just get a gun with a
magazine safety and remove the magazine when you feel it is needed.
It will take less time to put a magazine in than trying to rack a slide.

As to a specific gun, some have already been mentioned but it really is
a you thing. I will say that when looking for a gun do not forget the used
section. A good LGS won’t be selling trouble guns in their used section. It
is bad for repeat business. If you know guns even better or find someone who
does and get them to go with you. Many of the two, three and four digit Smiths
would fit you specifications and are very good shooters.

I hope you find something you like and are comfortable with.
You did not mention budget so I’ll let you pick that. Pick what you
like and want. If it does not feel good it will very seldom improve.

All JMO.

Good luck in your search and practice.
Good shooting

My wife bought the Walther PK380, it is very easy to rack and shoot for people with small hands. Also the SIG P238 is an excellent choice. Kahrs are fine pistols but much too difficult to rack for women with small hands. That said, the trigger reach is very short and Wolff carries different recoil springs for the Kahr CW9 which may work for her in a 9mm gun.

Browning Hi-Power in a no go, the best double stack 9mm out there but... I have large hands and the grip is just too fat to call comfortable, a standard 1911 is near perfect, but standard 1911s have heavy (to rack) slides. Kahrs have heavy slides too.

Off the top, the only small easy to rack and shoot small semi-auto handgun I can think of is the (now classic) Sig P238. Understand one thing tho, once a female experiences a Sig P238 you will never see it again. It is the one gun that that females treat like expensive jewelry.

Best option is to go to your LGS and let put her hand around the grips of several pistols and decide.

^^^^^ What nugun said, but Walther does make a line of handguns that are easy to rack, reliable, and available in 380 and 9mm. I would start there before I went to the smaller guns in the display case. As an instructor, I have found that usually it is much easier for a person with large hands to handle a smaller frame pistol well then the reverse, so let her pick her gun and you learn to shoot it.

Though not the best caliber for home defense, the Walther PK380 had the easiest slide action of any non 22LR that I've ever owned. It was accurate and minimal recoil.

Take a look at the Dan Wesson ECO 9mm. Very easy to rack, and soft shooting. A little more $$$ than others, but a great pistol, and I would think a good fit for small hands as well.