Hello Everyone,
In my many years of teaching women how to shoot, I have run into a first for me. You know those women that you read about in the gun magazines or hear about who are absolutely beautiful and shoot large caliber handguns with exceptional skill?
Well I FINALLY found one!
Most of the time the women shoot my .38 Special revolvers and/or 9mm pistols and love them. A few rounds of .45 ACP or especially .40 S&W and they go right back down to a .38 Special/9mm combination. Given that none of them were pursuing shooting as a hobby, but only for personal protection I simply directed them to good ammunition and stressed its importance in these calibers. This one is a different animal entirely.
I have been training my new student in basic marksmanship for a period of months and she has recently narrowed her choice of handguns to the Models 21, 22, and 30 from Glock. These choices have been made with great care on both her part and mine; however, I could use some input here on hand fit and cartridge pressure. Before anyone says anything about it, she has ruled out the 9mm Parabellum given that it is what most women shoot. The 10mm Auto (my fav), .357 SIG, and .45 GAP were eliminated for a number of reasons (e.g., ammo cost, choice of loads, etc.). So this is a .40 S&W versus .45 ACP kind of thing.
My student is 5'7" tall, about 140-145 pounds, athletic build, and exceptional upper body strength for a very girly woman. She spent many years massaging her ailing father's back and her upper body strength developed from this. She is also epilleptic and very sensitive to extremely bright flashes (e.g., police lights at night, strobe light, etc.) and has limited vision in her eyes. In fact she is legally blind as she sees very little out of her left eye. Blast also seems to bother her somewhat. She is Italian like me and has a problem with people telling her what she can and cannot do with her handicaps. Combined with a healthy doseage of Italian machisma (female version) she gravitated to the .45 ACP Glocks very very quickly. Recoil, blast, and flash are not an issue for her with the .45s, but I am worried about the .40 S&W's blast and flash. Once she discovered that men and women, handicapped or otherwise, shot on the same match in most events she has been hooked on learning to shoot.
After experiementing with many combinations, I found that when actually firing a pistol she does best using the distal joint of her trigger finger as opposed to the pad of it. Her hands are such that she is able to grasp the Glock 22 comfortably with one hand with her distal joint resting on the "trigger extension" that deactivates the Glocks triple safety system to ready the gun for firing. On the Glocks 21 and 30 (same width of grip) she is able to hold both guns comfortably in one hand with the pad of her trigger finger resting squarely on the "trigger extension" and without adjusting her grip her distal joint easily touches the actual trigger once this extension has been depressed for firing.
Given the above, would you say the Glocks 21 and 30 fit her hand adequately or are close enough that a judicious grip reduction job from Robar (or other such companies) would be in order?
Given her trigger reach on the Glocks 21 and 30, what portion of the grip would you suggest adjusting (if necessary) knowing that both guns point dead on for her with the standard size grips?
She is the type of woman who would rather have the larger .45 and make it fit rather than buying a .40 S&W with a smaller grip. Further, I have some serious concerns about the much higher pressure of the .40 S&W and the resulting increase in blast as well as flash given her epillepsy. Every woman I have tested seems to find the .45 ACP far less objectionable than the .40 S&W in blast and muzzle flash.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Thank you so much for the input.
In my many years of teaching women how to shoot, I have run into a first for me. You know those women that you read about in the gun magazines or hear about who are absolutely beautiful and shoot large caliber handguns with exceptional skill?
Well I FINALLY found one!
Most of the time the women shoot my .38 Special revolvers and/or 9mm pistols and love them. A few rounds of .45 ACP or especially .40 S&W and they go right back down to a .38 Special/9mm combination. Given that none of them were pursuing shooting as a hobby, but only for personal protection I simply directed them to good ammunition and stressed its importance in these calibers. This one is a different animal entirely.
I have been training my new student in basic marksmanship for a period of months and she has recently narrowed her choice of handguns to the Models 21, 22, and 30 from Glock. These choices have been made with great care on both her part and mine; however, I could use some input here on hand fit and cartridge pressure. Before anyone says anything about it, she has ruled out the 9mm Parabellum given that it is what most women shoot. The 10mm Auto (my fav), .357 SIG, and .45 GAP were eliminated for a number of reasons (e.g., ammo cost, choice of loads, etc.). So this is a .40 S&W versus .45 ACP kind of thing.
My student is 5'7" tall, about 140-145 pounds, athletic build, and exceptional upper body strength for a very girly woman. She spent many years massaging her ailing father's back and her upper body strength developed from this. She is also epilleptic and very sensitive to extremely bright flashes (e.g., police lights at night, strobe light, etc.) and has limited vision in her eyes. In fact she is legally blind as she sees very little out of her left eye. Blast also seems to bother her somewhat. She is Italian like me and has a problem with people telling her what she can and cannot do with her handicaps. Combined with a healthy doseage of Italian machisma (female version) she gravitated to the .45 ACP Glocks very very quickly. Recoil, blast, and flash are not an issue for her with the .45s, but I am worried about the .40 S&W's blast and flash. Once she discovered that men and women, handicapped or otherwise, shot on the same match in most events she has been hooked on learning to shoot.
After experiementing with many combinations, I found that when actually firing a pistol she does best using the distal joint of her trigger finger as opposed to the pad of it. Her hands are such that she is able to grasp the Glock 22 comfortably with one hand with her distal joint resting on the "trigger extension" that deactivates the Glocks triple safety system to ready the gun for firing. On the Glocks 21 and 30 (same width of grip) she is able to hold both guns comfortably in one hand with the pad of her trigger finger resting squarely on the "trigger extension" and without adjusting her grip her distal joint easily touches the actual trigger once this extension has been depressed for firing.
Given the above, would you say the Glocks 21 and 30 fit her hand adequately or are close enough that a judicious grip reduction job from Robar (or other such companies) would be in order?
Given her trigger reach on the Glocks 21 and 30, what portion of the grip would you suggest adjusting (if necessary) knowing that both guns point dead on for her with the standard size grips?
She is the type of woman who would rather have the larger .45 and make it fit rather than buying a .40 S&W with a smaller grip. Further, I have some serious concerns about the much higher pressure of the .40 S&W and the resulting increase in blast as well as flash given her epillepsy. Every woman I have tested seems to find the .45 ACP far less objectionable than the .40 S&W in blast and muzzle flash.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Thank you so much for the input.
I'd apologize for being offensive, but I'm not really sure what part did you found offensive. I pretty much said the same things as what I wrote here to you in person on Sunday (when she was shooting MY Glocks), and you didn't seem offended then. I'll admit to being somewhat confused. You state that "he does not know my student or her needs at all," yet I'm the only person in this whole thread who has met her in person. Granted, I don't know her as well as you do, but I've had a couple conversations with her, so I don't feel as if I'm speaking completely out of ignorance.
