the naked prophet
Member
Depending on whether a SA EMP pistol fits her hand, my wife can't find a major caliber (9mm on up, though the .40 is her favorite) carry gun that is small enough for her hand. If you want to, I'm sure you can find the thread on it from a few weeks ago. Long story short, any pistol with a DA trigger is too big for her, including J-frame sized revolvers.
A full-size 1911 is about 1/4 inch too big for her to get her hands on. We're hoping that the EMP (short-frame 1911 in 9mm) will work for her, but based on measurements from SA, I'm not sure it's gonna work.
So she said to me "you've got a degree in mechanical engineering, why don't you design a gun for me?" So I thought I'd just play around with it and see what I come up with. I do see a lot of threads about women who can't find a gun that fits their small hands. And engraving "Lady Smith" onto a man's gun doesn't make it a woman's gun. Therefore, I'm toying with the idea of designing a woman's pistol from the ground up.
She gave me several things that must be on her pistol.
The pistol must be single-action. She likes my Browning Hi-Power trigger, and the trigger on a 1911, as well as her Colt 1903 hammerless and new Beretta 1934. All single action.
The pistol must have removable grip panels. She likes the idea of changing the style, color, and fit of the grip, like the 1911 and basically all the other guns she likes.
The magazine must be single stack. Any double stack mag is just too big for her hands.
The slide must have a rounded top, like the 1911 or BHP or 1903 or Beretta, not ugly like the Glock or Kahr.
The pistol should be striker fired instead of hammer fired, though this is negotiable.
It is this last item which causes me problems. Most striker-fired pistols are DAO or at most partially-cocked. How would you cock the striker on the forward slide stroke without soaking up too much of the slide momentum which ensures proper chambering?
In a hammer fired pistol, the hammer helps delay unlocking and is cocked as the slide moves back, and the slide moving forward is impeded only by the chambering of a round - essentially all the momentum of the slide is available to push the round into the chamber. However, in a cock-on-closing striker fired pistol, the striker would be cocked as the slide closes, using up the same momentum which should be ensuring that the round is chambered.
But then, a hammer fired pistol can have a weaker recoil spring because the hammer helps delay the unlocking, so the weaker recoil spring chambering the round is exactly the same as the stronger striker-pistol recoil spring being partially cancelled out by the cocking striker.
Of course, that leaves us with a striker fired pistol with a slide that is tougher to rack than the hammer fired pistol. As pax has pointed out though, it still shouldn't be a problem.
Gee, it seems that I answered my own question just by thinking it through enough to type it out. Thanks everyone for your help!
So... any suggestions?
A full-size 1911 is about 1/4 inch too big for her to get her hands on. We're hoping that the EMP (short-frame 1911 in 9mm) will work for her, but based on measurements from SA, I'm not sure it's gonna work.
So she said to me "you've got a degree in mechanical engineering, why don't you design a gun for me?" So I thought I'd just play around with it and see what I come up with. I do see a lot of threads about women who can't find a gun that fits their small hands. And engraving "Lady Smith" onto a man's gun doesn't make it a woman's gun. Therefore, I'm toying with the idea of designing a woman's pistol from the ground up.
She gave me several things that must be on her pistol.
The pistol must be single-action. She likes my Browning Hi-Power trigger, and the trigger on a 1911, as well as her Colt 1903 hammerless and new Beretta 1934. All single action.
The pistol must have removable grip panels. She likes the idea of changing the style, color, and fit of the grip, like the 1911 and basically all the other guns she likes.
The magazine must be single stack. Any double stack mag is just too big for her hands.
The slide must have a rounded top, like the 1911 or BHP or 1903 or Beretta, not ugly like the Glock or Kahr.
The pistol should be striker fired instead of hammer fired, though this is negotiable.
It is this last item which causes me problems. Most striker-fired pistols are DAO or at most partially-cocked. How would you cock the striker on the forward slide stroke without soaking up too much of the slide momentum which ensures proper chambering?
In a hammer fired pistol, the hammer helps delay unlocking and is cocked as the slide moves back, and the slide moving forward is impeded only by the chambering of a round - essentially all the momentum of the slide is available to push the round into the chamber. However, in a cock-on-closing striker fired pistol, the striker would be cocked as the slide closes, using up the same momentum which should be ensuring that the round is chambered.
But then, a hammer fired pistol can have a weaker recoil spring because the hammer helps delay the unlocking, so the weaker recoil spring chambering the round is exactly the same as the stronger striker-pistol recoil spring being partially cancelled out by the cocking striker.
Of course, that leaves us with a striker fired pistol with a slide that is tougher to rack than the hammer fired pistol. As pax has pointed out though, it still shouldn't be a problem.
Gee, it seems that I answered my own question just by thinking it through enough to type it out. Thanks everyone for your help!
So... any suggestions?
