Concealed Carry

[XCR4000]

The Girlfriend wants to get a pistol, that someday she may be able to use for a concealed carry.. I am looking for suggestions looking at spending up to 600-700..... Not sure Semi or revolver....It would need to be small enough to fit in her purse, light too...


Thanks

[Black Majik]

The best reply you may get is.... go to a range and rent as many guns as you can to see what works for her. What looks great on paper doesn't necessarily mean that she may like it.

For a subcompact, theres a G26, Kahr P9 or PM9, Smith j-frame, Ruger SP101, CZ Rami, XD subcompact, M&P subcompact, HK P2000sk. Though, if she's carrying I would recommend on body carry instead of a purse. A purse can be forgotten, stolen or not close enough when she may need it. In short she should be in direct control of a loaded handgun, and purse carry isn't it.

[will227457]

S&W J frame revolver, fits your price range will always go bang...no slide to rack easy to operate

[SONYEXEC]

If your GF is anything like mine I would recommend one of the many lightweight compact size revolvers out there. S&W and Taurus both make very decent lightweight revolvers. As another poster mentioned best practice is to find a range that offers a wide selection of rentals and let her have a go at it.

In my experience the GF was ok with a semi-auto if you loaded the mag & racked the first round for her -- in other words handed her a ready to go gun, just squeeze the trigger. When I told her she's going to have to load the mag, rack the slide, unjam a gun ect ... she didn't like that at all. Nails, hand size & strength all play a big part in female gun selection. Not knowing your GF I am of course just generalizing using my own experience. I know there are some 6ft + women out there with the strength of a 5'5" guy so it's all relative. Truthfully I couldn't imagine my GF having the presence of mind to "unjam" a semi auto if she was in the middle of using it therefore a simple revolver gave me a tad more peace of mind.

Good luck, now your range costs are going to double

[Casual Observer]

My buddy's gf carries a Kahr 9. She's about 5'4", about 120lbs and with a IWB it doesn't print at all.

[XCR4000]

I was leaning to a revolver for the Simplicity of a revolver...... Thanks for the help....

[Miltiades]

Revolvers for women

Most of my experience with handguns for women comes from my wife, who has gone shooting with me frequently and has tried different handguns over the years. She has a definite bias towards revolvers because of their simplicity and ease of loading. She finds many semiautos to be confusing and often has difficulty racking the slide.

She is also recoil sensitive, and prefers guns without excessive recoil. She had an airweight S&W J frame snubby for awhile, but found the recoil to be painful and didn't like it. So I gave her a Colt Detective Special in place of the J frame, and she likes this much better. The Colt is all steel and weighs 6 ounces more than the J frame, so the recoil with .38 ammo is much reduced. She also shoots well with larger S&W revolvers of the K or L frame sizes.

So I would vote for a steel revolver for your girl friend, in a caliber like .38 or .357.