My wife, who enjoys shooting, but prefers to shoot my K-frame, has agreed to take a slightly advanced handgun course with me in about two months.
Revolvers are OK, but it would take five speedloaders to make through each session of 30 rounds. So the instructor has urged me to see about getting her into a semi
She has real issues racking the compact semi and so I am kind of looking at something would be easy to rack, but small enough for a woman's hand.
She did not enjoy the recoil at all of my 9mm Walther PPS and for some reason my 9mm CZ 75B was no joy to shoot.
So my thoughts are possibly an M&P or perhaps a, dare I say, Glock. A glock is actually on my list of "I wannas" along with an M&P.
Any thoughts? What about some of the less expensive S&W semi-autos? Are they reasonably good guns. I am thinking of the Sigma or an SD, which I have never head of.

My wife is fond of the K-frame revolvers also, particularly the round butt ones. The only auto of mine she enjoys is my 639, says it has about the same feel. The added weight from being all steel helps too. Might be something for you to consider.

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Expect no quarter.

Find what fits HER hand and begin from that. When it fits well she will have a reasonable chance of doing well on target.

Why not get some more speedloaders and pouches and let her use what she enjoys? They are not very expensive and are very reliable not to mention fun to use as well.

Randy

I have ordered some speedloaders. If she doesn't end up using the revolver, I hope to use them some day if I start doing some club sports.
I am going to have to take her over to San Antonio - very limited opportunities in our little town to view/handle a variety of guns - and check out our favorite, albeit cluttered gun store over there.
What would be a "steel" equivalent to the sigma. Wish I had bought the 3913 when I had a chance. I think she would have liked the ladysmith.

While I am all for your wife putting any and all potential guns in her hands, I will chime in with a recommendation for the SD9. It is VERY reasonably priced and yet very high quality. The trigger is pretty good but can be made great with a $20 Apex spring kit. Mine has been nothing but accurate and reliable and is quickly becoming my favorite Non-3rd Gen S&W.

My GF loves K frames but her semiauto is a Glock 9mm Model 19. She has small hands and it seems to fit her well. The newer GEN4 Glocks have removable backstraps so that might be an option..

I saw the SD9 at the S&W web site and would like to get my hands on it myself. Wife and I are heading to Nagels in San Antonio this afternoon and will fondle a few guns.
She shot my brother's Glock once, many moons ago, and liked it, but I don't recall what number it was, but I believe it was a 45 caliber. I handled a glock 36L or something like that yesterday and liked it. Did not like the $760 price tag.
Who knows they may have a 3913 in their collection and she can handle that.
I won't make the mistake of going over their with preconceived ideas of what she might or might not like, but will suggest the SD9 and the Sigma as starting points. She may prefer an external safety, which would probably push me to a M&P in the Smith line.

She may like the feel of the M&P. You can adjust the grips if she has small hands. Mine is very comfortable to shoot.

Another possibility (at twice the price) is a Springfield EMP. It is a slightly scaled down 1911 available in 9mm and .40. (avoid the .40, it is snappier). The emp is easy to conceal and really fun to shoot. The magazine on the EMP only holds 9 rounds.

Have her look at/handle a S&W 3913 Lady Smith. Aluminum frame w/ss slide. There are many 9mm loads that are slightly reduced for short barrel guns and those recoil shy.

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Evil, Wicked, Mean & Nasty!

My wife loves her SD9 and shoots well with it. Get her something that feels good in her hands.

I'll add to the pro-SD9 chorus. I've handled several and actually prefer it's feel to the more expensive M&P9. They are certainly worth a close look. I'm not much for polymer handguns but if I were in the market for a home defense-type pistol, the SD9 would probably be my choice over similar weapons from other companies.

One observation though, specifically the instructor concerned about how long a revolver reload will take. In my opinion, that person might not be the best choice in providing your wife's training. A lot of less experienced shooters aren't much faster reloading an autoloader. I've observed this many times, having personally trained upwards of 200 people when I was President of my university's gun club. So I believe the idea your wife will "hold things up" is questionable. I think your trainer is showing some personal bias against the revolver, despite the fact that wheelguns remain excellent defensive arms even in the 21st century. I wonder what other biases may appear in their instruction?

We drove in to our favorite gun store this afternoon where we knew my wife would have a selection.
I kind of backed away to not let my prejudices interfere like has been the case in the past. Kind of set some ground rules - semi, 9mm and one she could comfortably rack. I kind of indicated the Sigma would be a good starting point.
Right out of the bat, my wife could not rack the sigma or the M&P. She tried the ruger SR9 and the LC9. Both were no-goes from just the feel for her and not counting hard racking. She was handed the Walther PPQ and she immediately liked how it pointed and could easily rack it. My hopes were up. The Springfield Xds were no goes. The Beretta Storm was a keeper as well as a Taurus 24x7 long barrel. She did not like the look or the feel of the 3913 (argh).
We were down to the final three - Storm, PPQ and the Taurus. Another salesman mentioned if she had tried the Glocks. They handed her a Gen 4 Model 19. It racked easily and pointed well.
We came home with a Glock.
The instructor we are working with was not dismissing the revolver out of hand. The class is not a defensive handgun course, but shooting sessions would be in blocks of 30 rounds and that means five speedloaders or so.

Well, I am happy and disappointed all at the same time. Happy your wife found a gun the felt good to her, disappointed it had to be the glock. My recomendation would have been the SW99-9. Again, it is her choice alone and that gun will be hers to shoot until your wife gains the proficiency she needs. Wish her well and happy shooting!

Congrats on the new gun, but a friendly word of warning. The Gen4 Glocks have had many many reliability problems (especially in 9mm). Please be sure and break it in thoroughly before you let her trust her life to it. Best of luck.

A little late to the party, but my wife had the same issue and ended up with a Walther PK380, which has to be one of the easiest small semi-autos to rack the slide. Trigger pull is more revolver-ish so that shouldn't be an issue.

Try the Sig P238 great gun and easy to rack and a pleasure to shoot. Small size

I have the same thoughts on this as well. As an Instructor since 1988 I teach the students with what they already have. If the student feels that they want or need something else...fine. But a revolver is at absolutely NO disadvantage even on a 30 round course of fire.

I shoot revolvers in USPSA/IDPA matches and can tell you that I am not giving up any more time in a reload than a magazine feed gun.

As far as the racking the slide problem .....that is simply a technique issue. I have had 10 year old's learn how to do so as well as a quite arthritic 83 year old.

Randy

My wife chose the M&P 9C over both Glock and Sig. She is missing the ring finger on her right hand so she needs a grip long enough to grasp with her pinkie. She wanted a CC gun so she looked at magazine extensions. The S&W mag extension felt best while the Glock "bit" her because the mag jumps. The adjustable grip panels sealed the deal.

You probably already know this so I apologize in advance:
Instead of holding the frame still and pulling the slide toward herself, if she learns to hold the slide steady and push the frame forward it's much easier for anyone with less upper-body strength to rack an auto.

I will say that Luscious is a particular woman, and rented at least 4 or 5 different guns before she made her choice. Took all day and we had a real good time!

In our small burg, we have no options to rent guns before buying and the hour's drive to san antonio makes that a challenge for me during the week holding a full-time job and a couple of part-time jobs. So we went with try every gun and see what felt good approach.
She did try out a sig that she really liked, but it was very compact .380. Easiest gun to rack I have every seen, but not much of a range gun and that is the primary purpose of this gun.
I have heard reference to a recoil spring issue with the gen4 and the instructor we are going to said their experience has been it is resolved with an aftermarket spring. May go ahead and order one above and below the factory 17 pound spring as well as one of the factory weight.
This gun was test fired in August 2011 (I believe - writing this from my office so I don't have the sheet in front of me).
For her first high-powered pistol and going to her first "real" training session, I wanted something she believed she would be comfortable with. Since I am not familiar with the nuances of using speedloaders in such an environment I am not sure how well we could have gotten her comfortable with that between now and the training session. In any event I have three speedloaders for my K-frames coming.
Someone who has been shooting for a while saying they would have no issues rapidly loading a speedloader under the "pressure (which is what my wife will see the class as)" is one thing, but I want this to be as pleasant as possible for her, so she will sign on for some more training.
We are going to some placed called KR training (Austin/Bryan area).
To be honest I wish she had gone with the PPQ or the Beretta Storm, but I let this be her call.

Though there are reports of some Gen4 Glocks with issues, many folks also have guns that run just fine. Don't worry until you try it.
I'm a small female, smallish hands, and I love 9mm Glocks. I wish I didn't shoot them so well, because there are other pistols that I 'like' better.
The Glocks just run and run, practice with the reset on the trigger and they shoot well.
Good luck!

I can see how you were disappointed she didn't choose the Walther since you have a PPS (one in our family as well) and the Walthers are very sweet firearms if you like a striker fired gun.

Like you, I also admire several of the Beretta's.

But the gun that has not been mentioned here that is a real sleeper, and in my opinion one of the very best polymer framed guns out there is the FNP and FNX lineups in 9 mm and 40 S&W.

I'm a 3rd gen guy and prefer metal frames, but my son wanted a second pistol and had looked at a lot. He has a PPS, but also loves shooting my S&W metal 3rd gens. I told him to look at the FN's and he bought an FNP9. One of the easiest racking, sweetest shooting out of the box new pistols made and at a great price. Plus, it's hammer fired, DA/SA, lanyard rings, interchangeable back-straps, etc. Easy shooting, and extremely accurate.

To be honest FNP and FNX are guns I never heard of but hey my preferred semi is not a striker-fired but a CZ 75B, followed by my RIA 1911. The PPS simply filled the bill of a very concealable 9mm that I liked. Take it apart and you would think you were looking at a Glock. I also have an Interarms Walther PPK/s.
But when it comes right down to what I am best at shooting it is my Model 13, followed by my model 65. The wife was pretty good with the 13 as well.

Same thing here, my wife is good with her Mod. 15 but needed an auto for CHL qualification. For some reason none of my 1911's work for her which was surprising since recoil isn't an issue. She wound up with a BHP, it works for her and is kin to the 1911 which I like.

How about a Sig Sauer P225 or P6 (same gun basically).

It should fit her smaller hands, 8+1 capacity, no safety to manipulate, first shot is a simple double action like she's use to. These are great guns and you can still find P6s (German police trade ins) for very resonable prices.

Or perhaps one of Sig Sauers new double action only P250s? Inexpensive and for her should work like a high capacity revolver. And she can pick her frame and barrel size.

Our bedside pistol has for many years been a 3" Model 65 loaded with .38 +P loads. My wife doesn't fear the recoil or muzzle blast and is accurate DA at room-length distances. Not bad for someone who isn't a gun enthusiast and needs some coaxing to get onto a range 2-3 times a year.