Carry gun for wife
- Thread starter Kensterfly
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MichiganScott
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Who's idea is it that your wife carries?
Your responses leave me with the feeling that it may not be her idea. If it isn't, even the Jennings is a bad idea. I just hope that you have maintained it and changed the ammo out in the past 29 years.
flagman1776
Member
I have one of those Jennings... Good thing to have if you don't have a real gun. (Shootem in the nuts & run! That should slow 'em up!)
OP
Kensterfly
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She has no problem having a car gun. I got her the Jennings long ago and she liked it. Shot it quite a bit back then. Still carries it occasionally in her purse but mostly leaves it in the console. I'm not forcing anything on her but have been discussing with her my thoughts on upgrading to something a little bigger and more effective to tote around with her. She is not adverse to that but it is not something she would do on her own.
oneounceload
Member
Maybe both of you should also read thecorneredcat.com Written by a woman for women and the men in their lives who think they know what their wives should carry....
Carry Gun for My Wife
Model 37 is a great gun for a wife to consider -- except for one thing. Is it not vulnerable to range use due to the sensitivity of the light metal parts? If that's the case, then, doesn't using another, even similar gun, to practice regularly make the Model 37 subordinate to the gun used to develop proficiency? So, while my wife also likes the Model 37, I'm about to introduce her to the 9mm Shield. That pistol will take some extended range time and, as well, gives a couple of extra bullets to impose.
Model 37 is a great gun for a wife to consider -- except for one thing. Is it not vulnerable to range use due to the sensitivity of the light metal parts? If that's the case, then, doesn't using another, even similar gun, to practice regularly make the Model 37 subordinate to the gun used to develop proficiency? So, while my wife also likes the Model 37, I'm about to introduce her to the 9mm Shield. That pistol will take some extended range time and, as well, gives a couple of extra bullets to impose.
if you go j frame, a model 38 or 638 would be a lightweight gun to carry. they aren't a lot of fun to shoot,but sounds like this gun is not for normal range use anyway. wadcutters are just the ticket for low reoil ammo too.they cut nice round holes in targets also.
nocents
Member
weight of the carry gun seems to be the no.1 issue with the women that I know that carry....my wife is carrying her Ruger SP101 2.25 less because of its heft...she loves to shoot it with .38 loads...but doesn't do her any good left at home....an Airweight or LCR may have to take its place....she wont go near a semi-auto
Perhaps you can narrow it down a bit? I went to the link and it was nothing but a bunch of links to other links.
I still stand by what I said - you need to let her try many different models and choose for herself. This same advice has been given by many, many well respected gun advocates and recognized instructors.
flagman1776
Member
An airweight is a premium gun. If it's going to be a car gun, then really no reason for an airweight. There are lots of snubbies out there which are in fine mechanical shape but finish challenged... Wax the exterior. A film of Breakfree CLP in the bore & chambers... or do all the metal surfaces with CLP. Just leave a film. Any barrel length 2", 2.5", 3" HB or extractor shroud add weigh & improve the shootability.
Now the alloy surfaces of an airweight won't rust but the rest of the gun will... unless you turn up nickel or an aftermarket finish. I've always had a thing about Armaloy.
As per our PMs, the Jennings "problem" is the safety is hard to work. For car carry... condition 2, chamber empty / safety off, mag in gun. There's not a lot of gun to get a hold of. Mine feeds well... with good hard or plated bullets, not soft exposed lead.
I'm looking for a compact 22LR pistol with DAO action.
Now the alloy surfaces of an airweight won't rust but the rest of the gun will... unless you turn up nickel or an aftermarket finish. I've always had a thing about Armaloy.
As per our PMs, the Jennings "problem" is the safety is hard to work. For car carry... condition 2, chamber empty / safety off, mag in gun. There's not a lot of gun to get a hold of. Mine feeds well... with good hard or plated bullets, not soft exposed lead.
I'm looking for a compact 22LR pistol with DAO action.
Hi all, I'm relatively new here, but I've been lurking here for a couple of years.
For what it's worth, and I know this is a S&W forum, but I'm hugely impressed with my Ruger LCR. The Hogue grips fit a wide variety of hands. I have the .357 version, which is four ounces heavier than the .38 version, but still only weighs 17 oz. unloaded. It's controllable with .357 rounds and very controllable with .38s.
The model 12 sounds wonderful, as long as it has grips that fit your wife's hands, don't shift under recoil, and are comfortable.
I hope you and she have the opportunity to shoot a lot of different handguns. In my own experience, some guns feel great in the hand until I pull the trigger -- then the recoil is sharp, or some portion of the grip digs into my hand and causes abrasions or some other flaw shows up.
Regards,
-Drew
For what it's worth, and I know this is a S&W forum, but I'm hugely impressed with my Ruger LCR. The Hogue grips fit a wide variety of hands. I have the .357 version, which is four ounces heavier than the .38 version, but still only weighs 17 oz. unloaded. It's controllable with .357 rounds and very controllable with .38s.
The model 12 sounds wonderful, as long as it has grips that fit your wife's hands, don't shift under recoil, and are comfortable.
I hope you and she have the opportunity to shoot a lot of different handguns. In my own experience, some guns feel great in the hand until I pull the trigger -- then the recoil is sharp, or some portion of the grip digs into my hand and causes abrasions or some other flaw shows up.
Regards,
-Drew
Art Doc
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
"Carry gun for wife"
I think you should let her carry it for herself. Wait...
I think you should let her carry it for herself. Wait...
hotrod150
Member
I had a Jennings J22 about 30 years ago, when I was young and dumb(er). No offense but what a ***. The safety always wanted to slide it self off so I removed it, and carried it with an empty chamber. Had a lot of failures to feed, in spite of keeping it clean and trying a bunch of different ammo. Finally had a bellyful of it when it fired without the slide being all the way into battery-- it blew out the side of the cartridge case and sprayed powder out, scaring the **** out of me while it was at it. Although I'd spent big money on it (about a hunnert bucks as I recall), I cut it in two with a hacksaw and threw the pieces into a couple different dumpsters and figured I came out ahead.
flagman1776
Member
J22, $73, 12/86 NIB Agree safety hard to work.
A buddy had a fine Llama mini-1911... I bought one. Mine looked pretty but rattled when shook. Accuracy was such that a dangerous coke can would be very safe at plinking ranges... hitting it would be a total accident. I dumped it. If I'd had my lathe then, I'd have turned a good bushing for it & welded up & re-machined the barrel lug.
A buddy had a fine Llama mini-1911... I bought one. Mine looked pretty but rattled when shook. Accuracy was such that a dangerous coke can would be very safe at plinking ranges... hitting it would be a total accident. I dumped it. If I'd had my lathe then, I'd have turned a good bushing for it & welded up & re-machined the barrel lug.
oneounceload
Member
Contents | Cornered Cat
scroll down to section on Choosing Firearms and also look at some of the other sections, especially on running the gun
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Having trained a wife, a couple of daughters, and a bunch of other women while teaching a ladies pistol class, I can tell you without doubt that women are: (1) easier to train as they do not arrive with pre-conceived notions of how to shoot from having watched too many action movies; (2) not nearly as concerned about make, model and type of action as men - women preferring instead the feel and comfort of the weapon; (3) not at all worried about things that men get all hot and bothered about, such as "cocked and locked," striker-fired pistols with short, light triggers without external safeties, etc. - mainly because no one has ever suggested there is any reason to be concerned about such things; (4) not likely to want to switch from one gun to another because they saw it in a movie, saw it on a forum, or in a magazine.
I have had uniformly good results setting a "power floor" (i.e. 9mm in autos and 38 Special in revolvers), after which I give a brief explanation that most gun accidents occur during "administrative handling." I explain that "thinking" a gun is unloaded is different than a gun actually being unloaded, and that accidents occur when new shooters think the gun is unloaded and it is not. I then show them that with both revolver and auto, there are two steps to unload. Revolver is open cylinder and eject cartridges from charge holes. Auto is remove magazine and then eject any round from the chamber. Two steps for both, and the auto MUST occur in that order. It always seems that the "light goes on" when they understand WHY the magazine MUST come out first. Easy to remember. Two steps each.
Finally, they shoot the following: M&P in 9 and .40, Glock in 9 and .40, J frame 642, S&W K frame 10 or 64, Colt 1911 in .45 ACP, Browning HP, and maybe some others. I have been doing this long enough that Colt revolvers used to be in this mix (Detective Special and Agent, DS-II, etc.) and before Glock and M&Ps existed.
I have not had any woman select a revolver of any make or description in well over 20 years of this type of process. I always ask what made the decision. Uniformly, it is that the pistol felt better in the hand, had less perceived recoil and a better trigger.
Since Glocks have been in the mix, I have never had a woman select anything else until M&Ps came along. Now, Glocks and M&Ps get the nod, Glock slightly more often because women seem to have heard of Glock. Caliber selection is uniformly 9mm.
The process that goes on in this process is fascinating, and without doubt, the husbands and boyfriends uniformly select what THEY want or what THEY want their wife to carry, and it almost never matches the wife's or girlfriend's selection.
As to the complexity of an auto - well Glock and M&P work like revolvers - they are safe if dropped and they FIRE when you pull the trigger. Given some of the people trained and certified in our police academies and schools, it is not for me to say that a girlfriend or housewife with average intelligence is too stupid to operate a simple auto like a Glock or an M&P.
Just my thoughts.
And, that said, the OP said his wife was not into autos. That being the case, I find no cause to criticize the choice of his/her Model 10/12 with 2 inch barrel. I especially like the fact that the OP has put thought into it and can explain the choice with good reasoning.
Good choice.
I have had uniformly good results setting a "power floor" (i.e. 9mm in autos and 38 Special in revolvers), after which I give a brief explanation that most gun accidents occur during "administrative handling." I explain that "thinking" a gun is unloaded is different than a gun actually being unloaded, and that accidents occur when new shooters think the gun is unloaded and it is not. I then show them that with both revolver and auto, there are two steps to unload. Revolver is open cylinder and eject cartridges from charge holes. Auto is remove magazine and then eject any round from the chamber. Two steps for both, and the auto MUST occur in that order. It always seems that the "light goes on" when they understand WHY the magazine MUST come out first. Easy to remember. Two steps each.
Finally, they shoot the following: M&P in 9 and .40, Glock in 9 and .40, J frame 642, S&W K frame 10 or 64, Colt 1911 in .45 ACP, Browning HP, and maybe some others. I have been doing this long enough that Colt revolvers used to be in this mix (Detective Special and Agent, DS-II, etc.) and before Glock and M&Ps existed.
I have not had any woman select a revolver of any make or description in well over 20 years of this type of process. I always ask what made the decision. Uniformly, it is that the pistol felt better in the hand, had less perceived recoil and a better trigger.
Since Glocks have been in the mix, I have never had a woman select anything else until M&Ps came along. Now, Glocks and M&Ps get the nod, Glock slightly more often because women seem to have heard of Glock. Caliber selection is uniformly 9mm.
The process that goes on in this process is fascinating, and without doubt, the husbands and boyfriends uniformly select what THEY want or what THEY want their wife to carry, and it almost never matches the wife's or girlfriend's selection.
As to the complexity of an auto - well Glock and M&P work like revolvers - they are safe if dropped and they FIRE when you pull the trigger. Given some of the people trained and certified in our police academies and schools, it is not for me to say that a girlfriend or housewife with average intelligence is too stupid to operate a simple auto like a Glock or an M&P.
Just my thoughts.
And, that said, the OP said his wife was not into autos. That being the case, I find no cause to criticize the choice of his/her Model 10/12 with 2 inch barrel. I especially like the fact that the OP has put thought into it and can explain the choice with good reasoning.
Good choice.
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So many good thoughts above - let me just add a couple.
First, on any Model 12, snub or 4 inch - wadcutters will work, so will the new light recoiling ammunition from Hornady (it has a pink box and pink plastic in the otherwise hollow point - - supports the "pink" cause, and to ensure that you KNOW exactly what it is). Model 12s are in the shoot a little, carry a lot category, just like lightweight J-frames.
Second, there is no doubt that a Colt Cobra is perfect for the purposes described. Lightweight, same size as a J-frame with 6 shots - but good luck finding one or finding one not exorbitantly priced.
Third - for any J-frames -
That's a very important lesson. Airweight J-frames are incredibly easy to conceal and to carry but to retain the ability to get off a second shot in a self defense situation you cannot load them hot. It's a bad, tactical error.
Fourth - if the "carry" is car carry only, if the Missus is not going to purse carry or holster carry, the key is the size of the console or glove compartment. I carried a 2" K-frame in my vehicles for years - no problem. J-frames, of course, are even easier.
***GRJ***
First, on any Model 12, snub or 4 inch - wadcutters will work, so will the new light recoiling ammunition from Hornady (it has a pink box and pink plastic in the otherwise hollow point - - supports the "pink" cause, and to ensure that you KNOW exactly what it is). Model 12s are in the shoot a little, carry a lot category, just like lightweight J-frames.
Second, there is no doubt that a Colt Cobra is perfect for the purposes described. Lightweight, same size as a J-frame with 6 shots - but good luck finding one or finding one not exorbitantly priced.
Third - for any J-frames -
That's a very important lesson. Airweight J-frames are incredibly easy to conceal and to carry but to retain the ability to get off a second shot in a self defense situation you cannot load them hot. It's a bad, tactical error.
Fourth - if the "carry" is car carry only, if the Missus is not going to purse carry or holster carry, the key is the size of the console or glove compartment. I carried a 2" K-frame in my vehicles for years - no problem. J-frames, of course, are even easier.
***GRJ***
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This is excellent advice that I failed to mention. We are lucky these days to have a wide choice of suitable ammunition available. Perhaps more so for the revolver, as the revolver is not dependent upon a certain power factor to adequately run the slide for proper operation of the mechanism. Back in the day, there were pretty well three power levels in the 38 Special - wadcutter, standard and 38/44. The along came Super-Vel and some others who "shook things up" a bit.
These days, almost all of the manufacturers make "low recoil" ammo for everything from rifles, to shotguns, to handguns, and the choice of ammunition for anyone, regardless of gender, is a big deal because above all, the person carrying or using the weapon must have confidence in his or her ability to do so efficiently, and that is not always accomplished with a cookie cutter approach.
Good thoughts on ammo!
oneounceload
Member
You forgot to mention that that ONLY works when the husband is NOT the one doing the training - no different than your young kid having someone else coach them in Little League
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