Looking for Wife a Handgun to Carry

My wife wants a light weight compact handgun to carry with her.. What would you suggest..

Some of the ones she's looking at is the
Charter Arms Pink Lady Series .38 special
Ruger LCP .380 Distributor Exclusive
Ruger LCR .38 Special Pink Revolver Limited Edition

She's not very experienced with guns but is willing to practice. She would rather have a .22 but she doesn't think it will get the job done if she was attacked. Everyone says that it will just piss them off and she may get hurt anyway...

I would suggest you let her decide for herself. Let her shoot a few (rentals) and decide which she likes best. If you don't have the option of renting, let her get the one that feels the best in her hands.

Take her to a range and rent the guns. I'll bet after a few rounds the LCR won't be on the considered list. The LCP is a great pocket pistol. My wife carries one. Not everyone will like it though.

My wife and I both carry an LCP. They are very concealable. The only complaint I have is recoil can be rough on your hands after a while.

Also, I polished the feed ramp on both our guns to make feeding a little more smooth. Hers had issues feeding right out of the box due to tooling marks on the ramp. I didnt want to wait the 500 round break in or whatever they suggest, so I did a quick polish job and it works great.

You may hear complaints about accuracy as well, but I shot a perfect score at my CHL class with it.

I just ordered me a KAHR P380 for pocket carry.
S&W Shield IWB or OWB carry at times. Shield is lighter than the Bersa 380.

I have a taurus tcp that I carry.

just got a tcp in 380 but they are also available in .32 caliber. they are small light weight . I have not shot it but it will be my carry gun. It is about the same size as my Jennings J22 which is a small 22 lr gun.If she is a small lady then a .32 may be the answer. They are hard to get right now like everything else.

How's the kick for them for a woman?
She wants to be able to practice shooting the gun, but I don't want her to not want to practice because it scares her to shoot it...
She watched some youtube videos of the LCP and I think she started getting a little scared because some of those women were reacting to the recoil.

I don't know of a place to rent around here, I'll ask some buddy's and see if they know of any where I can take her to see what she likes!

The smaller they are and the lighter they are, the more recoil will be felt and noticed.
The Bersa is a 20oz gun in 380 so it is heavier than a Beretta NANO, S&W Shield or a Ruger LC9.

Check out the Taurus 605 5 shot 38/357. Used to have one that it was tiny ... then some punk broke into my car. Still miss that weapon.

where do you live?

+1 for the Ruger LCP. I got my wife one and she loves it. She is a real estate agent and the LCP is great for deep conceal. I also got her a Sneaky Peat Holster which looks like a "bigger" iPhone case.

firstshot

The best thing to do is to let her try a number of different guns until she finds one she likes and can shoot comfortably. Anything that doesn't match those criteria is unlikely to get carried as much as it should, if at all.

Best advice is what's been said. It's your wife's gun so let her choose. How would you like it if she chose your gun for you? Rent the guns and let her decide.

She's decided she only wants a .22... Looks like we're getting the Taurus PT-22... and of course Academy carries it with Pink handles so that's the one we're getting!

I think they had some feeding issues back when. Do some research before jumping on it.

run cci mini-mags or stingers +p ammo, round nose, no hollow points. pull the slide lots, keep it clean and oiled. it will be a good gun after you break it in. my brothers girlfriend likes hers stainless and wood grips

sig p238

I always thought a judge would be perfect for a female

LCR is one good gun

They did. I've got the Beretta M21. Yes, it's more money then the Taurus, but it runs like a champ.

Be careful you don't fall into the groove of "it looks good in my
hands" and get something that will do the job that she can fire accurately..I just gave a lady and her boyfriend shooting lessons
this past weekend w/a 308 AR10 and a Kimber Stainless 45 ACP..she
shot better than the guy, although flinched some..due to old memorys from her father having her shoot a SS 12ga that kicked her down as a child..Strange how many think things like that are
funny..Anyway, don't downgrade just because of her sex..DD

IMO ... Do not under estimate the 22 LR

I wouldn't want to get shot with one, but still. Heck, I've been shot with a BB gun and it kinda smarted. But I still would NEVER permit my wife to carry a .22 for defense. The .32s and .380s are questionable enough...

If she doesn't have much experiance with guns get her a .38spc. or .357mag revolver. take her to the gunstore and let her choose it. Just my opinion.

You'd be surprised, in a short barrel like a 3" which is common on carry guns, some of the .380+P ammo has a decent amount more muzzle energy than .38spc.
I wouldn't recommend a .357 Mag as a carry gun for a woman who isn't experienced with firearms. Anything small and light enough to carry in .357 has substantial recoil.

TCP in 32 cal would be good

Loaded,

You do know that is pretty much common knowledge that you can shoot .38sp out of a .357 magnum don't you? She can start with .38sp and work her way up to .357mag if she wants to.

Yes, I have several revolvers and I'm quite aware of that, thanks.

I still contend that a short barreled, lightweight .357 is not the ideal thing for a woman to carry because of the recoil. Some women may be fine with it, but this is based on my experience with female shooters. A person has to be confident with the gun they carry as well as being able to control the gun, not flinch and jerk the trigger, and manage the recoil to make accurate shots and quick followup shots.

At least for me, the weight of a carry gun is very important. Heavier guns tend not to get carried all the time, which somewhat defeats the purpose of having a CHL. I know it's an extremely lightweight example, but have you ever shot a scandium S&W .357 snub nose with full power loads? It's brutal.

With the reliability of little .380 autos being much improved these days and packing more punch than a short barreled .38sp, I was pointing out that in my opinion .380 autos are worth looking at.

So my point was that for most women .357 is a bit much and .380 could be a better option than .38sp in a small package.

I do agree with you on the simplicity of operation of a revolver for a new shooter compared to an auto, but anyone that carries should be putting in plenty of practice with whatever gun they choose anyway.

Ruger LCP .380 Distributor Exclusive is my vote for her

Well, no one Besides you would assume she had to start out shooting .357 mag. If you'd bother to look, there are some nice .357 mags out there and they are for women. and the nice thing is that with the .357 mag. there would be a nice range of loads to chose from from .38sp to .357 mag. She would be able to chose a load she would be comfortable with and be able to upgrade loads as she gets more experiance without having to buy another gun everytime she turns around, but then again someone with your limited intelligence who thinks neveryoneelses opinion isn't worth anything would fail to see that.