When the wife and I hit Austin we acquired a Ruger SP101 for her with a deal that was too good to pass up, namely – we bartered for it (cue the exploding heads at the Brady Bunch).
Anyway, she is now thinking of getting one a bit different and with a smaller frame that fits her hand better. To her, the Ruger is just a bit too large and slightly heavier than she likes so while we were over at Charlie’s the other day she started looking at the pistol case while I headed to the gunsmith to find out why my Browning’s slide had jammed up on me. I had been cleaning it and when I put it all back together and attempted to rack the slide it went half way back and stopped which resulted in me using words that are not acceptable around small children, but lucky for me it was his nap time and he was upstairs. (Turns out that there was no reason, they got it working again and charged me nothing for the service).
Once the guys in the gunsmith shop had worked their magic, which took them less than five minutes, I met up with her and our son Insight near the revolvers and had a very nice talk with the man behind the counter who showed us a number of very sweet pistols. He talked to the wife about calibers, safety features, and how to see if a gun fit the hand and took his time to talk to her instead of the common mistake I have seen (mostly with buying cars) where they talk to the guy like you are making the decisions for her. As he showed her a S&W Model 60 he mentioned on of the nice things about it is that if you crack it upside someone’s head they WILL feel it, which I thought was a good side note on that particular weapon.
In the end, she has narrowed it down to two weapons, though I might point out a third one to her.
The two she like are the S&W Model 60
I like the 60, it’s a good solid pistol without too many frills and has a very comfortable grip to it. Since it’s a .38 and she is a new shooter the recoil would be manageable while still giving her some stopping power.
Plus, the J frame would give me a tax write off since I would be using it to fit for grips.
The other one is the S&W Bodyguard .380
The nice thing about this one is the size. I have never shot a .380 but since Breda uses one I will not make the common mistake of saying something stupid like “That’s too small of a round to stop a mouse!” Mainly because Breda would shove a boot up my ass, but also because any bullet can kill you if you know how to shoot.
The one I would add to the list is the Sig P290
This one is pretty much just like the .380 when it comes to appearance, but the 290 shoots 9mm which fits me just fine, one less type of ammo to buy.
In the end though, it’s her choice so I’m just going to shut up and hand the guy the money.