I'm narrowing down some gun choices for a medium sized woman with medium sized woman's hands, prob a little short in finger length, who wants to arm herself and home for emergencies one could possibly use a gun for in a SD situation, and possibly CC as well. This woman's hands are strong because of her vocation and running a farm with large animals, so hand strength is not an issue, but I am aware that some slides might be a little stiff for some women, and some men as well as they get older.

I've purposely chosen the medium sized, or traditional compact sizing for a gun, and avoided Micros and Full Sized guns.

Forgive me if I chose a piece with a highly spring slide, but I did so not knowing one way or the other from lack of personal experience for the choice. With two exceptions, all of the guns are regular strikers. My original thought was to recommend a DA/SA for safety reasons, even though I know they are harder to master, but that mode of action is disappearing, and I've fondled enough of the striker guns to come to learn that some are a little safer than others in terms of trigger characteristics, and in my research did not indicate characteristic "light" breaks for these particular strikers below.

Notwithstanding the possibility of a 7 or 8 shot revolver, how would you vote if you had to choose one of these guns for a woman like this. Note she has already had pistol and rifle Infantry training in the US Army, but I may still be training her further in the finer points of safety, manual of arms muscle memory for her chosen gun, and hitting targets at SD distances.

I did not choose a Glock or HK mostly because I'm not fond of Glocks as good as they are, and I'm not familiar with HK except for a very nice VP9 I rented once at a range, but I just couldn't get past the thumb lever for dropping mags, but that's just me.

Based on the results we will be renting guns and trying them out at local ranges.

Question:
If you can't vote for one of the guns below, please give your recommendations for this lady and explain your choice if you may.

Choices:
Springfield Armory Hellcat Pro (my one Micro exception, I shot it and fell in love)
Springfield Armory Echelon 4.0C
Beretta APX A1 Compact
Walther PDP F-Series Standard 4" ("F" is for female w/reduced grip and slide pull)
M&P 9 M2.0 Metal
CZ 75D PCR Compact
Beretta PX4 Storm Compact
Other-Please explain

 

YOU might not be fond of Glocks, but she might. IMHO everyone is different and pistols feel different in the hand.

G43X with those new unobtainium OEM 15-rd mags would be my choice. But I'd have her try your whole list to see what feels "right".

I have helped several women 40-60 yrs old to learn to shoot. Best thing I can suggest is to start small caliber and work up and to let them try as many different
firearms as possible. Let try full size and smaller guns (in the same caliber) as you work up list of calibers. Helps them understand the difference in recoil.
In my experience they tend to prefer revolvers. The concept of them dealing with jamming on autos is a big turn off.
I always started with .22 then started working up to .32 S&W, .380 and so on.

Renting at the range is the way to go. Your lack of fondness for a brand should not figure into the equation. She should feel what its and then shoot those before buying.

Glock 19 fits my wife like a glove. It's like an extension of her body.

Glock 19 Gen4-6 or M&P9 2.0 compact. Both easy to shoot and you can adjust the size of the grip. My wife took to my Gen3 19 easily with no prior experience and was p/o when I sold it. I replaced it with the M&P9 2.0 compact but we haven’t had the time to let her shoot it.

Edited to add that the suggestion to rent different guns is really the best advice.

I’d suggest the SIG P365 Macro or the Smith and Wesson Shield Plus. Both have good triggers and are easy to shoot with minimal recoil. Small enough to carry but still large enough to shoot well.

I came close to considering a CZ P-10S (subcompact), I thought about the Ruger Max-9 but my LC9s only gives up a few rounds and I love the trigger. The IWI Madada slim elite is a sleeper for sure. I'd be mostly interested in how she intends to carry it, iwb or owb. If she could rock a CZ PCR, if you can find one, then she can probably accommodate anything. A simple no frills p365 or RXM may be a good place to start to see what she can handle. The newer Kahr X9 (optics ready) might tickle her fancy.

As someone who has helped trained many of family and friends especially women I would would not recommend a hammer fired
handgun and instead stick with one of the many striker fired selections.

For the main reason is they are the easiest to get used to for a first time or new shooter. No decocker and or safety to accidentally activate, just rack the slide and pull the trigger. Once you get them up to speed on the rules of gun safety, and never touch the trigger unless you are ready to shoot all the other built in safeties like the trigger safety or drop safety are more than enough to prevent a discharge.

Like what I did is bring your own and more importantly rent everything you can get your hands on to get the best sample size to narrow down what works and what doesn't.

For my Mother she ended liking the HK VP9, it took awhile with the paddle magazine release for her but she has made it her own.

Now the family friend who is now a widow we are still in the process of deciding. She was dead set on thinking smaller the better until she realized they are harder to actuate and shoot. And that holding a pistol with one hand isn't enough to get a feel if it will work for her.

So far she's tried a Glock 19, Echelon 4.5 F Comp, Walther PDP Compact, and a HK VP9 F. She liked the VP9 F the most in every way except for the paddle release. It might be a deal breaker for her. The Walther had the lightest trigger but the blocky slide turned her off a bit. The Echelon seemed to work for her was like what a Glock out of the box should be. Next up is the M&P 4.0 and whatever else the local range has to offer. Kind of running out of choices to choose from.

I always advocate shooting the biggest gun size wise you personally can handle. But at the bare minimum something at least the size of a Glock 19, compact size with at least a 4 inch barrel. Anything smaller is going to be snappy-er to shot.

If possible see if a local gun store or range has a training class for newbies and has an option for them trying out different pistols at the class.

Unless one is decent with the basics of stance/grip/trigger control it is next to impossible to choose a pistol that fits them best. One's trigger reach has a big impact on how well they can shoot a particular pistol. Often a .22 pistol is best to get them started so that the sheer noise and recoil doesn't scare them and give them bad habits. I started my wife on the Browning Buckmark and she became very confident with shooting that.

Good luck. I went through this with my wife a few years back.

Another vote for a P365 series gun..XL or X-Macro would be my suggestion

One choice left off is one of the larger versions of the P365, say, an X or XL (or whatever they call them). Not really a micro-compact, my Ruger Max-9 has been performing well. It has a little more hand-filling grip. I had a PCR and actually was tickled pink with it, and currently have a P-01 and P-07, but am becoming less and less enamored with CZs due to their having so little slide area to grasp. My hand has actually slipped off when it got sweaty. Those other guns are fine, I'm sure, but I have little or no experience. Most important of all is that the gun works for her. Take a look at this website: https://corneredcat.com/contents/

P365X

I've really come to the conclusion it's effectively a modern day Makarov. And while not massively popular in the west the form factor is extremely effective.

wrightd what pistol did the woman train with in the military? Start there with likes and dislikes. As others have suggested try to rent several to test.

My daughter likes a G19. My wife liked a Ruger LCR in 38 special with a red dot grip. Quite a few women & older people have chosen the M&P ez series because of reduced grip strength. I am somewhat surprised at how many find the M&P easy to shoot well.

A friend who is an NRA instructor likes Bersa’s for women as their slides are generally easier to ‘rack’, apparently.

P365 to carry,
P365xl for a house gun.

That being said, I took a bunch of guns and my DIL to the range and she fell in love with my P226. Did not see that coming. Give her a broad range of guns to shoot, and see what she feels good shooting.

First off, military pistol training is useless. Unless you are in very few male only job sets. And of those male only job sets, about 10
Percent of those jobs train it as a primary. Hollywood creates a false impression of SOF units abilities.

With all that being said, the answer is- pick a Glock.

Mrs. slosig went to a local range with Flork and tried several things under his instruction. She landed on a full sized M&P9.

There are a lot of handguns that would work just fine. My suggestion would be to let her try lots of things and decide what she likes. If she gets into it, this likely won’t be the last anyway.

Glock 43X or 48. Or an LCR.

Going against the grain… A .357 magnum revolver, using .38 for training.

No slide racking, approaching zero failures and simple order of arms!

quote:

Note she has already had pistol and rifle Infantry training in the US Army

quote:

First off, military pistol training is useless.

As noted, military training with handguns is a joke.
My Marine best friend fired his 1911 ONCE in training…and he was being sent to Viet Nam in the later stages of the war.
YOU may not like Glocks but SHE just might. They work ALL THE TIME. Rent one, borrow one at the range, find a friend who has a Glock she can borrow.
My wife’s carry is a G26 and her bedside gun is a G19 and she has Rheumatoid Arthritis. The exact opposite of your friends strong hands.
They are a point and bang interface just like a revolver but hold more BBs - reloads are hands down faster also.

Another option is a S&W EZ model in a caliber she can handle.
The only problem is they have a grip safety that some ladies hands can find difficult to use.
(Per an RSO who does “Find your Pew” shoots at my range)