For slide racking, have all the alternatives been addressed? Technique might be able to overcome it. https://www.corneredcat.com/ar...-gun/rack-the-slide/

Only handled a Shield EZ but if you decide to go handgun it would be a top choice. I personally would go 20 gauge shotgun myself. I don’t see how it wouldn’t work. You load the tube and leave the chamber empty. It’s as safe and easy to hit with as you are going to get. Perhaps a PCC in some flavor that she can manipulate. I missed how experienced she is but handguns are hard to hit with compared to a shotgun or long gun.

As for tip up 22 Berettas. I love them. Own a couple. They have a stiff DA pull and they can be finicky. Think Ruger LCR in 327. Not a horrible choice either. No recoil to speak of, can tailor load up and down the 327 spectrum, pretty good trigger out of box, relatively cheap purchase, utterly reliable.

My 83 year old father called me a few months ago asking about a HD gun. He wanted something a little easier to deal with than his Redhawk .44Mag. He's never been comfortable with semi-autos although I've tried over the years to help him get over that, he prefers a revolver. He thought he wanted a J-frame size gun until I took him out to shoot my model 36. He liked my 4" model 66 a LOT better so in the end I gave him that along with a few boxes of .38 125gr Gold Dots and some practice ammo. He and Mom are both in the high-risk group for Covid so they're being extremely cautious about going outside, but he's been wanting to get out and work with the 66 now.

Mom's afraid of guns.

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Originally posted by adobesig:
Maybe buckshot in the .410. Three OO buck per shot in a soft shooting package. Depending on her abilities she might be better of than with a pistol.

Good place to start

FN, and probably other 57s, are easy to rack, and light, as well.

Depending on how frail she is, holding the gun steady could be an issue.

Some kind of 9mm carbine. Can easily get an extended mag. Easy to rack. Beretta cx4 comes to mind but a cheap ole hipoint wouldnt be bad either. They shoot. Not, not very straight but it within a house will be fine. You can get extended mags and load them up for her. That would be the hardest part.

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I’m surprised no one has suggested a 16 or 20 gauge shotgun.

I have read that 20-gauge shotguns are usually downsized proportionate to the smaller gauge, therefore the lower weight offsets the reduced recoil. It would need to be a semi-auto, as someone with arm/hand strength issues may have a hard time with a pump. And 16-gauge anything - guns or shells - is nearly non-existent.

I think that 410 double is a pretty good choice. The problem with 22 revolvers is the trigger is usually heavier than a centerfire version.

Maybe a Ruger charger? Or a .327 that could be downloaded with one of the other calibers it can shoot. A Ruger 22/45 might work. Or the EZ pistol seems like a good choice.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:

As for tip up 22 Berettas. I love them. Own a couple. They have a stiff DA pull and they can be finicky. Think Ruger LCR in 327. Not a horrible choice either. No recoil to speak of, can tailor load up and down the 327 spectrum, pretty good trigger out of box, relatively cheap purchase, utterly reliable.

You can get the tip up Berettas in 32 auto and 380 auto too, if you feel a 22lr might not be quite enough.

Used Beretta 81s were so cheap recently that I offered to leave my mother a couple of cocked-and-locked 81s with full mags. She thought keeping .32s handy would mean that she's "old", so she stuck with the tip-up 86 I bought her a couple of years ago.

Depending on what kind of price you can get (there are a few beaten-up examples out there that still seem to be good shooters), maybe a pair of cocked and locked 84s would be a good solution? That would (hopefully) obviate any need to pull a double-action trigger, load mags, hand-cycle slides or do anything else that may require more hand strength than your mother may have available on demand.

Rifle: Ruger 10/22 and factory 10 round mags loaded with CCI Mini-Mags.

Pistol: Ruger LCR .22lr (8 shot revolver) loaded with CCI Mini-Mags or Stingers.

This has probably been mentioned before, but;
The same folks that have issues with racking a G19 slide will probably have issue with a 10-12 lb double action trigger pull.

I would recommend a loaded, chambered G19 or even 17.
A full size, reliable handgun.
Big enough to get a good grip on.
Heavy enough to soak up recoil
Enough ammo on board to mitigate the need to reload.
And a simple enough manual of arms to not require remembering to arm or disarm a safety. When you’re done shooting, you simply take your finger off the trigger.

One of the issues I’ve run into with “training” people fairly new to guns is that if they have shot before, they don’t what to do with the gun when they’re done shooting.
I had a couple ladies out preparing for their LTC course. I learned that when they had shot before, there was always a husband, boyfriend, etc. that would take the gun from them when they finished a string of fire.
They had to be taught that they could lay the gun down on their own.

Regardless of the tool you and your mom choose, I wish her strength in fighting her battles on all fronts.

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Originally posted by SIG228:

...Pistol: Ruger LCR .22lr (8 shot revolver) loaded with CCI Mini-Mags or Stingers.

That is what Mrs. Sigmund (age 72) has for her HD gun, with mini mags. Her reload is under that in the same drawer, a used police 38 with wadcutters. It's not a perfect set-up, but it's better than harsh words. And very, very simple.

She will never be a gun person, she comes to the range with me maybe 3x/year in the warmer weather. She can shoot and reload the revolvers, but she doesn't get anywhere near the practice most of us do.

A good friend of mine is an NRA pistol instructor in NE PA, and he has told me that his students who have weak hand / finger strength for whatever reason find that the full-size 9 mm Bersa (not sure what model at the time) is easy to rack for them and easy to hold because of the full length grip.

Has anyone recommended a .22 WMR revolver yet?

I would suggest a Ruger SR1911 in 9mm. I have Arthritis in both thumbs and the radial head of both wrists, so racking a semi can be quite painful. The recoil spring on the 9mm Ruger is weak enough that I can rack the slide without any pain at all. In addition the recoil is VERY mild, so mild it almost feels like a 22 caliber semi. As for the size of the grip, it does border on large but thinner grip panels are available and so is a shorter trigger. It's on aspect of the 1911 that is hard to duplicate in any other pistol. It's a platform that's been around long enough that there is a near infinite array of easy to install custom features.

IMO too many people go straight to small pistols when a woman is involved and IMO that is a big mistake. The simple fact is that larger and heavier handguns will have less felt recoil than a pocket sized handgun. In addition semi autos with a small light weight slide will require much stronger recoil springs to provide reliable long lasting function. IT ends up stacking up all the force factors into an alignment that just doesn't match up well with someone with limited hand and wrist strength. If you not fond of a 1911 then have them try out a full sized Glock or something similar in 9mm.

I have rotator cuff issues in both shoulders and sometimes racking the slide can be a problem. I recently purchased a Mossberg 930 SPX. That eliminates the problem of racking a pump action shotgun. The reduced power load Federal 00 buckshot would in theory work well. I have only tried it with full power Federal buckshot so far. I'm not sure how reliable it would be with the light load. I hear it works fine but I didn't want to take a chance on it being unreliable.

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Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by SIG228:

...Pistol: Ruger LCR .22lr (8 shot revolver) loaded with CCI Mini-Mags or Stingers.

That is what Mrs. Sigmund (age 72) has for her HD gun, with mini mags. Her reload is under that in the same drawer, a used police 38 with wadcutters. It's not a perfect set-up, but it's better than harsh words. And very, very simple.

She will never be a gun person, she comes to the ranrge with me maybe 3x/year in the warmer weather. She can shoot and reload the revolvers, but she doesn't get anywhere near the practice most of us do.

No hammer to mess with, really good trigger for a "double action" revolver, and 8 rounds HV .22lr is nothing to sneeze at.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob RI:
My LGS sells a ton of M&P Shield EZ’s to older folks. I’ve never tried one myself.

My thought as well. The EZ line is designed with folks that have weak hand strength.