Good carry piece for girl[space...]friend

[spencer60]

Like so many have said... take her to a range that rents a selection of guns and spend a couple of hours there trying them out.

Then, before she gets her permit back in the mail, get her to sign up for an intro class. There are lots of good classes in the area for new shooters, and she will learn a heck of a lot more in an organized setting than just taking her out to 'go shooting'.

In fact I would suggest one of the many 'women's only' courses as a starting point. Any competent instructor will tell you that teaching women is very different than trying to teach men. These single-sex courses typically work better for new shooters than having a bunch of guys out there all trying to 'help'.

 

[Smoothie]

My wife just went through a class with the perfect female instructor. Groupon so you both go and get free rental. Try everything.

Where at?

 

[Thomas Eeyore]

New shooter (KISS) 38 special or I would rent a G43 or G19 for her. But most of all see if she the commonsense to carry a gun and the attitude that the gun is the last option not the first.

 

[Megawolf]

Where at?

The Groupon was for another place. The instructor Jenny from Norcross Gun Club (Near Peachtree Corners) was amazing according to my wife. She had a private lessons @ $200. She said she laughed the whole time. More importantly she went from apprehensive to enthusiastic. Worth every penny. She's going to do the part 2 class with a group......women only group.

 

[titan2k10]

Kahr
/Endthread

 

[BNB]

Go to Trigger Time rent some guns and shoot

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

The lighter a gun is, and the smaller of a grip it has, the more recoil and muzzle flip it will have in any given caliber.
A 9 x 19mm round out of a Beretta M9 is a cream puff, but that same 9mm round out of a Ruger LC9 will feel very different.

I'd suggest erring on the side of "too big" for now, with emphasis on letting her get comfortable shooting handguns and learning a proper draw, presentation to the target, sight alignment, and trigger pull.
Look for guns weighing 20-30 oz. empty and with at least 3.2" barrels up to about 4.2" barrel length.
Good sights, decent trigger pulls. Nothing that's "Double Action Only" unless the trigger pull weight is less than seven pounds and it feels good in her hand.

Later, if she complains that while she likes "shooting" this medium-sized gun, she doesn't like carrying it or trying to conceal it on her body, THEN go gun shopping again for something smaller.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

The best advice in this thread is to have HER try a lot of guns before you buy one.
Rent them at gun ranges and shoot them.
Every gun range I've been to that has rental guns will let you swap-out one for another, no extra charge.
Pay $10 to "rent" a handgun and then you can test-fire every handgun in their rental fleet that's available at that time.
The only significant expense is that they expect you to buy their ammo, new, from that store. You can't use your own ammunition in a rental gun.
The last time I did this, I chose to only make it a "9mm" rental day. I got one box of the range's overpriced ammo ($18 for 50 rounds or something like that) and then paid one rental fee $10, which ended up getting me 3 different compact 9mm pistols, which I fired about 17 times each. Enough to give me a good "feel" for the gun.

 

[spencer60]

Norcross (and the currently closed) Sandy Springs Gun Club do quite a few 'women's' courses, since they both share female owners. I believe Sharpshooters in Alpharetta also has this type of class.

 

[ncrinc12]

Never met a lady that liked the LCP. Would go with the LCR or if she wants to stick with .380 a Glock 42