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

[Bushwhacker]

My wife shoots a good bit. When she started carrying she wanted something with a manual safety which I tried to convince her otherwise, as it was just for her "peace of mind". Then she shot my G42 I had been carrying. She started carrying it that day and ever since. I told her that I really liked that gun, as one of my EDC's. She said "well you'll have to buy another one, this one is mine now", that's a SCORE. However, when I bought my new one and went to get my sights back, that was a different story all together.

 

[kuduman]

Make sure she can rack the slide... the little .380s can be hard to cock; the pocket nines even more so.

Also the little .380s are very difficult to shoot well at any distance. I'm talking like "difficult for most people to hit a torso at ten feet" kind of difficult. Easy if you're a gun guy, but very difficult otherwise. That's your LCP, Kel-Tec P3AT, and so on.

But as someone else said, she really ought to be a lot more familiar with handguns before she starts carrying one. Find a range with a lot of rental pocket guns, and try some out.

 

[Labowski]

380s suck. I hate them. Get her a small 9mm. I carry a glock 43. Fits in purse easy

 

[GeauxLSU]

No way to answer. Go to a place that rents and let her shoot everything she can. My wife really does not like her PPK/S for example. Too 'snappy', but can shoot larger (impractical for carry) guns.
If it's not a revolver, I'd get a semi in something tolerable with a .22 conversion for practice, so she will, and a lot.

 

[sheep dog]

If she wants a 380. Glock 42

If she wants a 9mm. Glock 43

In my humble (perfection) opinion.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Make sure she can rack the slide... the little .380s can be hard to ****; the pocket nines even more so.

Also the little .380s are very difficult to shoot well at any distance. I'm talking like "difficult for most people to hit a torso at ten feet" kind of difficult. Easy if you're a gun guy, but very difficult otherwise. That's your LCP, Kel-Tec P3AT, and so on.

But as someone else said, she really ought to be a lot more familiar with handguns before she starts carrying one. Find a range with a lot of rental pocket guns, and try some out.

Sage advice here. My wife hates my little LCP, very snappy and can't get a good purchase on it. I'm not a big fan of it either, but it fits so nicely in a wallet holster that in certain situations I will still carry it totally concealed.

 

[Bushwhacker]

380s suck. I hate them.

That's a tad subjective.

I primarily carry 9 as well, but I have a few .380's that I really like as well. My wife shot my G43, but much preferred the G42 because of size and weight. She also shot it really well. I'd say that's a pretty good fit.

 

[shootin4fun]

My wife has shot many single stack 9's and some .380's before she decided to go with the XDS 9mm. She like the grip safety because it's reminds her to hold on securely and the fiber front sight is what she is used to. Also for a bonus I bought her a S&W bodyguard last week for a backup she likes the bodyguard because it's a pocket gun.

Lots of choices. Go to the range and let her shoot options. Heck I'll go with y'all and bring some of my wife's favorites with us.

 

[Bushwhacker]

My wife has shot many single stack 9's and some .380's before she decided to go with the XDS 9mm. She like the grip safety because it's reminds her to hold on securely and the fiber front sight is what she is used to. Also for a bonus I bought her a S&W bodyguard last week for a backup she likes the bodyguard because it's a pocket gun.

Lots of choices. Go to the range and let her shoot options. Heck I'll go with y'all and bring some of my wife's favorites with us.

I'm in for that, my wife like shooting with other women. She says she feels less pressure. I told her that not everyone is cut out to be an operator...

 

[HfdSARG]

Have her shoot as many guns as she can and then let her decide what she is comfortable with. And then she needs to practice some more with it.

This. I took my wife and 15 y/o daughter to the range a few times. Each time they shot 5 to 10 pistols. What they thought they would like and what they actually liked where two different things. In my case it also helped that the person working the counter was a female.