-=> Quoting Paul Nixon to All on 22 May 96  18:13 <=-
 Re: Ladies gun? 
 PN> Well, that ain't no lady, that's my wife...
 PN> While stumbling around the national forest last weekend I gave the
 PN> wife the long-neglected orientation on the .45 and the .380.  The good
 PN> news was that she done great.  The bad news is that she done better
 PN> than me .
 PN> And now she's wanting to include some more formalized range time in
 PN> her schedule.  Hope I ain't created a monster.
 PN> Serious, her marksmanship was very good and gunhandling safety was
 PN> excellent.  But we ran into something I'd not thought to anticipate:
 PN> while the .45 was for purposes of orientation, so I don't expect that
 PN> she's going to need to be able to field strip it in 30 seconds, I
 PN> expected that the .380 would be manageable for her.  The shooting part
 PN> was okay but she had difficulty operating the slide.
 PN> Since these are maintained in either condition 1 or 2, in the event
 PN> she had to snatch one up for immediate use she's not going to have to
 PN> rely on strength, but in the event that the first round fails she's
 PN> gonna be struggling with the darn thing to cycle it.
 PN> So my conclusion is that we go shopping for a wheelgun.  At the same
 PN> time, I've decided that this .380 is gonna go.  So it's a shopping
 PN> spree.  Unfortunately there's a budget issue, too.
 PN> A new compact _and_ a new Chief's Special, or whatever, ain't in the
 PN> cards.  Anybody with any thoughts on bargain compact firepower?
Many .380s, especially the straight blowback pistols like the Makarov, 
will be pretty hard to operate the slide on. Of course, it's even worse 
on a compact pistol of whatever type, like the new mini-Glocks.
I saw a mini semi-auto - I think a Kel-Tec - in 9mm this past weekend. It 
was somewhat difficult to operate but not excessively (for me). But I 
know several people who couldn't operate it, or the Glock 27 or the 
Firestar.
If you want _bargain_, you might try a Taurus 605. I hear people who say 
they have problems of metallurgy or finish, but others say those have 
since been corrected. Then there's the Ruger SP-101, the S&W you 
mentioned, and a Colt Detective Special with either 5 or 6 shots. The 
Taurus is the least expensive of the lot, but there are still others 
(with no reputation) which list for less - like the Rossi.
Of course, make sure she has a chance to try it out, whatever you look 
at. It may be she'd rather have a PPK, Bersa and/or Makarov after all.
Steve
... Ever notice there's no crime at a shooting range????
--- GEcho 1.00
---------------