Local gun shop has a used 2" SP101 for $395. How are they for reliability? It would be for my wife and she doesn't want a semi auto. She shot the S&W BodyGuard in 38 and the Ruger LCR in 38 but preferred a heavier gun. She liked the size of my boss's S&W model 60 but that wasn't for sale.

My 16 year old daughter has an SP 101 .357 for home defense. It doesn't have a ton of rounds through it, but it works fine. Perfectly actually. We bought it for the extra weight so that light .38 Spcl handloads would feel extra nice in the recoil department. We put Crimson Trace grips on it. She loves that gun.

As long as you don't mind an exposed hammer, I'd say go for it.

Hot loads with cold hands sting a bit.
Don't visit the range in winter.
Other than that it's a great little gun.

It is an awesome gun if the trigger pull is not a hindrance. I would have her dry fire it before buying. I carried a 3 inch model for about 3 years.

I think they are great guns. Grips are a little small for my hand so I put a Hogue Rubber grip and they change the angle. Much easier to control the mag rounds. Mine are all 3" guns. Love them.

I have a 2 1/2" SP 101 and I like it very much. Easy to shoot and hit with in my experience.

Very nice revolvers. No worries about reliability, pull the trigger and it'll go boom.

Can't go wrong with the SP101.. I've got two - had 'em for years - and they've performed perfectly every single time..

I'm sure you know you can run .38 Spec through it if she finds the magnum a bit much.. And it can be in that platform; stout .357M loads in the SP can make a few people wish they had padded gloves on..

But as to reliability - I cannot think of another revolver of that size being any better..

Wife has a SP101 in .327 Fed. Excellent gun.

^^^This^^^

I bought an sp101 with the 4 inch barrel. I bought it for multi purpose, range, defense, for the wife.

It does recoil quite a bit with 357 mag loads, but isn't insane. My wife shoots light 38 special loads out of it and seems to do ok with it. she has small child like hands and although she thinks the gun is heavy, she can actually grip it.

I had issues shooting extremely dirty hand loads out of it. The grime would get under the cylinder spindle and bind up the cylinder. I changed my loads to something cleaner and no problems since.

Wife has a Smith Model 60, I have an SP101. What that really means is she has 2 guns that handle the same, take the same speedloaders, and she grabs whichever one she's closest to.
No matter what else I have on me, she can get to something she's used to. Both are fired more with wax loads than real ammo. It's the only kind of practice she can do, regularly. Tried to get her going with several autoloaders; she never could operate them consistently. The Ruger took action work, even for my use. Now it's as easy and slick as the Smith, almost.

Mine is the hammer less 2 inch or so barrel. Just a bit heavy, but works fine.

It's my first choice for a female customers with little experience and who can't rack a slide. They respond very well to a trigger job (polish, shims, springs in that order).

Like all Ruger products, they're a finely built tank. I've NEVER heard of one wearing out, out of time, or breaking.

Don't be afraid to change the grips, Hogue or something will make a BIG difference in felt recoil.

Hornady has come out with a new 90gr self defense ammo in 38spl made for women. Low recoil but it still uses their Critical Defense FTX bullet technology. It's easy to see on the shelf - pink trimmed box.

If it's for social work order one w/o adjustable sites so it will be less likely to hang up and come clean out of pocket or purse.

The choice of hammered or hammerless is another discussion.

I like mine but hated the factory sight and grips changed both . If she can't get it done with five shots in her home then get her a Pump Shotgun in 410 ga

I carried an SP101 as back-up during my tenure in law enforcement. I also sometimes carried it off-duty. I thought it was a fantastic piece of equipment. Mine was an accurate shooter. I shot it quite a bit when I had it, too. No problems of any kind, but I didn't expect any, based on my then prior experience with a Security Six. I'd probably want to try the trigger pulls on a few if a shop has more than one in inventory, and choose between them based on the one with the smoothest pull, but unless the quality control has taken a serious digger, I don't think you can go wrong with an SP101.

Not mentioned yet, but if 5-shots don't work you can be assured whopping bad people in the head with one will not harm the gun...