Originally Posted by whelennut
I met a skinny lady with bad arthritis whose son bought her a S&W Shield 9mm for home defence.
She has a hard time hanging onto it. Racking the slide, or loading the magazine, are difficult.
I think she needs a Ladysmith or some other small revolver.
What do you guys think?


Some of my favorite revolver setups for a smaller statured person with weak hands.

Ruger SP-101: The factory grip on this revolver is just incredible for people with smaller hands. I would always recommend a highly tuned action job to reduce the DA trigger pull as much as possible.
TALO SP-101 with Novak sights…VERY nice!
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S&W K frame with round butt: Typically in 3”, but 4” is fine too. The round butt allows you to install Pachmayr Compaq Professional grips (the one with the open backstrap). That grip on the K frame round butt just fits smaller statured people/hands exceptionally well. Again, follow up with a highly tuned DA action.
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S&W M12 – Do a round butt conversion on a 4”, or buy a round butt 2”. Again, Pachmayr Compaq Professional grips, highly tuned DA action.

K frames with heavy barrels, can be easily retro-fitted to accept a 1911 tritium front sight.

Here’s a 3” Heavy Barrel, Round Butt K frame with round butt Magna stocks and a Tyler T-Grip
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Of course, never forget the Colt D Frame revolvers. They’re less common, cost more, but they are straight up world class revolvers.
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