What would you recommend to newer shooter as their first centerfire handgun. It would be mostly range gun and bedroom/home defense gun. I use to advise female friends to polymer striker-fired 9mm (glock19 size) but I'm coming to conclusion that this maybe a mistake. Most have difficulty racking the slide despite all the "tricks and techniques" described, most also won't practice with it enough to become familiar with it. While my male friends who are not gun enthusiast can rack the slide of pistols without issues, they also tend not to practice as often as they should to become familiar with said firearm. They basically take the initial handgun safety course and maybe hit the range once or twice a year.
So given the above situation, I'm re-thinking that maybe a 4" barrel midsize 357mag revolver(GP100/SW686) would be best for them. Loaded with mild 38spec for practice and maybe 38+p for self defense.
What are your guys thoughts?
The only thing I'd do different is change from GP100/686 to S&W 10 or 64. They are slightly smaller, and have fixed sights. Double action on the GP100 feels odd to me, but I rarely shoot them.
