Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns need advice.

A friend of mine who happens to be a lady currently owns a beretta 85. Being recently divorced she has become more concerned with protection because she lives by herself in the country. The problem I am having is her hands are very small. The beretta grip is to big for her hands. Even with the hammer pulled back she can only get her index finger to barely touch the trigger. In a two hand hold the gun wants to squirt out of her hand when she fires it. What she needs is a gun with narrow grips, and a reduced distance from the trigger to the back of the housing. I would like to stay with a auto, but may need to look at a small revolver. Hit me with everything you have and thank you.

I'd sell the Beretta, and get her a three inch J frame.

How about you take her to your LGS and let her handle as many different guns she can. That will give you a good base of what is in and what is out of the question. Then come back here and tell us what guns worked out fit wise and we can then tell you what our opinions of the different guns are. Then you can make a really good informed decision.

Excellent advice.

Sight unseen, my recommendation would be the new S&W Shield in 9mm (if you can find one).

The Kahr pistols might work fairly well too.

no

2 Jframes

Snake

If her pistol happens to have the thicker wood grip panels instead of the plastic ones, you might try this:

Take the grips off see if it improves the handling characteristics for her. If it does, plane the grip panels down and make them as thin as you can. You might be surprised at the difference. Shortening the screws may be necessary if decide to do this.

Yup....or the new XDs in 9mm, the XDs has a smaller grip insert for smaller hands....the shield has a small grip, but it is not inter-changable like its big brother

All good suggestions. The only problem is, it is a journey to anywhere to play with guns to see which one might work. I have been calling other friends to see who has some different types of pistols for her to play with. Everything I own are double stack mags and are to big for her also.

Unless your friends can come up with a good cross section of guns, you may need to take that journey to play with guns. I have a relative with small hands and we tried a lot of different stuff. She wound up with a Ruger SR22. The Beretta should be worth decent money for a trade.

Lets see spend a day to travel a little and get what feels good to her, or take blind advice and let her end up with something that might work. I don't doubt anyone on here's good intentions of suggest guns but in reality it should be something that feels go to her in her hands. Once you have a few makes and models in mind is when we can really help you. Me personally I would walk a thousand miles for a friend, two thousand for a female friend!

I think it depends on her mechanical skills and how much she wants to practice. Its hard to beat a revolver for simplicity but double action triggers are very stiff unless they have been worked over by a good smith. single action under duress is dangerous. J frames in major calibers kick hard and are hard to shoot strait without practice. Small auto loaders usually have stiff springs in the slide and also kick pretty hard. Im thinking a springfield XDS in 9mm might be perfect. A mid sized frame 7 shooter from smith or taurus in 357 with 38 +p. SP101 is one of my favorites due to grip size and with the 327 you get 6 shots of low recoil power.

For all alone country living this lady might find herself even more secure and protected - if she also had a rifle or shotgun handy.

The Kahr P9 has a shorter reach to the trigger than the Beretta.

I own both.

The Kahr trigger reach is actually a little short for my hands, but "works"

Botttom line, take her to the gun shop to see for herself which gun actually fits her hands best.

+2 on the shotgun to go with the handgun.

I bought my Wife A Remington 870 "youth" 20 ga.

Virgil B.

...that must be a VERY small hand if we are talking about the single stack .380. My favorite training .22 semi-auto is a 87 Cheetah which is the same gun .22 Long Rifle. A lot of my students have bought these as they are so small.

As said about maybe a Kahr will fit better but it sounds like she may have some difficulty fining a gun that fits...

Please let us know what you come up with that fits properly and has the power she can control.

Bob

I took a new shooter to the range a couple months ago, a petite woman, and after handling a bunch of them she liked the Kahr K9 the best. It was a rental with Hogue grips on it. She also liked the Sig P239, but found the Kahr simpler, with "fewer levers".

The Kahr ran with no jams, and she shot it pretty well, too, so I would give them a look.

Maybe she would like to stay with an auto, too. But I'd also have her try a J frame .38 and - Travis will approve of this - one of those Ruger .22 revolvers.

Then ask her what she wants to stay with.

Oh yes, me like that idea.

If dealing with handguns I'd lean toward a .22LR. Either a J-Frame or an LCR and once she gets the hang of that, get her the .38 version of the same revolver. If she's a country gal she could use the .22 anyway and practice makes perfect.

If you like the autos a 22/45 and a 1911 in 9mm wouldn't suck too awful either.

However; if it's not a concealed carry rig why bother with a handgun at all? 870 in a 20 gauge makes a lot of sense.


Travis