I still get to shoot it sometimes though. Anywho, if you find a gun you wouldn't mind owning and it's at a reasonable price get it. If she doesn't like it you can keep or sell it again.
steve i feel your pain, a while back i was in the same boat as you trying to find a gun for a lady. Nobody would give me a straight answer, or much of an answer besides one of two things 1. let her decide (till their blue in the face) 2. .38 snub cause theirs well nothing to it but pulling the trigger
I was trying to find something that would be a range gun, but still be viable as a house gun..... most importantly easing her into the idea of owning, carrying and being competent/confident with a defensive hand gun. It sounds like that's where you're going with this.
[the right way]
The first thing i did when i was outfitting my woman, was take her to as many gun shops as possible, and look at the cases for a couple of minutes. You're going to have to swallow some man pride, glocks aren't always cute. I had to face the facts my girlfriend is still a girl, so if she says glocks are ugly and i say they have an outstanding track record of reliability, i still lose. Kinda like when they pick out cars. Another thing i noticed is if its cool to us guys its probably fairly intimidating to the misses, which is counter productive in the getting her comfortable/confident department.
Next after she's picked out the cute ones, by all means get her hands on them. Let her hold them for a while in a firing stance, to make sure her arms aren't going to be uncomfortable after round 12. Have her do all the normal stuff, see how it points and so on. Did i mention handle everything.
After that get to a range that rents, hit up your buddies to borrow guns, everything you can get a hold of to find something she likes. only shooting the gun for sure can she make an informed decision. If your like me the only range in that rents in the area, has sigs and glocks and a big punch bowl in the lobby. this is were your buddies come in or even just friendly people at the range. Shoot shoot shoot. then buy
[/the right way]
Now the bad news unless she likes glocks, your probably going to be hard pressed to find a really wide selection to rent.
What i did, was after she determined what was cute and what style of grip she liked, i scoured the internet to find as many pictures, style models option aftermarket grips i could.....i claimed it was harder than doing the dishes
when we went shooting i got a feel for the amount of recoil she was comfortable with.
With all that in mind i started making a short list of the must haves
all steel frame
medium/large palmswell
9mm
compact grip
houge wraparounds
what i ended up with was a cz 75 compact, yeah i know she'd never shot how could i possibly do that blah blah. Fact of the matter is i'd never shot one either but i did have one in .40 which was very controllable. 9mm would obliviously be in her ability. the grip fit her hand well, and with some handy work i can make some houge's fit. Long of the short she loves it, i still have to save for a sig p228 but the cz was half the price and that leaves money for gun food.
The list of 9mm auto's that my gf liked
p228/9
cz 75 compact
witness compact
kahr m/k9
beretta 9
hi powers
I'd recommend looking for all steel frame to absorb recoil and what every grip she likes whether it be the smith auto or something more like a cz. Steels in 9mm are usually pretty tame and ammo is better than a 380. no keltecs or lcp's as a first gun. Get the lasers, it helps with the confindence but don't forget to turn them off more than on.
and she shoots my .38 snub and likes it....... happy hunting
well what'd you get?
