re: Women's self defense handgun

quote:

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Maybe let her start/practice with a.22. That's what I bought for my wife to start with.

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This.

In addition to my CCW classes I (occasionally) offer one-on-one lessons to first-time shooters. I always start them with a .22 LR Glock (using an Advantage Arms conversion kit ). Once they're getting good hits with the .22, and once they're comfortable, I put the 9mm slide on the gun.

I have never had a female first-time shooter who couldn't put every shot in a 2-3" circle at the end of her lesson. The woman who came in today had never fired a handgun before -- she put 67 out of 68 rounds into a 2" circle (was firing one round per second for the 20 rounds). The one shot that fell outside the group was the result of "point shooting," and it was only 2 or 3 inches outside the ragged hole made by the other shots.

The point is, start her with a .22 -- and try to use a .22 that has a trigger action that's as close to your 9mm as possible. That way there's minimal "reorientation" as you swap guns. This why I use an AACK -- the student shoots the same gun, same trigger, same sights, same mag release, etc. whether dry firing, shooting .22 LR or shooting 9mm rounds.

Whatever you do don't start her with a .40 or .45 caliber handgun -- almost guaranteed to produce a flinch in new shooters. And it's harder to get rid of a flinch than it is to induce one.