[Sangrun Hunter]

What do you all suggest?

I had my Mom take a feel of the 1895 Nagant lastnight. She did not like the trigger pull on it, but wasn't too worried about it.

I'm trying to push her into a revolver instead of an auto. She thinks she wants a auto, but she has a .25 Raven and she fumbled with the slide on that and she was worried about knowing if there is a round chambered or not.

My Mom is not a petite woman, so she does have more choice in weapons. She is 5'9 and of medium built structure, but she doesn't have a lot of mechanical ability. She lives alone and there has been a peeping tom in her neighborhood who she and her dog caught looking in her window.

She has shot in the past and knows how to handle a rifle which is good for me. When I got my last AK I showed it to her and she said that is what I need!


She's sort of broke too and I thought a Nagant pistol would be good on a budget. It's rugged, simple, and DA to boot.

Any thoughts here guys?

 

[Chiroone]

No offense to Nagant lovers, but it is of marginal power not terribly accurate on double action and not many "trick" rounds available.

If money is a problem why not a Makarov? Also try Shotgun News for trade in police 38s or 357 mag revolvers, although it may be late in the game to get these.

For home use, I do favor 38s with frangable ammo ie' Glasers or other ammo of this type.

 

[sks_hunter]

chiroone's got a good point... a 38 with Glasers or safety slugs would certainly be effective enough, and they are a dime a dozen... who needs accuracy for self-defense?(to a degree)
if you can hit a pie plate at 5 yards or so, isn't that all you need?


or a 357mag... plenty of ass-wallop :rockin:
she'd be peepin through the hole she blew in tom's cranium
:handgun:

 

[hotbarrel]

I LOVE my nagant, however I would NEVER use it as a personal defance weapon. the honest reason is your attacker has a good chance of surviving any round you put through it. You do not want that your attacker MUST DIE , the legal ramifications of an attacker surviving are horible. then it is thier lie against your word. of worse their lawyers lie against you. A wise man in law enforcement told us "dead men tell no tales" , liveing ones tell lies. not to mention if your attacker is on drugs a 32cal round may only make him angry. or he may have the ability to use his own weapon.
find out if mom can pull back the spring on a 45 or 357, if not consiter a revolver in 45 or 375. I would prefer 357 this way she can practis with 38 and be comfertable and then put in 357 for protection. spend some time to find a weapon that will fit well and work well for your mom. she has to be comfortable with it and practise with it. rember any personal defance weapon must be able to instantly stop the attacker and preferably guarentee they will die. realy any of the modern personal protection rounds are very affective. I agree with skshunter I like glaser safty slugs in the house. but I am certain their are others that are just as safe for in the house.
I bought a balaster 45 for not much more $ and it works perfectly, their are inexpensive choises that will work well for her.

 

[hotbarrel]

maby she would be happy and feel safe with a revolver, if you tell her she can leave the top round out and the gun is compleatly safe. then when she pulls the trigger the cylinder will turn a live round up. hay the best of both worlds. safe and no fumbeling. fumbeling is bad in an emerge :scared: ncy

 

[Rhino_66]

IMHO, a .38 revolver with LaserGrips makes a great home defense weapon. My cousin just bought a revolver for herself and her husband. She likes the simplicity of the revolver over an automatic. She had no problem shooting any of my .45s, even the ultra-small LDA, but liked the .38 better. They both felt that the revolver was safer when loaded. The LaserGrips were a gift to them from my uncle.

You should be able to pick up a used .38 very cheap. You could always fund part of the cost of a much nicer pistol as a gift to her. Make it a Mother's Day gift. Instead of flowers and a box of candy, give her a Taurus and a crate of ammo.

 

[RebFootCav]

A favorite of mine for the ladies is here

http://gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=16606456

357,7 shots, ported and easily managed by any lady I've run across. You can find them cheaper that whats here, but for Mom....I wouldn't hesitate at this price either.

 

[Custer]

Everytime I see someone giving a shooting self defense class for ladies, it looks like they are all being trained with a snub nose .38 special.

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

The owner of my local gun shop is always selling .38's to women. He says it's almost always what they want and end up buying due to it's size and ease of use.

 

[RebFootCav]

SangRun Hunter

Do yourself a favor and go and take her to see one of the 617's in person. I know the 7 shot might sound large but I've had 2 different women shoot one and both loved it. It hardly had any felt recoil with 38's and the magnum loads weren't uncomfortable.

Like what was said above.....she can use the 38's to get familar with it and 357's for protection.

 

[bigblock]

Is this gun for the house only. Then get her a shotgun with buckshot.

 

[yosuthnmasa]

What about a Kel-tec p3at? Thi is the .380 version.

 

[Evil_Walks]

Is this gun for the house only. Then get her a shotgun with buckshot.

Not a terribly bad idea. My folks have a couple of home defense pieces and my mom (who is in her 60's) can handle the full stocked 18.5" bbl. Mossy with tactical buckshot loads well enough to make a mess of an intruder. The only thing I fear with long guns (even short ones) is if an intruder would get close enough the weapon could give them something to struggle with. That's where I think a pistol might be a better choice. Last time I bought a pistol for a woman it was a girlfriend. She was familiar with the little Beretta tip-up bbl. .25's but at Christmas-time there were none to be found so I bought her a little Taurus. Fun little gun but in retrospect I should have bought her a Makarov. Perfect size and balance for a woman and much more stopping potential. Practice ammo is cheap and a box of corbon hollowpoints fills two mags with a few rounds to spare.

 

[Revolver_Ocelot]

Family solution

We picked up a couple of Walther PPK knock-offs (.380) that are incredibly accurate, but, due to the blowback design, the mainspring is surprisingly strong. My sisters had difficulty working it, so we gave one a Walther P-38 (9mm), and another a P95 9mm Ruger.

Both of these 9mm guns have slides that are much easier to work, and, if you are concerned about a 9mm round not having enough power, than consider a pre-ban mag. There is a 30rd mag that fits the Ruger, and I would rather have 25 or more 9mm rounds than 5 or 6 .357mag rounds (in a self defense weapon).

I do agree that revolvers (w/ smooth double actions) are great for self-defense (no safety, gun is ready to fire), but some of the DOAs at the Pittsburgh NRA convention were impressive (in terms of smooth actions, and light-weight & short trigger pulls).

Just food for thought :dunno:

 

[Alaskagrown]

I agree with the Taurus. All of the womens pistol instruction that is done here is with the Taurus 627 .357 with the 4in ported barrel. You can shoot either .38s or .357 with the .38s recoil is negligible when shooting paper. With .357 it is great for home defense and up here in Alaska bear defense.

 

[Nickle]

I don't know about this one. My Mom is in her 80's and has a couple of 38 Spl Smith's and she also has a Glock Model 22 (Yes, 40 S&W). She likes all of them, but hasn't shot the Glock much if at all. I like the idea of the shotgun and buckshot. An AR clone works well too. If an intruder sees her with it, I'll bet serious money that she'll never have to pull the trigger.

If she lacks experience, go with a revolver, 38 Spl preferably.

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

Looks like I'll be the one selecting it for her if I can ever get her to agree.

 

[BRS]

Autos have a few strikes against them, IMO. 1) The smaller blowback pistols tend to have stiff recoil springs that women have difficulty overcoming in order to rack the slide. 2) There is more to handling and operation of an auto than a revolver. You have to fill a mag, insert a mag, rack the slide, etc. Unless she were to keep a round chambered, the possibility of confusion under stress is very real.

My recommendation would be for a K-frame Smith in .38 Spl, with JHP or JHC ammo, in std or +P loading. Why K-frame? The trigger pulls on the K-frame often are better (lighter) than those on J-frames. Also, a K-frame provides one more round, six vs. five. The possible exception to this recommendation would be if you could find a decent M40 or M640, the hammerless 5-shot J-frame. These tend to have decent pulls, but you give up one shot. The "LadySmith" revolvers have slightly lighter mainsprings and some additional lockwork polishing that results in some awesomely light DA pulls. Finally, the K-frame provides a substantial "handle" that is not too large for the average female. The J-frame with standard stocks can be a bit unpleasant to fire, and that experience can be off-putting to someone that is uninitiated. First impressions and all.

The revolver provides "without a thought" operation if kept loaded. Pick it up and pull the trigger.

For the reasons mentioned above I went through the same selection exercise with my 78 yr old mother and we settled on a 4" S&W M10, which I had picked up for $165. She tried a couple J-frame 38s and a Ruger SP101 in 9mm and still settled on the M10 because of the larger grip and lighter DA pull.

BRS