My wife asked me to take her to the gun store last Saturday night to buy her a gun. It is her first! So I took her, she picked it out, and went shooting tonight for the first time with her sister and mother. She's on her way home from the range as I type and is excited to show me her targets. I did not go with her, as it was ladies night, and besides that she got some shooting advice from the range operator, so that was probably received better than if I started giving her advice. But now we can go shooting together, and that will be great!
Mind did that 6 years ago. We had been to the local range that rents guns and rented about everything they had. She let that experience simmer in her head for a month, then asked to be taken back to the range and fired two guns again. She said she wanted a gun that recoiled like a Ruger BlackHawk single action .357 shooting .38SP but as easy to reload as the double action revolver .38 snubby that hurt her hand.
So I took her to a local gun store. She walked up to the counter. We were the only people in the store. The clerk, a young man, came over:
Clerk, to me: "What can I do for you?"
Me: "Ask her."
He looked at her, she said, "I want to buy some guns."
Clerk recovered quickly and asked: "What guns would you like to buy?"
Wife: "Ask him," pointing to me.
He looked at me, I said, "She wants a 6" barreled double action .357 revolver with a nice trigger."
He picked a 6" 686-1 out of his used gun counter, cleared it, and handed it to her with the cylinder open.
She took it, checked it, closed it, got approval to dry fire it, pointed it in a safe direction, tried both the single and coutle action triggers, said, "I like it, what do you think?" and handed it to me.
The lockup was great, chambers and bore looked good. I asked for and received a bore light, bore looked good. It looked, in fact, like it hadn't been fired much. No build up around the forcing cone, no evidence of abuse. I received permission to dry fire it and discovered it had a very nice double action trigger. Way better than I expected. SA trigger was good too. It felt like it weighed about what the 6" BlackHawk weighed.
I said to her, "If you like it, I think it's in good condition."
She turned to the clerk and said, "I'll take it."
He took it and started off to get paperwork but she interrupted him, and surprised me, when she said, "I'm not done yet."
The young man immediately returned and asked, "What else are you interested in?"
Wife: "I want a .22 as much like it, especially the trigger pull, size and weight, to practice with." Took me by surprise.
The clerk went to a drawer under the counter and came out with a beautiful S&W Model 17-2, pinned barrel, the whole nine yards.
Wife: "You have snap caps?"
He did, put them in it for her. She felt it. Checked back and forth between the 686 and the 17, dryfired it, nodded, handed it to me.
I inspected it, it was in fantastic condition.
She bought them. She's put maybe 2,000 rounds out of the .22, over 500 out of the 686. She loves them both. She asked for and I installed CT grips on the 686. She practices mostly with the sights, but always does a couple of cylinders with the laser just to be sure she has it figured out. She goes to the range with her 3 guns about 4 times a year.
She shoots them all remarkably well. Especially the 686. She's deadly with that thing. I've no doubt she'd hit what she was shooting at out to 20 yards and that's longer than any shot in the house.
She has also practiced with our Mossberg 500 20 GA Persuader (full stock, not pistol grip) shooting 3" magnum and does fine with it. She doesn't like shooting it a lot with the magum loads, but we practice with target loads and she's good with those. She is also good with it having magnum loads in the house. We keep it with the safety off, hammer down, chamber empty, 5 rounds in the magazine. I have her practice picking it up, racking the slide, and putting a round into COM from 10 yards. She doesn't miss. 5 shots is plenty for a session as far as she is concerned. I'm okay with that.
She went through a Taurus 85, Ruger LCR, SP101, before she ended up with a P238 as her carry gun. She loves all three of her guns.
She has her PA and Utah permits just like me.
Worked for me.
Fitch
If your wife is interested dont discourage her! Be available for any questions she may have for you and dont treat her like she is stupid, no matter what she asks! You cant protect her 24/7, empower her to protect herself! Also, she should choose her own gun, my husband tried 3 times to get me a gun, I hated them all. I picked my own gun, Sig P238 SAS...love it, and now I carry everyday. I feel much more comfortable taking my kids places knowing I have the power to protect them if needed.
