Quote:
Originally Posted by azasadny
I signed my wife up for a basic firearms class and a CPL (Concealed Pistol License) class for January at our local range/gun shop. I also bought her a Ruger LCP in .380ACP since her hands are too small for my pistols. The instructor is fantastic and I've known her for awhile. The classes are "women only" and my wife's friend is taking the same classes, so there's less "intimidation" for them. I'll take Beth to the same range and get her familiar with her new pistol after Christmas and we'll break-in the Ruger LCP.
Beth can't handle anything larger from a carry perspective and I've shot the Ruger LCP myself and I believe it will be right for her. I reload .380 so we'll have plenty of range ammo and I have quite a bit of high quality commercial ammo for carrying purposes.
Beth and I can now go to the range together and that will make the weekly target shooting even more enjoyable as we like to do things together... She bought me a Beretta 92FS for Christmas 13 years ago and now I'm returning the favor with the "baby" Ruger!
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I'm gonna say this, and it is not neccesarily a knock against you, my comments are in general.
I think the tendency of men to buy women small caliber and pocket pistols is completely wrong headed (doubly so with new shooters), and there are a few reasons for this.
1) A Ruger LCP (or kel tec, etc) with full power loads is a light and pretty hard kicking little gun, with a small grip that is hard to get a hold of.
2) Small pocket pistols usually have crappy sights, which places a greater burden on the shooter than a sidearm with proper sights.
3) Small pocket pistol calibers are very weak, and require a greater degree of precision to wield effectively. IOW, someone with a pocket pistol should be more experienced with firearms, not less.
4) A woman- on average- is far less likely to be able to succeed in a hand to hand situation with a man if her weapon fails to stop.
5) In a time of great stress the muzzle blast and recoil of a large caliber weapon will not even be noticeable or perceptible to the actual shooter, who will be completely charged with endorphines and adrenaline. Many shooting survivors report not even hearing the gunshots at all. For this reason, the conventional wisdom that small/inexperienced/women need less recoil is 100% off base IMO.
6) The slide on small pocket pistols is often very hard for women to manipulate, especially in a time of stress, and potentially impossible with wet hands.
In my reasoned opinion, a woman should have significantly more gun than a man, and in a larger caliber- not less.
Both of the women relatives in my life that i am close to have .357 Ruger snubnosed Magnums loaded with full power 125gr jacketed hollowpoints, provided by me.
All this being said, any gun is better than no gun, and an experienced female shooter should be fine with a small pocket pistol, as long as it effectively stops the attacker.
The Ruger LCP is very similar to my Kel Tec. It is a good weapon with a good reputation already, good luck with it. By far the most powerful ammo on the market for .380 auto is made by Buffalo Bore, it nearly hits 300ft-lbs of muzzle energy from an LCP and is loaded with the excellent 2nd generation Gold Dot bonded core hollowpoint.
Also, the Crimson Trace laser unit sold for that model is extremely nice, compact, light, relatively inexpensive, and highly reliable.
I cannot recommend that modification strongly enough. A Kel Tec or LCP with a crimson trace laser becomes a far more useful weapon the instant you grip the weapon(it has a pressure sensor right under the trigger guard for auto on/off.
Here is my Kel Tec with a CT laser installed, the Ruger looks almost identical with a CT:
