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It was that, but also that it jammed twice in a short time. And she had to clear the jams for me. I will rent a 9mm again too, though and continue practicing with different types. Are there certain brands that have a reputation of jamming more than others?
Yes, some brands may be better than others, but semiautos do have the problem of jamming, especially when dirty or when they haven't been well oiled. They're fussy. Will your slide get gummy from dust when sitting in your house not being fired? Maybe. They need to work to keep the slide slick. The gun uses the energy of the kick to open the slide and eject the case when firing, so lower caliber guns will jam more often than higher power ones. My .22 fails to eject the case and jams quite often. It's annoying. And when out shooting, it happens more frequently the more we shoot without cleaning.
9mm will be a little better than a .22... but not as good as a .45. Note you probably would NEVER like a .45, because of the kick, and because the grips are too big for most women's hands.
Revolvers are a LOT more fool proof. A lot less can go wrong.
Is OP in NJ? Ya that would eliminate a lot of her options unfortunately.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook
Yes, some brands may be better than others, but semiautos do have the problem of jamming, especially when dirty or when they haven't been well oiled. They're fussy. Will your slide get gummy from dust when sitting in your house not being fired? Maybe. They need to work to keep the slide slick. The gun uses the energy of the kick to open the slide and eject the case when firing, so lower caliber guns will jam more often than higher power ones. My .22 fails to eject the case and jams quite often. It's annoying. And when out shooting, it happens more frequently the more we shoot without cleaning.
9mm will be a little better than a .22... but not as good as a .45. Note you probably would NEVER like a .45, because of the kick, and because the grips are too big for most women's hands.
Revolvers are a LOT more fool proof. A lot less can go wrong.
I may start out with a revolver. I can always get another down the road. Although I hope I don’t have to go through the whole process again (I needed to go get fingerprints and needed two references which my local PD called). But that was for firearms I.d. card and two purchase permits. Maybe I’ll end up getting two before they expire just to avoid all that.
Hello. I have been in the process of getting a gun for home defense. I took a Ladies handgun class a couple of weeks ago and had a private lesson from the same instructor last week. I am trialing different guns to see what I feel comfortable with. I've used a Glock with 22s first, then 9mm, and a revolver. The issue is I have arthritis in both thumbs, which made loading the 9mm bullets in the magazine very hard to do. The revolver was much easier to load, but I couldn't use it as "double action" because the gun was too big for my finger to get in far enough for that.
To those with weak hands or issues with their hands, and to those women who use a gun for self-defense, what kind of gun do you use? The instructor told me if I went smaller, my accuracy would suffer because it would recoil more.
I hope this isn't inappropriate for this forum, I just wanted to get perspective from other women with old hands, lol.
Is your concern focused on primarily home defense?
Maybe find a range that lets you rent different guns to try. I have 2 in my area that do that, and will provide an instructor for a session.
There are longish threads regarding your concerns in the Guns and Hunting forum here at CD.
Double action revolvers will almost always have a "heavier" trigger pull, which can be a problem for weaker, smaller arthritic hands, but revolvers are simple and tend to be very reliable. Single action mode requires a looong stretch for a short thumb to bring the hammer back often also.
Mag loaders are common for loading semi auto pistol mags, and help with loading, especially those last couple rounds when almost full. I use them. No shame.
Semi auto pistols may be easier to shoot, and there are models that are designed to be easier to operate the slide, or add ons that let you slip a finger into a ring and use your larger forearm strength to operate the slide. Even though I personally carry a little Ruger LCP II .22 pistol when out and about at times, .22 caliber is usually not recommended for self defense by most. I think 9mm meets in the middle for ammo choice, recoil, availability and is so popular that there are many options in that caliber.
Although not a woman, my 81 year old brother in law is small in stature and has little strength in his arms and hands, having some of the same concerns as you. He never had interest in firearms before 2020, but became concerned after the post George Floyd death riots brought unrest near his condo in Scottsdale AZ, so he was an older completely inexperienced potential fire arm owner.
He asked me for advice and after trying multiple revolvers/pistols in varied calibers, we found a small short shotgun in .410 worked well for him. Easy to load, uses point shooting, and has fairly low recoil. have taken him to the range multiple time now, and he has become fairly proficient with it.
Please tell us the cons of having 16 rounds as opposed to 6 or 8.
I have a six-shooter revolver that fits my hand and hits what I point it at, reliably, every time, whether I am nervous or calm, whether it's dirty or clean or has been sitting in a drawer.
That beats a gun I'm less familiar with, that is fussy about dirt or misfires or has a safety I forget to operate under stress, no matter how many bullets it holds.
Yes, some brands may be better than others, but semiautos do have the problem of jamming, especially when dirty or when they haven't been well oiled. They're fussy. Will your slide get gummy from dust when sitting in your house not being fired? Maybe. They need to work to keep the slide slick. The gun uses the energy of the kick to open the slide and eject the case when firing, so lower caliber guns will jam more often than higher power ones. My .22 fails to eject the case and jams quite often. It's annoying. And when out shooting, it happens more frequently the more we shoot without cleaning.
9mm will be a little better than a .22... but not as good as a .45. Note you probably would NEVER like a .45, because of the kick, and because the grips are too big for most women's hands.
Revolvers are a LOT more fool proof. A lot less can go wrong.
9mm was a popular military round , not because it was a good man stopper but because being such a high speed round it tended to wound more than kill.
a wound soldier slows the enemy down , it takes resources to care for them and ties up transportation vehicles .
so the military objective was to wound more then kill as 9mm can stink at that .
there are documented cases of bikers and drug crazed bad guys taking round after round of 9mm .
when the fbi was forced to abandon the .45 they were so against it .
well a now famous fire fight in miami proved why it was a poor move .
multiple attackers were hit with lots of 9mm rounds .
the agents thought they were all down .
well the bad guys opened fire killing some agents and paralyzing one .
not to admit they made a mistake and ho back to .45 , they had s&w work on a new caliber with the capacity of a 9 in ammo but harder hitting . and do the .40 caliber came out of that .
Then you're limited on the type of ammo you can use as well. Hollow points are out. Hornaday Critical Defense isn't considered hollow point, so they're probably your best option.
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