wanting to get the fiance a pistol

I went through a lot of the same with the Mrs. I gotta agree with them on the revo's. Now one of her favorites is a S&W Airlite 357mag loaded with 38's. 2nd is model 60 with 38's.

Also agree with PapaDawg on Cliff's course, It did help alot as well.

PapaDawg wrote:I'm with the folks suggesting a revo and would say take a look at the S&W 640. Practice w/ .38, load it up w/ .357 or .38+P for safety.

Good chance - if Cliff weighs in on this - that the 640 or something similar will be his recommendation. That's the reason my wife carries one. And also, a big +1 on some time spent w/ a trainer - the time that my wife spent w/ Cliff was worth every cent.

The general consensus is definitely a revo, which is fine by me, just need to get her to try a few. The only problem with training is that I can't afford someone like cliff for her, and even if I could she works 6-7 days a week, on top of going to school, so it's practically impossible to find a time to get her to the range, especially now that it's getting dark earlier.

I agree with everything y'all are saying, and am taking it to heart, but some recommendations are a bit harder to accomplish due to her exceptionally crappy schedule. Whatever she goes with I'll just have to make her make time to go to the range on occasion, which shouldn't take much persuasion because she loves going, just have to make it work

Well we went. She held probably 10 revos and at least as many semis. I tried to let her lead the way on it but she said she had no clue what she was looking at so I started naming off a few and Van brought over several options as well. She liked a lot of them, but either they were mostly all too blocky, too expensive or too hard for her to manipulate. I gave her full say and control over every gun we looked at, which really helped the experience for her I think. And I was so proud when she made the comment that she didn't care about the looks!!!!!! She said she wanted something she could keep on target but still do some damage.

She narrowed it down to the Ruger sp101 in .357 and a Beretta PX4 storm compact. She got them side by side and started weighing the pros of the Ruger and realized she liked everything about it better. So I asked what they'd give me for my shotgun, and Van offered me exactly what I was hoping for out of a trade.

Got it home and let her try Fed .38spl, Fed .38 Hydrashok reduced recoil, Speer Golddot +P(which we bought for her at Vans), and some Hornady FTX .357s. She loved the plain .38s from Walmart, and she liked the +Ps, but didn't notice a huge difference between it and the reduced recoil stuff, but she wasn't a fan of the Hornadys, which I expected. So she decided she's going to keep it loaded with the speer Golddot +Ps, which works just fine for me.

So now she has a gun that she picked and that she can be proud of, and she's happy. She says it's one she could take to the range on a regular basis and enjoy, so that's one of the main things I was hoping for out of this.

Ironically though, before I decided to get her something by trading off that shotgun, that's the exact gun I was hoping to trade it off for! Of the thousand times I've gone into Vans, that's the first time I've ever walked out with anything more than ammo. And it was my best experience in there by far. Everyone was as helpful and patient as can be, which was a nice change from my normal experience in there. Only complaint is Van was pushing a .40 pretty hard because he doesn't like 9mm when we were looking at semis...but he humored us and showed us everything we asked to see without objecting to the caliber more than once or twice.

Here it is:

Hard to go wrong with a Ruger SP101...built like a tank

I have one in 327 Federal

Every one I've ever seen needed a trigger job however....I'd proceed with that delicately as I suppose this is going to be a carry gun so you gotta be careful with the mods

Congrats on a great selection...

The trigger on this one is exceptional! Almost as good as my LCR's. I'm interested in the .327 model for myself

The .22lr model Vans had today was quite nice looking as well

You can dry fire the hell out of it...no worries

Dry fire practice really helps a lot.

Don't let her fire it single action...

That single action cocking BS is for TV...real world is you gonna pull it out, line up that front sight and press that trigger

Might want to consider some work on that hammer if it's going to be carried in a purse. Lots of things for it to hang up on when trying to retrieve it in a hurry in a bad situation. Of course, the upside is - if things are really bad, just fire away from inside the purse!

msredneck wrote:You can dry fire the hell out of it...no worries

Dry fire practice really helps a lot.

Don't let her fire it single action...

That single action cocking BS is for TV...real world is you gonna pull it out, line up that front sight and press that trigger

yeah i'm having to break her of her anti-dry fire mindset....her dad is one of those that just will not dry fire anything, and got on them a lot about it when they were kids. she doesn't believe me or even the guys at the gun shop that it is safe in most guns now. Guess I could always get her some snap caps or something if it makes her feel better about it

she did take my advice on the single action part though, so no worries there...I explained to her that if she had to use it she'd just be aiming and squeezing...there probably wouldn't be time for any fancy single action stuff.

I'm still beyond proud of her choice. she was so excited when we got back today. I've always loved that she shared my love of shooting. she may not always understand why i'm buying "another gun", but she enjoys shooting them so she doesn't complain too much

now I'm wanting one of my own!!!! maybe even that .22....but I wouldn't mind waiting on one in .22mag

Got a SP101 357. The wife claimed it as her own. What ever makes her happy and secure is good enough for me.
You did well Jake, hope your GF finds it as comfortable as my wife does.

Ya done real good! I like the way you treat your lady!

PhillipM wrote:Ya done real good! I like the way you treat your lady!

I try. If you saw one of my threads a few weeks ago in the off-topic subforum you'd understand why I try to go above and beyond sometimes. Plus I try to do what I can to keep her interested in it. She's one of those that's all about spending time together....so she might as well enjoy doing what I enjoy as well.

Nice gun! You did good.

She may get to where she is comfortable shooting the .357s. My girlfriend keeps a 638 airweight in her car. At first she didn't really like shooting it, especially with +P defense rounds. Now all she wants to shoot is +P rounds. Says it actually feels like it is doing something. I have to tell her that little aluminum frame ain't made for a constant beating, and she's gonna have to start buying ammo to punch paper with the +P stuff.

jakeg823 wrote:The trigger on this one is exceptional! Almost as good as my LCR's. I'm interested in the .327 model for myself

I've shot rugers (speed six) that had better triggers than a vintage Smith!