Women First-time Gun Buyers

Preamble

The thread title pretty much speaks to whom I am directing this post. I'm not going to get into the subject of why women face specific challenges when purchasing a firearm. I think everyone is well acquainted with the cultural phenomena of women being treated like kids, or being told outright that women shouldn't own guns, period. I'm currently working on regulating my blood pressure (new Rx, all that), therefore attempting to speak to that sort of B.S. will only hurt my efforts in blood pressure lowering.

Here are some of my personal biases when it comes to this topic. I believe that a 20 gauge shotgun is more than adequate for home defense. One need NOT begin with a 12 gauge which has more power, but recoils more. I believe the shotgun (with an 18 to 20 inch barrel) to be superior to the handgun for home defense. I deeply support concealed carry for women, which of course is for the carry of handguns. Were there a choice as to who got carry permits first, men or women, I would vote for women having first access.

My links to websites is heavily weighted towards shotguns. I will include links concerning handguns. Handguns are handy. Handguns have dedicated small security safes with VERY FAST opening times -- we mustn't let the rugrats get a'hold of power equipment, flammables, or deadly home chemicals, now should we?! And again, I'd love to see more women getting carry permits. If someone is for female empowerment, yet is opposed to women being unarmed, then that person is the worst sort of hypocrite. Men who put women in the hospital should be shot -- just another one of my opinions.

Shotguns have replaceable barrels. A home defense shotgun, with the simple swapping of a barrel, becomes a skeet gun. I hope that new shotgunners will get out to the skeet and trap ranges for some weekend fun. And shotguns will put meat on the table for your outdoors folk. Your ancestors did it. So can you. Learn how your ancestors lived -- they endured a whole lot more than we can imagine.

I am very heavily biased towards people receiving instructions in firearms care, operations, and safety. Someone who "knows a lot about guns" isn't necessarily a person you should seek for training. Fathers, husbands, brothers can be the worst shooting instructors. I've had my NRA certifications in handgun and rifle instruction (nope, didn't get shotgun certification, therefore I picked the best videos for that instruction). Find an instructor BEFORE buying a firearm. It is great to find a gun store that provides instruction. Find a private range that lets you rent firearms and have an instructor right there with you.

Ask "stupid" questions. OK, so some instructors will smile, then get on with business -- please forgive them, could just be a reflex. If an instructor is dismissive or disrespectful, find an actual professional.

If you have legal questions, then use an attorney licensed to practice in your state of residency. You MUST know the laws concerning firearm use in your state.

OK, so I've chattered on too long. My next post will contain useful links.
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Name of video, "How to teach women to shoot shotgun". This instructor instructing instructors ends up being an instructor for those who would would be instructed by his new instructors (say that five times really fast; I think I have a brain cramp).



For home defense, the 20 ga is more than adequate. It has more power than a .44 magnum. Are .44 magnum, Dirty Harry, revolvers puny? No.



Mossberg promotional video for their 20 ga semiauto home defense shotgun. This sure is a pro-Mossberg video, but hey there's also some good info that is generic.



Paul Harrel on the 20 ga for home defense. Paul Harrel is one very noted firearms instructors. I love just listening to the guy. His deadpan / very-dry sense of humor will make you smile. Watch his eyes wander when he quotes someone who doesn't know what they are talking about. Paul is on your side.



Home Invasion: Defensive Measures and Responsible Gun Ownership with Sig Sauer. Promo? Yes. Informative? Yes.

 

Ruger 10-22 with BX25 magazine for the budget-challenged. For the 'affordable' crowd but a soft noses loaded SKS still is wise, too. And the AR-15. AK, M-1 carbine and Mini-14 are probably the wisest choices many can people can afford, too.

 

Short barrel revolvers.

Most .38 special revolvers with a small frame have 5 shots -- the cylinder holds 5 rounds. Large frame .38s carry six rounds, however the frame often does not fit in a woman's hand comfortably whereas the smaller frame revolvers simply feel better.

There are now a couple of .32 cartridges that equal the performance, have the power, of the .38 Special. These can be found in small frame revolvers that hold 6 cartridges, not just 5 cartridges. The two cartridges are the .32 H&R magnum and the .327 Federal magnum cartridge (a more recent cartridge).

The .327 Fed mag cartridge in a small revolver produces what I believe to be too much recoil and sound blast for most female shooters. Some men have meat-hook hands and thus cannot empathize with those who have smaller hands. Never let a man talk you into a heavy-recoiling firearm. Yes, there is the .357 magnum that is a VERY effective critter-dropper, however it recoils like crazy and even with light loads is difficult to control by many folk with small hands. Don't let any macho-idiot start you out trying to shoot the .357 even in light loads such as the "low pressure" 110 grain bullets/cartridges. This is decidedly not funny. Heavy recoiling loads will cause you to develop a flinch when shooting.

The .32 H&R magnum cartridge does not recoil as much as the .327 Fed mag. nor the .38 Special. Women often tolerate very well the recoil of the .32 H&R magnum. There are light loads for the .38 special, however small revolvers in this caliber only have five (5) shots as opposed to the .32 H&R that holds six (6) shots. The H&R .32 is also able to chamber the .32 Long Smith & Wesson cartridge which is shorter, has less recoil, but an insufficient amount of energy to bring down an aggressor. Having said that, the "full wadcutter" bullets cause some seriously nasty bleeding on the part of Mr. Felon.

Small revolvers chambered for the .327 Fed mag will ALSO shoot the .32 H&R magnum. The .32 H&R mag has a slightly shorter case but the same case diameter as the .327 Fed mag, thus this H&R round fits into these .327 chambers -- no problem. Also, the .32 H&R mag does NOT generate the pressures of the longer-cased cartridge. Thus, it is OK to shoot the .32 H&R in revolvers chambered for .327 Fed mag.

With a .32 H&R revolver, you have an effective firearm. I recommend the Ruger sp101 which is solid and holds 6 rounds/cartridges (NOT the GP100 that has a larger frame that might be too large for you). I love the fact that it has a three inch barrel -- that's the length you wish.

https://ruger.com/products/sp101/specSheets/5784.html

Note that the sp101 is chambered for the .327 Fed mag -- so what, you can shoot .32 H&R mag cartridges in it, even the old .32 Long (way over 100 years old). If you can handle the .327 Fed mag, great, but when out blasting away at the rifle range, don't hurt your hand, have fun not torture. Speaking of the .32 long, get some .32 Long in target wadcutters -- the recoil for these is like shooting a .22 long rifle = almost no recoil. You can practice, practice, practice for getting used to the revolver, THEN move up to shooting the .32 H&R magnum that has more recoil (but not punishing recoil as the .327 Fed can bring you).

Explanation about wadcutters: this bullet has a perfectly flat front -- it's like shooting a lead can downrange. The flat front cuts perfect holes in paper, thus easier to score in handgun target shooting; yes, these puppies are accurate. They also cut perfect holes in people -- they do not push veins and arteries aside, they cut through them and cause nasty bleeding.

Lately in my neck of the woods, I've been seeing lots of .32 H&R ammo available for sale. In picking a firearm, make sure that your gun dealer has plenty of ammunition for you to buy. You need to practice and quite frankly, it is just downright fun to go out and target practice. I fill empty 2-liter bottles with water, freeze them solid in a chest freezer, and take them out to the range in a cooler. Depending on the cartridge, these puppies will blow apart. These .32's I've been talking about will turn the ice to mush, blowing a nasty hole out the back of the bottle. Fun, fun!

Here is a fellow shooting a Ruger LCR in .327 Fed magnum (a very small revolver). Four minutes into the vid. he loads and shoots .32 H&R ammunition in the revolver, note the recoil, it is minor. He shoots .32 Automatic in the revolver; please avoid the .32 ACP, it has to do with the diameter and width of the case rim, thin rim thickness can equal punctured primers (long, involved story). When he shoots the .327 Fed magnum loads, note that these have significantly greater recoil.




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And then there are women who are not new to firearms.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/06/19/alabama-grandmother-gunpoint-car-thief/







https://www.foxnews.com/us/grandma-70-shoots-alleged-home-intruder-kill-him-before-he-kills-me

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/28/sheriff-grandmother-shoots-intruder-save-family/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...andmother-60-shoots-kills-armed-intruder.html
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Recoil is based on FEAR a lot more than physics. My daughter was shooting a 357 mag when she was 8 years old. I had started her with a Ruger single-six 22lr and let her gain confidence. When I moved her to a bigger handgun it was a 357 mag but I started her on low power wadcutter target 38 special rounds. She loved it and we moved up pretty fast to full power 38 specials, +P 38 specials then light hand-load 357 and then slowly up to fire breathing +p 357 mag hand loads. Hell she even liked a Thompson Center with a 35 Rem. Rifle round in it and that beast does kick.

Recoil doesn’t really hurt you much in a handgun as long as you hold it right and address it correctly. I can one-hand a 44 mag with no problem but then I am a big boy and have shot thousands and thousands of rounds. A rifle or shotgun recoils straight back into your shoulder where as the barrel of a handgun is above your hand. A lot of the recoild is turned into a rotatioal force and then it rises and only a relitivly small amount is passed to your shoulder.

I have taught a lot of people to shoot handguns both men and women. If you do it correctly they learn to enjoy it and have confidence. So many people with no experience with handguns have had their chances of easily learning ruined by some ass-hat that handed a magnum revolver to them and letting it batter them because they didn’t even know how to hold it correctly.

 

Quite frankly I suspect some of the gun welding women of our clan would pull a trigger on a screw up quicker than their male counterparts .

 

I KNOW that my wife would. For one thing women can get away with that sort of thing where they would question whether a male needed to kill the screw up. For another thing women are just meaner than men if they are protecting their family or home.

 

Have a lady friend who did not have a firearm when she bought her house.

I had a spare .22 long rifle pistol in A Beretta Jaguar Model 75 six inch barrel with spare magazines....and loaned it to her.

She told me the other day that she finally got her own gun in a Ruger .357 Magnum....which is what I advised her in because it would also handle .38 Specials. I told her either a revolver or shotgun...she chose a revolver.

However to my surprise she told me that her gun also has another cylinder which will handle 9mm.

Mind you now..I am not keen on the 9mm and yet did not even know Ruger had such an selection in another 9mm cylinder swap out.

This gives here more flexibility in the load outs/ammunition types available to her.

I think she made a wise choice.

I will get that Jaguar back from her shortly. That is a nice little .22 LR.

I always liked a wheel gun.

By the way Olde Geezer...I think you are correct in the choice of a 20 gauge for home defense and a barrel swap out for flexibility.
It follows the KISS principle.

Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

Women and firearms...wow...

I like to think I have more savvy than to come between A mother protecting her children..

History records this over and over and over again.

And come between a mother and her children when she is armed and knows and well how to use said firearm....Wow!!!

May as well be coming between Mamma Bear and her cubs....

History records this too!!!!! And I think we are going to see this one more and more often with the very very ignorance of so many entitlement minded people out here with mostly a television and or movie education.

Seems to me that a few years back there was a woman living with her child in a trailer somewhere down in Oklahomaa....and two guys broke into her trailer and she retreated into a bedroom with her child...

One of these two fellows tried to kick in the door but she was armed with a 12 gauge in that room.
As I recall...the dropped one of them right there through the bedroom door...the other one fled...
No charges were held against her...
Well done Momma Bear...well done..


Many many years ago...there were a great number of assaults in the parking lot against women in the only 24 hour open grocery store in this town...back in the days of the blue laws...

Over time so many women were assaulted, injured and robbed in this parking lot at night and the police did nothing...they did nothing..
This parking lot became known as a collection point for low lifes..predators...but it was the only 24 hour grocery store in town. As I recall in those days it was called Giant open air market or such..

Well one night they picked on the wrong woman..
This woman was a competition shooter and carried a .45 ACP Colt Government.
She dropped him in the knee and while he was down kicking and screaming put one between his eyes...dropping him permanently.

The were going to charge her with executing this fellow..but the public outcry was so intense...because of the local constabulary doing nothing about these predators for so many years......but also.....a very telling sidelight...the crime rate dropped to zero almost overnight in that parking lot..
The charges were dropped...
I don't think that would fly today...with so many soft Ishmaelites in office looking to advance their careers at public expense...and juggling/lying about the statistics.



Ishmaelites run wild...

My non Ishmaelite .02,
Watcherchris