Gun Question

[Guest]

.357 magnums are even longer, (and .357 Maximum even longer) but as far as Doc's problem is concerned, Girth is what matters -- and in that catergory, .380, .38 and .357's are all the same.

Girth always matters.

 

[TE999]

Girth always matters.

Length too.

 

[Guest]

Length too.

Happiness is a warm gun.

 

[TE999]

Happiness is a warm gun.

Happiness is a warm...kitty.

 

[Guest]

Happiness is a warm...kitty.

Purrrrrrr.

 

[TE999]

Purrrrrrr.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

'Morning Sarah,
France was fun but catching a cold wasn't.

Getting back to the original question, Harold is right. I think, given the time frame and the requirement for a "ladies gun" what Cassi needs is a good S&W K-frame .32 Special. The same advisements apply in re: marksmanship but if her Daddy took her out in the back forty each afternoon for a summer with a little .22 semiauto pistol (Colt Woodsman comes to mind) and taught her to shoot instinctively (point and squeeze) by throwing things up in the air for her to hit, it wouldn't have broken the Depression bank and by the end of the season she'd have been putting meat on the table with it. The technique is well-documented. Any woman who could shoot like that would have nothing to fear from any overbearing thug, abusive boyfriend, Gestapo, etc, etc. One shot through the eye or right under the nose and he's pushing up daisies.

 

[R. Richard]

An automatic is a better 'ladies purse gun' than a revolver, as an automatic is slimmer and doesn't get crud from the purse jammed in the revolving cylinder.

A .22 or a .32 doesn't have much stopping power if the body is the target. If the user can do a head shot, the .22 has enough stopping power. [Most professional assassins use a .22 for up close work, because it's small, light and doesn't make a lot of noise.]

Most ladies don't have the strength/don't like to handle the recoil of the heavier calibers. Even something like a .38 in an 'Airweight' snub nose has a fairly nasty recoil. [No, I don't use crap like that, if I can help it. I took one off a dead scumbag.]

If the lady is going to use a .38 or up, I would definitely explain to the reader that she has some previous gun background. Otherwise the recoil situation makes the idea seem phony.

JMHO.

 

[Elianna]

An automatic is a better 'ladies purse gun' than a revolver, as an automatic is slimmer and doesn't get crud from the purse jammed in the revolving cylinder.

A .22 or a .32 doesn't have much stopping power if the body is the target. If the user can do a head shot, the .22 has enough stopping power. [Most professional assassins use a .22 for up close work, because it's small, light and doesn't make a lot of noise.]

Most ladies don't have the strength/don't like to handle the recoil of the heavier calibers. Even something like a .38 in an 'Airweight' snub nose has a fairly nasty recoil. [No, I don't use crap like that, if I can help it. I took one off a dead scumbag.]

If the lady is going to use a .38 or up, I would definitely explain to the reader that she has some previous gun background. Otherwise the recoil situation makes the idea seem phony.

JMHO.

Being a lady who's shot a high caliber handgun (.45) and a lighter caliber (.22) I think it depends on how she's going to shoot it. A woman can handle a bigger gun fine, but probably not 1 handed. I wouldn't shoot a .45 without bracing with my other hand, or my aim would be awful due to the aforementioned recoil. A .22 would be easier to manage single-handed as if you were pulling it out of a purse and shooting it on instinct.

Like everyone else said. It's how you set it up.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Being a lady who's shot a high caliber handgun (.45) and a lighter caliber (.22) I think it depends on how she's going to shoot it. A woman can handle a bigger gun fine, but probably not 1 handed. I wouldn't shoot a .45 without bracing with my other hand, or my aim would be awful due to the aforementioned recoil. A .22 would be easier to manage single-handed as if you were pulling it out of a purse and shooting it on instinct.

Like everyone else said. It's how you set it up.

The only problem with heavier calibers in this context is that the idea that pistols should be held in two hands is a post-WWII concept. (The idea that the pistol should be held sideways is a dumb, gangsta jackass concept.)

 

[Weird Harold]

An automatic is a better 'ladies purse gun' than a revolver, as an automatic is slimmer and doesn't get crud from the purse jammed in the revolving cylinder.

You're not considering the availibility of automatic pistols in America in the 1940's -- the time period relevant to the original question. They were available, but they were NOT popular even as "ladies' guns" despite their obvious advantages for concealment. The lack of popularity seems to have been partly a perception of unreliability and partly a matter of cost.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

You're not considering the availibility of automatic pistols in America in the 1940's -- the time period relevant to the original question. They were available, but they were NOT popular even as "ladies' guns" despite their obvious advantages for concealment. The lack of popularity seems to have been partly a perception of unreliability and partly a matter of cost.

Which in those days was well-deserved. Semiautos weren't in competition for reliablilty until the '60's, with the exception of the Colt Gov't and the Browning 9mm.