Recently Mrs. ZM has rekindled her desire to learn more and participate more in the shooting sports. This makes me happy as the shooting sports are an area where my knowledge base and willingness to help is strong. Mrs. ZM likes shooting revolvers, specifically hammered revolvers, again this is just fine by me, mostly because her preferences are her own. Recently we took her out to rent and try several firearms, she enjoyed the larger L-Frame Smith and Wesson Revolvers as well as the smaller 22 caliber pistols, basically she likes a lighter felt recoil. The question she asked and this is where I had to push my own personal bias was whether I felt 22 was a good self defense caliber, to which I responded that it was not a great choice for personal protection do to size and mass of the projectile where as the 357 magnum was capable of delivering very effective damage to a target whether it be for food on the table or for defending of ones life.
This is where some decisions have to be made, and where I feel I need to help guide my less experienced partner to getting something that she will not only find enjoyable to shoot but also will give her the confidence to master and should the day ever come that she needs to defend herself, her family, or her friends she can do so effectively and safely. I also have to try very hard to not interject my own biases into this discussion anymore than is wanted, needed, or contributory to the task at hand. Thinking on this I realized that there are many well meaning but wrong headed thinkers out there who might want to purchase a firearm for their partner, but for whatever reason fail to get something that will be acceptable for the situation. This I believe is because not only do we imprint our own personal feelings on a situation but also we tend to listen to experts in the field as to what will be an ideal gun for everyone, forgetting there is no such thing as a cookie cutter approach to firearms use. So I am going to take some time and attempt to offer my knowledge to the masses, I will use Mrs. ZM’s journey as the core example but it could be anyone.
The first question we have to tackle is probably the most important. What does she like to shoot? This question is so often overlooked in this day and age, with everyone and their brother saying that the best firearm is a striker fired polymer firearm. This was a pretty easy question to answer, my wife has loved shooting my revolver for as long as I have known her, she is not a fan of the functionality of most semi autos and has trouble loading magazines, making a semi auto not a good choice from the stance that she wont want to shoot it because it just wouldn’t be enjoyable.
The next question is what is she going to do with the gun? For Mrs. ZM the answer to this is complicated, she has friends who want to go out and shoot more often, my up coming surgeries and work schedule give her a need for a self defense gun, she may at some point want to get her permit to carry, and it needs to fit her hand. This is where many people make a mistake, they attempt to fulfill several tasks at once while ignoring others. For many they see a lite revolver that will carry well in a good caliber but wont be fun to shoot, or they go with a heavier revolver without thinking about how they intend to carry the gun. The firearm also can’t be to big that she can’t get a good hand around the grips, but not so small she can’t get a good grip on the gun. The idea of wanting versatility for all of Mrs. ZM’s needs has always been paramount in my mind in relation to shooting, I at one point had her using a different revolver that she enjoyed shooting but after reading some bad reviews and then easily recreating the point of failure for the firearm I felt that the firearm wouldn’t be good for personal defense and it went back into the safe for eventual use as trade in fodder. Mrs. ZM did really enjoy shooting my S&W 686 with a 6 inch barrel, which became the starting point for our search for the perfect handgun for her.
We took several trips to the various big box and independent stores that sell firearms locally and this is where I was reminded about the old saying, everyone has an opinion and everyone wants to share it. We went in with a clear objective to find a revolver for Mrs. ZM, during that time we were shown multiple semi auto handguns that I liked very much, and for some reason despite saying we were shopping for the hot red head they kept handing the guns to me. She would take the gun, hold it in her hand to get the feel for it but more often than not she would hand it back because it just wasn’t working for her. We did manage to narrow the search down to a few firearms that she really liked and we decided to go to a local range that rents firearms and let her have a chance to shoot a few of the guns she liked.
Before I get into what Mrs. ZM has chosen I feel it would be valuable to share my incites into some of the draw backs to the choices of firearm Mrs. ZM was presented with.
The first thing we considered was shoot-ability, Mrs. ZM is still relatively new to the shooting world and knowing my wife the way I do I knew she would want to master her new weapon so as to be knowledgeable enough to take a brand new shooter out with her and help that person become comfortable around firearms. This requirement meant that whatever gun she chose she had to be able to spend a great deal of time at the range, this meant that one of the super lite revolvers that although are great for carry they are painful to shoot for long periods of time. So we knew we needed a steel framed revolver that she could shoot both 38 special but also 357 magnum out of.
The next hurdle we encountered was the potential for Mrs. ZM to want to carry her new revolver. This is where we ran into a great deal of controversy in regards to what is generally accepted as the right carry gun. mainstream thinking says you want to carry a light handgun with a small discrete frame while still being able to carry an adequate number of rounds. For most people this means a semi automatic sub compact pistol, in a revolver this means either a small frame or a lighter weight metal or polymer frame gun, either option is 5 rounds and in 357 magnum an extremely uncomfortable weapon to shoot. We also couldn’t find one that fit Mrs. ZM’s hand well enough.
We did a great deal of research trying to find a proper gun for her and I was beginning to give up, when I had the proverbial “Duh” moment, We will be looking to get her a Smith And Wesson 686 with a 3 inch barrel, with seven rounds, the grip fits her hand, and it has a enough weight to make shooting it comfortable for her. There are some that would argue that a heavy frame revolver would not be a good choice for concealed carry, I would argue against that, if a person is willing to take the time to practice and get the right kind of holster there is no reason for them not to carry the gun they want.