After my Mom's first range trip in nearly 10 years, it became apparent that her old Colt Mustang Plus II is simply not reliable enough to be considered a defensive firearm. Stovepiping and failures to extract were common, despite a new recoil spring, extractor spring, slide stop spring, and magazine springs. The behavior persisted with multiple shooters and using many flavors of quality FMJ and JHP ammo.
She chose that little Colt back in the 80's because unlike everything else out there at the time, it fit her hand well, and it wasn't an impossible DA trigger pull for her like a J-frame.
In most cases, this would be an easy thing. But my Mother is about 5ft 4in & 100lbs in a soaking wet bath robe, has very small hands, is cross-dominant (left handed, right eyed), and still has lingering issues with an old motorcycle-induced wrist injury some 40+ years ago.
In short, she needs something small, SAO or DA/SA, easy to shoot, and has as little recoil as possible - while still being effective enough to matter.
She was taught back in the 50's and 60's to shoot with her right hand as dominant, despite being left-handed. She has stories about teachers hitting her left hand with a ruler whenever she'd use her left hand to write. Naturally, her right hand is the one with the old wrist injury. I'll be working with her on transitioning to a left hand dominant hold as time permits. But her old habits are a tough, nasty thing, mostly because she's a tough, stubborn woman.
If that persists through a few more range trips I'll likely be starting a thread in the software section about finding an appropriate instructor and class to help her, but I digress.
I had her shoot my Glock 19, and her hands are so small that was simply impractical. I had her shoot my Sig P6 and she liked that grip size, but the recoil was a bit too much for her. My Ruger 22/45 was easy for her to shoot, but was heavy enough that she had to rest for a couple minutes after shooting two mags through it.
At this point, I'm considering the Glock 42 in .380, and perhaps an older Beretta 81/84/85 depending on what I can conjure up in near-NIB condition with a couple mags. She would feel better about having more than 6-7 shots but mostly she just wants to be able to practice & possibly take a pistol class without it hurting her.
Other thoughts include a CZ83 (double stack Makarov-like DA/SA .380) or perhaps some of the smaller milsurp .32 ACP's floating around on the used market such as the CZ70's, FEG's, and FN's floating around out there, but I'd rather not have to go through a milsurp firearm for her. I'm also not crazy about a DA/SA, because she's used to her Mustang which obviously is SAO. I'm obviously not crazy about a .32 either, but if that's what she can shoot well enough to take a class and actually achieve proficiency, I'd feel a lot better better about a .32 she can shoot well and practices with vs an old Colt .380 that has trouble getting through a whole mag reliably, and that she doesn't want to shoot anymore.
So, in conclusion - does anyone have any good ideas for a low-recoil, easy-to-shoot and easy-to-run, modern SAO or DA/SA .380 that's not a sneaky-tiny compact like a Bodyguard 380, but not too big either?
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