How can my wife strengthen her hands/arms to rack the slide?

[JulieG]

Try this with an empty gun, no ammo.

Have her turn her body about 45 degrees into her gun hand. The hand with the gun still stays pointed "down range" even though her body is turned. She should hold the gun so that the butt of the gun is level with her waist line, slide parallel to the floor. Then have her make a "C" with her support hand and clamp it down on the back of the slide. The support hand is going to stay in place. With the support hand gripping the slide (HARD), have her push forward with her gun hand sharply and strongly while holding the slide with her support hand in place. It's almost like a sharp jerking motion, the punch technique mentioned above. Using this technique she should be able to rack the slide after giving it a try.

Locking the slide to the rear can be a real challenge with a heavy recoil spring and small hands. I struggle with my shorter thumbs on some handguns. One way to get the slide locked to the rear is to insert an empty mag that will lock the slide back. Once its locked open, just take out the empty mag.

Hope that helps!

[randypollock]

Thanks Julie,

She will be please to see you posting to help her (not the guys aren't special) but well your Julie aka rock star to her.

[JulieG]

Thanks Julie,

She will be please to see you posting to help her (not the guys aren't special) but well your Julie aka rock star to her.

Thanks, Randy. I am honored. If for some reason my explanation wasn't clear let me know!

[Mike Honcho]

What about trigger fingers? I've seen females resort to using both index fingers to pull the double-action trigger on an M9.

[randypollock]

Weather here has prevented us from being outside to practice this...hopefully I will post again later this week (with video)

[jslaker]

What about trigger fingers? I've seen females resort to using both index fingers to pull the double-action trigger on an M9.

I had this with a female friend and a P226, but I honestly think it was the gun being far too large for her hands as much as anything. I do think it's a valid concern, though.

[Shellback]

Good info in this thread. My wife and I are working on the same problem currently. I think we may have the same problem of brute strength versus technique when I was demonstrating it for her. Last night practicing racking the slide, magazine changes and basic gun manipulations she was barely able to rack the slide on a Glock 19.

The 2 times I've taken her shooting we focused on grip, sight alignment and trigger control while I took care of loading/unloading and handling of the weapons. Now we're moving on to her taking more control of the gun.

Best words I've heard in a while last night, "Maybe I should take a basic shooting class."

[dookie1481]

Good info in this thread. My wife and I are working on the same problem currently. I think we may have the same problem of brute strength versus technique when I was demonstrating it for her. Last night practicing racking the slide, magazine changes and basic gun manipulations she was barely able to rack the slide on a Glock 19.

The 2 times I've taken her shooting we focused on grip, sight alignment and trigger control while I took care of loading/unloading and handling of the weapons. Now we're moving on to her taking more control of the gun.

Best words I've heard in a while last night, "Maybe I should take a basic shooting class."

Irish, if she takes a class locally, please let me know. My GF wants to start shooting too and she would love having someone to go with.

[David Armstrong]

Something you can do with guns that have an exposed hammer is simply cock the hammer before racking the slide. That takes up a lot of the pressure.

Someone may have already covered this, but:
Grasp firearm grip panels firmly in strong hand (assume right) with barrel pointed to the left, horizontal to the body. Grap slide with left hand in an overhand grip to the rear of the slide so that both thumbs are on the same side (closest to body). Drive the points of the thumbs toward the opposite elbows.

[Shellback]

Irish, if she takes a class locally, please let me know. My GF wants to start shooting too and she would love having someone to go with.

Absolutely! Looking at first taking the NRA Basic Pistol class, maybe even First Steps, and moving on from there. There's a class on 4/23 for BP ($75) that we're looking at getting her into with this guy http://www.safetyfirstfirearmtrainin...irst/Home.html. I don't know anything about him but on the NRA site he's the only one who pops up with classes in our area.

I'll shoot you more info via PM.