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So it seems we have some handgun enthusiasts on Dakka, based on the last thread about handguns! I thought I would avail myself of your advice for my first pistol purchase. I have some specs it has to meet:

- My budget is up to $1,000.

- It absolutely has to be comfortable for someone with freakishly small hands.

- It has to be good for both home defense (or as good as a pistol can be) and acceptable for occasional concealed carry.

- It has to be capable of thriving in the event of a zombie apocalypse. This means excellent reliability, low/easy maintenance, and no known, "Oh, yeah, the slide explodes off at 5,000 rounds," 'quirks'.

Based on some of the suggestions in the other thread, over the course of the past week I've been able to shoot:

- An H&K P30 in 9mm. I was great right out of the box with 9mm, though this wasn't as comfortable for me as all the "most comfortable pistol in the world" jive suggested it would be. I can shoot pretty decent small groups with the P30 (having only shot maybe eight times total in my life before this week), and they're accurate.

- A Smith & Wesson M&P in .40. I would say this gun was sort of the vanilla Space Marines of what I shot; it was decent all-around, but wasn't great in any one area in my eyes. Feels okay, shoots okay, but .40 seems really snappy. Even more muzzle flip than the .45 I shot later.

- A Beretta Px4 in 9mm. Cool-looking gun. Shot decently. Berettas apparently have some reliability issues, though.

- An H&K HK45C. Not uncomfortable, but not hand-soothing either. I couldn't get them to put in the small backstrap to see if that made a difference. Tight groups, but low, which suggests I'm flinching with the .45 where I'm not with the 9mm. I may be slightly leaning towards .45 just because all the know-it-alls on other forums insist that if I ever actually need to use a firearm to defend myself, .45s will stop a charging rhino while 9mm will ping harmlessly off of small babies.

- A third-generation (I think) Glock 17. Why does this gun hate my hands? It was accurate enough, but I can't see myself ever really liking Glock grips.

- I didn't get to actually shoot it, because it wasn't a rental gun, but I got to dry fire a Walther PPQ, and it was far, far, far and away the most comfortable gun. I'm told it behaves like a P30 clone, so this may just be in the lead at the moment.

This is by no means what I'm narrowed down to, but hopefully will help in diagnosis of what fits my needs.

Would you mind measuring your hand from the base of your palm to the tip of your middle finger?

AustonT wrote:Would you mind measuring your hand from the base of your palm to the tip of your middle finger?

6.75 inches.

Freakishly, freakishly small.

If you read the other thread you'll find most of the suggestions I made to him useful, I was writing for a person with smallish hands in mind. If this is your FIRST pistol purchase I actually recommend a Ruger Mk3/45. It has the grip shape of a 1911 and you can shoot a lot.
I always recommend that people with small hands look to single stacks first, but its worth mentioning that Glocks have a lot of extra space in the grip. My buddy Greg has tiny hands, think 6 1/2. He shaved his grips on his Glock and it's perfect. With a budget of 1k you can bring home a Mk3/45 and a Police trade in Glock 22 and possibly have enough left over for a drop in 9pm barrel and mags. That's probably my best recommendation if you don't like it I can make more.

Yeah, really not a fan of the grip angle on Glocks. Don't know what it is.

That's fair I never have been either, I just like the versatility the platform offers me. If you aren't in a big hurry to buy, I'll see if I can take some pictures of my Glock with Greg's also take a look at this article on Brownell's
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=10437/GunTechdetail/Glock-Grip-Reduction-Custom-Beavertails

Now the gun I think is PERFECT for small hands is the Sig 220, or the P5. You could also take a look at the sig 250, according to army testing it has reliability issues, I have my doubts as to how that might pop up in civilian use and I like the trigger/stricker worth a look.
If you don't like Glocks you probably won't like kahrs or Xds but that's not a universally true statement. You might see if you can rent a 4 inch 357 at the range and shoot 38s I guarantee you'll love it, it's not the most practical carry gun but you can make repeatable hits at 100M and its a one hitter quitter when it matters.

AustonT wrote:That's fair I never have been either, I just like the versatility the platform offers me. If you aren't in a big hurry to buy, I'll see if I can take some pictures of my Glock with Greg's also take a look at this article on Brownell's
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=10437/GunTechdetail/Glock-Grip-Reduction-Custom-Beavertails

Now the gun I think is PERFECT for small hands is the Sig 220, or the P5. You could also take a look at the sig 250, according to army testing it has reliability issues, I have my doubts as to how that might pop up in civilian use and I like the trigger/stricker worth a look.
If you don't like Glocks you probably won't like kahrs or Xds but that's not a universally true statement. You might see if you can rent a 4 inch 357 at the range and shoot 38s I guarantee you'll love it, it's not the most practical carry gun but you can make repeatable hits at 100M and its a one hitter quitter when it matters.

I forgot to mention SIGs. I've shot them before, just not within the past week when I was really looking at a potential purchase rather than just going to shoot a few rounds. I like them, but anything manufactured after 2004 is apparently a bit of a risk on the reliability side of things.

Revolvers are somewhat in the running, though I think I'd ultimately prefer a pistol.

You might consider one of the many varieties of CZ75 or Browning/FN BDA/Hi Power.

Are we busy talking about buying murdering weapons? Oh my, were are we going, world...
Anyways, good luck, hope you wont need the gun and use it wisely..

thenoobbomb wrote:Are we busy talking about buying murdering weapons? Oh my, were are we going, world...

Yeah, Americans are weird. "I'm going to buy something to help me take away another man's life, any advice?".
Very strange.

Joey wrote:

thenoobbomb wrote:Are we busy talking about buying murdering weapons? Oh my, were are we going, world...

Yeah, Americans are weird. "I'm going to buy something to help me take away another man's life, any advice?".
Very strange.

Maybe for Russian Roulette..

@Joey, Noobbomb: I think you guys had better start another thread. Remember, Rule Number Two is "Stay On Topic." Thanks!

Joey wrote:

thenoobbomb wrote:Are we busy talking about buying murdering weapons? Oh my, were are we going, world...

Yeah, Americans are weird. "I'm going to buy something to help me take away another man's life, any advice?".
Very strange.

Says the guy that truly thinks he can take on a bobcat bare handed




OP - Have you thought about a revolver then? The grips are different then a semi auto, and may better fit your small hands. And they actually come in barrel lengths from 2 inches (commonly called a snub nose) all the way up to over 10 inches.

KC, you forgot about when he said he wanted to rape mattyrm.

KC it was actually a mountain lion.

I suggested a revolver too...waiting for OP to return. I always get excited about guns...mmm guns.

I'd prefer to avoid a revolver just due to lower capacity.

Revolvers are cool.

Take a peek at the S&W 627 and 625.

If you have freakishly small hands, I don't think you are likely to find many double stack magazine autoloaders fit your bill. Both the above revolvers fit under your price range, they can easily fit those who have small hands, if .357 presents a recoil issue you can still fire .38 special with no modification of the gun or moon clips (And I find .45 ACP no worse than 9mm or .40) in the appropriate barrel length they can certainly be CCWed, and a stainless steel revolver is about as low maintenance as you can get.

Additionally, I find that revolver triggers are more agreeable, and they don't have the little "quirk" of potentially having the slide pushed out of battery and not getting "BANG!" when the situation dictates you must take a contact shot.

.38 special for a revolver is a solid choice. Compact (If you go snub nosed), easily handled by the small-handed, RELIABLE, and hits hard enough.

Based on your applicable use, a revolver's capacity won't matter. If you have to shoot someone in defense less rounds is better than more, you are criminally liable for damage injury and death for rounds fired in self defense that do not hit thier intended target. A snub is easy to hold easy to conceal and utterly reliable. It also provides more shot for shot fire power than similar automatics.
Your best bet in semi autos are Walther/Interarms PPK/S, SW Bodyguard 380, Glock sub compact single stacks, Kahr, Colt Mustang/Sig238, compact 1911s, etc. Single stack compact to sub compacts.
A larger SW N frame revolver will get you 8 shots of 357 in a 4 inch barrel tha is reasonable to conceal, accurate, reliable and relatively high capacity. It's also a bangstick that can perform any task you give it from big game hunting, to target shooting, to self defense.

Kilkrazy wrote:Revolvers are cool.

They are. They're also efficient too for self defense unless you're in, like, mexico or afghanistan.

Melissia wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:Revolvers are cool.

They are. They're also efficient too for self defense unless you're in, like, mexico or afghanistan.

Or a zombie apocalypse.

I'd get something that shoots .40. Everybody's using it these days. Easy to scavenge for ammo.

Or am I the only one who read that part of the requirement list in the OP?

Revolvers are easier to maintain as well. They're much simpler to take apart and put back together.

I categorically ignore references to a zombie apocolypse as I've found it's a pseudonym for a general breakdown of governmental authority, a reference lost on a large number of people who perpetuate the Z Day nonsense.

Buy a Colt 1991.

That's my opinion on all gun threads, by the way.

Walther PPQ .40. Done. Muzzle flip'll be a bitch for a bit, but it'll get figured out.

Colt 1861.

You can make your own ammo by scavenging from church roofs, charcoal and pee.

Sadly colt stopped making their good revolvers and are now only making SAAs...

Rascon wrote:I'd prefer to avoid a revolver just due to lower capacity.

Lower capacity? Why? If your in a self defense situation, your going to be close enough, where aiming shouldnt be much of a concern. If your carrying, alot of times youll be within what, 20 feet of one another. Most times right up close (say, a car jacking for example) Home defense, you really should check your "fire lanes" and measure how long they are, and get a weapon more suited for that distance. My main fire lane in my house is at its absolute longest under 30 feet, and there again, I wont need to worry about aiming much, and obviously the easier it is to hit targets, the less ammo youll most likely need.


If one were to ask me, more ammo would really only be needed in a shooting range setup, and only because you wont have to load so much. Dont forget, depending on the caliber of your revolver, it can have 5-8 rounds, sometimes 9 (my .357 has 6) and depending on the caliber of your semi auto, you can have around 8 as well (granted thats a larger round but still)

SOFDC wrote:Take a peek at the S&W 627 and 625.

If you have freakishly small hands, I don't think you are likely to find many double stack magazine autoloaders fit your bill. Both the above revolvers fit under your price range, they can easily fit those who have small hands, if .357 presents a recoil issue you can still fire .38 special with no modification of the gun or moon clips (And I find .45 ACP no worse than 9mm or .40) in the appropriate barrel length they can certainly be CCWed, and a stainless steel revolver is about as low maintenance as you can get.

Additionally, I find that revolver triggers are more agreeable, and they don't have the little "quirk" of potentially having the slide pushed out of battery and not getting "BANG!" when the situation dictates you must take a contact shot.[/quote
I have to disagree. I think he needs to try out the firearms first to see if they feel ok. The Wife and GC have small hands but both love the Beretta 92 with Hogue grips. The finger grips are actually larger than standard.

Good advice overall though and I must say, the OP had a nice access to weapons. Have you looked at Walther yet?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Melissia wrote:Sadly colt stopped making their good revolvers and are now only making SAAs...

That may change. Since the military is buying less rifles, they are restarting a plethora of the discontinued lines for the civilian market. Restarting the python would be epic
choice.