Daughter thinks she wants an LC380

Time for my 2 cents, I took my lc380 to a cook out last year all of the females young and old shot it and loved it,just saying.

BradB said:

While recently talking to a gun store owner who enlightened me that a flannel shirt and leather jacket placed on a mannequin in their current testing showed 22LR can out perform a .380 in penetration in certain cases. Believe what you want. I think your daughter just has gun fever (more is better) and I don't blame her.

Unlike the big cannon crowd who think 22s are less effective than pepper spray, I favor the 22LR. Except for the little current ammo scarcity. A mediocre gun user almost took out president RR with one six shot double action rapid fire. It works with the appropriate application. Get good with it. Shoot it a lot. Clean it a lot. Practice safe handling, loading and unloading a lot. Your daughter will be able to reach out and blow through both walls of a coffee tin at distances well impressive with THAT gun. Old leather tennis shoes and 1/2" plywood scraps make great targets for self assurance that this gun will perform some lethal damage infliction in self defense.

Before blowing money on a bunch of "bigger it must be better" see what kind of fun you can have with the current tool. It's probably not wore in yet.

As far as flaming the small caliber users goes, well.... I never met anyone who wanted to get shot by one.

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I have more than one home defense hand guns and the SR22 is one of them. I agree with your comments. I would load CCI Stinger as my SD rounds. Aside from a HD gun it is also my choice for CCW. If she is in need of a holster, look on line. One source might be The Holster Store. Bought a Pro Carry for my own carry. Very happy with it.
As for a 380 revolver. Go to the range and rent one to see if she likes the trigger, recoil , grip etc.

I think any gun is better than no gun. If your shot placement is correct a .22 will do the job.

The person carrying should choose based on need and ability. I use to carry a .45, now carry a LC9 or XD9 Subcompact. I discovered training is far more important than how big your bullet is. However a .380 is the smallest I would carry for a SD gun and I am not a .380 fan.

I know this is an old thread but I recently stumbled across it and thought I might add a thought or two.

The OP's original question was, "What do you folks think about the LC380 for a woman with small hands and rheumatoid arthritis?"

My wife is sixty-six and has advanced RA and suffers from its ravages (bi-lateral knees, left hip, and left ankle replacements) and her hands are not as strong as they once were.

She has owned and shot guns with me for almost fifty years and shot IDPA (ESP) with me for several years using a custom Browning Hi-Power 9mm that I built up for her. She shot many matches with zero points down but due to her inability to run her overall score suffered.

I share that to make it relevant that she has weak hands but also is VERY acquainted with guns.

She has had a Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit for several years and her normal carry gun was a custom S&W M60 with Crimson Trace grips that I had built up for her.

A few months back she decided she wanted something lighter and not so bulky. One of her main criteria was that she had to be able to manipulate the slide herself.

We have a stainless PPK/S as well as three other small .380s. Because they are all blowback she cannot easily / comfortably function the slide so it was off to the gun stores for some "hands" on experience. I lost track of the ones that she liked but just couldn't manipulate the slide.

For an upper end (size wise) .380 I liked the G42 (although I don't normally like Glocks) but she just couldn't manipulate the slide easily.

Of course all of the micro .380s were completely out of the question.

Finally a young man showed her the Ruger LC380. As it started life as a locked breech 9mm it had a pretty hefty (for its size) slide so that when it became a .380 a much lighter recoil spring allowed it to properly function. Consequently she can easily manipulate its slide and had to have one that day.

As I mentioned she has years of shooting, both pistols as well as revolvers so the LC380's trigger was no problem for her.

Here is a seven yard head shot on an IDPA target. It was also the second magazine she put through the gun. (I have since adjusted the sights for her as well as adding a Crimson Trace laser.)








While personally I think the LC380 is a tad big for a pocket pistol (I prefer my S&W Bodyguard CT .380) it is an ideal gun for my wife. She shoots it very well and is very comfortable with it and it has functioned 100% flawlessly with everything we have put through it. Recoil is very mild and follow up shots can be very well placed.

She's not a big girl at all and surprisingly it "disappears" in her front jeans pocket.

While I am an old revolver guy (having shot IDPA SSR & ESR as well as SASS CAS for years) and have four J-Frames I don't really think they are the absolute answer for everyone's needs. For a pocket gun I personally thinks a slim pistol works somewhat better.

There's certainly no gainsaying the fact that a LC9 has more "ump" than the LC380 but it also has a more difficult slide manipulation and stiffer recoil.

For my wife's specified requirements I can't think of a handgun that would be more suitable than the LC380. Every time she shoots it she likes it more.

Last year we decided it was time to "thin the herd" and we sold about sixty-four. I'm a long time 1911 guy and have carried them and shot them in competition for years but I did cut my 1911s down to only ten now.

My own personal normal clothing carry pistol is a Colt Stainless Lightweight Commander XS (NOT XSE) with Crimson Trace Master Series laser grips in a Rosen 5JR.






Even though I really like 1911s I personally question any new shooter who would get a SIG P238 and anyone who would put one in their pocket.

I was recently at a gun show and a dealer was trying to push a P238 on a lady who obviously was NOT an experienced gun person.

For anyone with limited hand strength who wants a small well-built and VERY functional pistol I would suggest you take a look at the Ruger LC380.

FJ

What I did not realize until about two years ago when I took a lady friend shooting what that she did not have the hand strength to wrack any of the slides on any of the the semi-auto pistols I have. I suspect there are many women who have this problem... I've even seen a Walther that is specifically designed for this problem. The one pistol she was comfortable with was a Beretta 22 because the barrel pops up and you can load the first round like that and not have to cycle the slide.