The .38 was merely a suggestion.
BTW...this is what I carry but I'm old school:
.357 mag S&W stainless 4" K frame
Posted on 05/09/2015 4:15:10 PM PDT by keat
Never thought I'd be "that guy" seeking firearm advice on FR but here goes.
Young ms. keat attends college in Colorado while the keat family lives in California. She will be doing some remote wildlife work in CO this summer and decided months ago that she wanted to protection of a handgun, both at school and on this internship.
She did her homework, safety/shooting classes, range time with friends, etc... and had picked out a handgun (Springfield XD-S 3.3" 9mm but I'm not here to argue that, she's got small hands and definitely needs a single-stack).
Any-hoo, she goes in to plunk down her hard-earned cash today at a local shop, gets all through everything until she has to present ID and, no sale, because she's not a CO resident.
She leaves in 9 days. If anyone has any insight into what our options might be in this situation it would be appreciated. Freepmail is OK.
I've gone as far as looking into buying it here but found that gun is not for sale in CA. Guess we can be flexible on that though if transfer is an option.
Thanks in advance.
Many thanks. She'll head down Monday to DMV or whatever they call it there. I just hope gun shop will accept the temp license.
The .38 was merely a suggestion.
BTW...this is what I carry but I'm old school:
.357 mag S&W stainless 4" K frame
Thanks all and we’ll give some fresh thought to the type of gun.
Yeah, that might break the little lady’s arm.
It is easier to register to vote in several counties in Colorado than to get a drivers license.
I strongly agree about small-frame .38 revolvers for self-defense unless one is EXTREMELY well versed in a specific semi-auto, that is, have shot many hundreds of rounds from the specific weapon.
Personally, I like the small-frame spurless, but-still-thumb-cockable revolvers for shooting single-action. Single action is more accurate for the average person, especially those with small and/or less-than-strong hands. These small guns are also easily, comfortably, and safely concealable.
Here’s some good choices:
At any rate, best bet for your wife is to get a Colorado driver’s license. There’s no residency waiting period AND it can help her establish residency if she desires, so as to obtain instate tuition. I think she could also just get a Colorado ID card from the Colorado DMV if she’d rather do that than the driver’s license, and that would serve as proof of Colorado residency as well.
By getting a Colorado Driver’s license/ID, she’s not limited to whatever she can buy in Kali and doesn’t have to go back to Kali to get it. She can buy pretty much any legal handgun from any dealer in Colorado. She (or you) can also purchase from gunbroker.com or the like and have it shipped to her FFL of choice in Colorado.
If she’s going to school in or near Boulder County, I could conveniently handle any out-of-state purchase for her, since I’m a Colorado FFL.
BTW, while she’s at it, she could also get her Colorado CCW.
Make sure she has a few hours if it is her first time going in...
Thanks, she's up North but I'll keep that in mind.
LMAO!!!!!
Good advice.
I’ve carried both the slim, lightweight S&W 640 which handles .38 and .357, and also the Ruger SP101 which is a touch bigger and heavier but is a dandy revolver as well.
With both these models your lady can step up to the .357 if she finds she wants a little more punch.
I like the little revolvers which always go pow when you pull the trigger and damn seldom do if you don’t.
Ya. I’m sure those little ports on the end of that snubby are going to be real helpful.
+1
You beat me to the punch.
Hammerless - can be fired from inside a coat pocket (if need be) without external moving parts to snag on things.
Reliably eats everything from milquetoast light .38s to hot .357s.
Downside - Only 5 rounds instantly available vs. 7,10,13,17 with the semi-autos.
“I always suggest that women carry a .38 revolver.”
Gerat advice! My wife, after struggling with an all but non-functional Kahr .380 ( it managed all the malfunctions you mentioned in one 6 round mag) that she had to force the shop that sold it to her to take it back, got the same advice from another shop and purchased a Ruger LCR in .38 Special. She now has two other .380 semis, but the Ruger is in the bedside lockem up. The other two things about semi’s with women is limp wristing creating malfunctions and the strength required to cycle the slide. The last issue is problematic for older women who have arthritis.
Now your talking.
I dunno about CO, but most everywhere I have been in the Rockies, it surely isn’t hard to find a gun of any kind second hand without any paperwork. It is the preferred method among most folks... Shouldn’t be too hard to find a redneck boy (well, ok, she’ll have to go outside of her college town... rednecks don’t play well with liberals), pretty well any one of which hunts, and will know where to find anything of that nature.
Secondly, a little pop gun like that is no protection in the wild... at least not up here where griz and moose are plentiful. She probably can’t run a 44mag, but a .45 acp in a 1911 frame might be ok... Understanding that generally folks have a decent carbine laying around and that the pistol is generally thought of only after the carbine is empty...
I’m sorry, but you’re a CCW instructor and you advise the little lady to carry in her purse? I am surprised. I feel that my gun is an extension of myself. It is always carried on-body...no fumbling with a purse THAT SOMEONE MIGHT TAKE FROM ME. Carrying on-body allows a person to always know exactly where their gun is.
When the neighbor kid comes over, I don’t have to worry about where my gun is and can he get his hands on it? Is my gun sitting in my purse on the seat next to me in the car, while the bad guy is blowing beer breath in my face? When I open the door to my house, my gun is right there with me, not hanging on the back of a chair.
I love the concealed carry purses! They are stylish and pretty....they just don’t fit into my situational awareness training.
I assumed that the student is going to be doing outdoor type stuff. I will agree about 9mm not being enough stopping power...for a bear. Anything else she may encounter in CO would be stopped.
And why do guys always refer women to revolvers? Little secret here: a lot of women, myself included, consider ourselves well-versed in the use of firearms. It sound like the young lady in question has done quite a bit to become well-versed. Hey, get this: Some of us even carry an extra magazine and practice switching them on the fly!
And finally, it is a lot easier to dress around a semi than a revolver.
Sorry to take you to task, please don’t take it personally. I’m just a girl with a gun who is tired of being talked down to, and tired of all those other people talking down to all those other women. Not that you were talking down to me (you didn’t even know we were having this conversation, did you?) but it’s been a long day. I spent the whole day moving, crawling up into a pickup bed, hauling and dancing with furniture, moving furniture up a circular staircase (24” wide)...all of it with my handy dandy Shield on my hip, with one in the chamber. I didn’t shoot myself or anyone else all day! Never even dropped it. Wow, who knew it could be done?
Agree with Crim. Have S&W .38 revolvers with laser grips for both my wife and I. Easy to conceal, simple and reliable.
There is something which is being repeated over and over on this thread and it is not true. It also gets stated on just about every thread about selecting the best handgun for whatever purpose.
“Revolvers go bang every time you pull the trigger”.
First of all, I love revolvers. Always have, always will. I particularly like S&W N frames. Models 24, 25, 27, 29, and 57 specifically.
I have watched cops qualifying and practicing many times. I specifically recall watching the Hattiesburg, MS PD back when they used model 65 Smiths. After just about every string, one would bring his jammed model 65 to the rangemaster to show him before clearing it.
A lot of things can happen to a revolver. If someone likes to cowboy the cylinder of a da revolver it can bend the crane. It is not too hard to bend the ejector rod. Revolvers suffer from dirt and mud worse than autos. Probably the most common is getting an empty stuck under the extractor star. There are others such as a build up in the gap between the cylinder and barrel, but you get the idea.
Now I don’t know which is more reliable, an auto or revolver. At one time it was probably revolvers. Right now I would guess it is autos. Brownings, Sigs, Glocks etc. are nearly 100%.
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