Need gun advice on concealable 9mm.

4-19-09 | Self

[Blood of Tyrants]

Okay, I am looking for an easily concealable 9mm handgun for my wife. Main qualities (not necessarily in order), 1) Reliability, 2)min. size/weight 3) Preferably under $400, used is okay if with a lifetime warranty. 4) approx. 10 round mag. 5)Double action only trigger so that there are no safeties to fumble with

Disqualifiers: cheap junk, Taurus semi auto. I had almost talked myself into believing that Taurus had improved their semi-autos, and today I looked at a brand new Taurus PT-111 that was inoperable.

Thanks. BoT

[Blood of Tyrants]

Looked as some H&K’s today. WAAAAAYYYY over $400.

[scripter]

Yeah, I purchased mine when money was plentiful and back then, we didn’t really look at prices. We certainly do now. I guess if money isn’t a problem... :-)

[mcmeador]

I would have suggested a Kahr PM9 until you said under $400 and 10-round mag. The PM9 comes with a 6- and a 7-round mag and is about $700 with tritium night sights or about $600 w/o them I believe. Here's a link if you care to check it out: PM9

Also there is the slightly larger P9 which isn't quite as expensive, but still only holds a 7-round magazine: P9

I carry the PM9 in a cheap inside-the-pants holster on my right hip. I usually wear t-shirts, so they hang over it and you can barely even see a bulge there. You wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking for it. It's also very light. It didn't take too long to get used to carry it there either.

[fella]

Considering all the junk ............ uuuuuh ............ I mean important stuff that a woman carries in her purse a semi-auto could be prone to jambs at the wrong time. A snub-nosed 38 might be a better choice for her. For reliability, weight, price and double action they fit the bill the only thing lacking is the number of rounds you want.

[Obamageddon]

I consider the Glock 19 concealable, but you may need the tiny Glock 26. Either one will take up to a 30 round mag because of Glock’s internal mag catch system.

[voteNRA]

Where can I got one for that price?

I purchased my Sig 250 from Gander Mountain in February for $649.99.

I did a quick online search and came up with these, you would just have to find a local FFL to have the gun shipped to (in my experience you can usually find one to process the transfer for around $20 or so)

Sig+P250+Compact+9mm+With+NIght+Sights $599.95

sig-sauer_p250-compact-9mm-t-tone-siglite-night-sights $620.95

As for the Pre-Owned guns, you just have to keep looking, here is one I found:

pre-owned Sig_Sauer_P250_Compact $490.00

My other carry gun is the Sig P2022 (9mm) which is a full frame pistol but I have never had any problems concealing inside the waist band. You should be able to find one at any sporting goods shop for $500 or under.

Hope this helps

[Atlas Sneezed]

www.cdnninvestments.com often has nice euro pistols in your price range as used agency trade-ins.

Give them a call.

[epow]

Back when I was selling guns before Clinton's JBTs shut my perfectly legal gun store down on a technicality I usually recommended a S&W Airweight .38 special J-frame revolver to prospective buyers of a lady's purse or holster gun. The simplicity of the safe but always ready double action trigger pull of a quality built DA revolver is ideal for most people who aren't "into" handguns. But that was 15 years ago and now the .38's recoil is too much for my wife's arthritic hands to handle, and that would probably be the same situation for many ladies who can't or don't want to practice enough to become accustomed to dealing with the recoil. Charter Arms is now making a small frame 12 ounce .38 DAO snubby revolver that should make an almost ideal lady's purse gun except that it probably has too much recoil for most ladies, because most won't fire it enough in practice to become used to the sharp kick of a very lightweight handgun. Charter went through a period of turning out poor quality guns a few years ago, but is now supposed to be building much better guns under new ownership.

My current warm weather carry piece is an 8.3 ounce KelTec .380 loaded with Federal HydroShok ammo. My wife's arthritic hands and wrists can handle it's recoil for a few shots but not enough to become proficient with it. So she still carries her little S&W small frame .32 revolver with my handloaded hollowpoint ammo that would probably blow up an old top-break .32 revolver, but are safe in a quality-built modern steel gun like hers. It's not a high performance combination by any means, but a 90 grain Sierra hollowpoint moving out at a chronographed velocity of 1070-1100 fps beats a typical .25acp "lady's gun" by a looong country mile.

I said all that to say this, you might want to consider a used high quality snubnose .38 revolver for your wife's carry gun. They're as reliable as a wood stove and simpler to operate than any semiauto. Another selling point is that there are lots of barely used specimens on the used gun market at very low prices compared to used quality built semiautos. A steel frame Smith J-frame weighs about 21 ounces unloaded and the Airweight Smiths weigh 15 ounces unloaded, and with good hollowpoint +P ammo such as HydroShok or Gold Dot they are adequate to handle anything she is likely to encounter unless she's planning a visit to Afghanistan.

[CholeraJoe]

I own five Taurus handguns - two semi-autos and three revolvers. They are accurate and reliable. I’ve put at least 200 and in one case 500 rounds through them without a single misfire or feeding problem. I carry one of them nearly constantly.

Sorry you don’t share that opinion. When your S&W jams or your Glock accidentally discharges, don’t come crying to me.

[bmwcyle]

I have a Taurus Judge (1 1/2 old) and a PT 99 9mm (over 20 years old). The range masters always ask me at the range if they can fire them both. They both fire well. My FFL friend in Pennsylvania shoots them and fires well cold on the first try. I have no problem with Taurus.

[CholeraJoe]

I have a Judge and a .44 Mag Tracker, a Rossi(owned by Taurus) .357 with a short barrel, a Millenium in .45 ACP and a 24/7 OSS in .45 ACP. All are more accurate and dependable than my Ruger or S&W weapons.

[bmwcyle]

You can have problems with any gun. That is why you have gunsmiths.

[epow]

I fully agree with your high opinion of the CZ-52 pistols and the 7.62x25mm Russian pistol and subgun cartridge, IMHO that is no doubt one of the all time best com-bloc surplus gun/ammo packages to hit the post-cold war US market. I don't usually favor .32 caliber pistols for SD, but the high velocity 7.65x25mm bottleneck round is an exception and I wish some ammo company would offer it with a JHP bullet that would expand enough on impact that it wouldn't exit an average size human body.

However, that may not be as much of a negative factor as I once thought it was, because I recently read some new annually compiled data showing that it's extremely rare for innocent bystanders to be hit by police-fired bullets that penetrate human bodies, or even those that so often miss the intended target entirely. I read that in a gun rag I picked up from a Walmart magazine rack while waiting for my wife to shop through the whole 40 acre store, so it may or may not be true.

[joseph20]

SIG P239 does not have a safety.

[Terabitten]

Glock 26. Game, set, match.

I carry one every day.

[MHGinTN]

I’ve tried to find one in my area and it is impossible. Not one gun dealer in a 75 mile radius has one or can seem to get one shipped in. I really want to pick one up w/holster while they can be purchased, and would like to purchase extra mags and a minimum of 500 rounds, also. Guess it is just not gonna happen.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I had a friend just buy one of the Charter Arms lightweight pistols. She had to shoot a good quantity of ammo at her CC qualifying course and she reported that when the gun started to heat up, it started to jam up. The cylinder wouldn’t easily turn and the casings stuck in the cylinder. They took it back.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Like I told a friend, some people swear by the Taurus semi autos, some swear at them.

[BooBoo1000]

Forget all of those vegetable soup guns, Xm.Cz’s etc. Go to www.gun-broker, and type in Browning Hi Power, 9MM. Then you will be in business. If you can find a Browning, you will be very happy. Browning is the originator of the 9MM during the 1st world war, and has been making them every since, mine holds 9 rounds, is in beautiful shape, and no problem with reliability.
Don't buy a Block ; no safety //

[epow]

Oh well, so much for Charter guns being improved by new ownership, the plant must still employ the same quality control people who worked for the previous owner. And that’s a shame, because the original design seems to be very good, and the first generation snubby revolvers were well liked by many plain clothes LEOs and were also used by quite a few street cops as BUGs.