Mrs. Slim is recoil adverse, and dislikes heavy guns. I got her a S&W 351PD. Seven shot .22 Magnum that is 12 ounces loaded. 45 grain Hornady Critical Defense ammo exits the barrel at over 1000 FPS, and penetrates 9-11 inches in ballistic gelatin with good weight retention.
It's a gun she will carry and can handle.
FYI: Bill Jordan in "No Second Place Winner" opined that a J-frame 2 inch Airweight .22 Magnum would be a great backup gun in 1965.
You ought to get the mrs. a set of Crimson Trace grips for that AirLite. Put the dot on the bad guy.
I can’t put my hands on the reference source but I did read once of a favorable comparison between .22 magnum and 9mm, barrel length and all else being equal
I wouldn’t mind having a .22 magnum revolver.
And 20 years earlier, Julian Hatcher thought that the Colt "Banker's Special" in .22LR would qualify as a self-defense piece. In the Iowa of my childhood, a lot of people did keep a .22 or .32 revolver around "just in case," and some of them were not strangers to more strident handguns.
Mr. niteowl77
My wife carries the same.
I’m with you, Slim. Lot’s of folks, especially wimmin, can’t handle much recoil. For them, a good .22 mag revolver is only 1 million times better than going bare-knuckles, as opposed to a more manly caliber, which would be about 2 million times better. But I’d take 1 million times better than a UFC fight to the death any day.
What is the DA trigger pull on your wife’s .22 mag?