NoMercy:
Thank you for taking the time to respond so thoroughly. That gives me a bunch of good data, confirms things I have read other places, adn was exactly what I was looking for. Great post. I think a small J-frame sized wheelgun in 32H&R would be perfect for her IF the ammo prices weren't so bad. Looked at some of those against 38spl today on-line, and the cheap 32 is higher than the pricey 38, with a quick average appearing to be about double the price. Icky, and definitely not conducive to a lot of practice. Who wants to blow over $1 per trigger pull? Definitely leaning toward 38 for this now, but will keep the performance of the 32 and 327 in mind for someone for whom ammo price may not be so much of an issue.
NCZ:
We will go to the range in a week or so we'll see how her hand fits the Ruger and some others. She has the unfortunate combination of small palms AND short fingers, so trigger reach is going to be the deciding factor on gun frame size. My snubbie 5-shot fits her perfectly, but anything with more reach won't work, so I think the bigger guns may have to stay on the shelf for this one. I think a 3" or 4" barrel would be a good compromise between small enough to handle and long enough to provide a good sight radius.
If she goes 9mm (which is unlikely after our discussion of semi-auto malfunction clearance drills and the foolproof simplicity of revolvers) there are a bunch of nice 9's out there to look at. The SR9c is already on that list. Thanks for the heads up.
