Grandma's House Gun

[Rotorblade]

Recently my father in law passed away and my elderly mother in law wants a firearm to keep around the house. My thoughts are that it will likely end up in a shoe box in a closet but she is insistent on getting one and she has asked for my help in finding something suitable. Any ideas are appreciated:

Requirements:
She is elderly, small and kind of frail (maybe 95 lbs wet).
She won't be able to master any external controls or rack a slide.
She will likely be very recoil sensitive, have a weak grip etc.
She probably won't take any safety precautions too seriously.

I'm actually wondering if she might be better off with a 20 gauge 18 inch barrel shotgun.
She has a full blown ADT alarm system and a dog, I think she just wants the piece of mind in knowing there is a weapon in the home. She lives in a gated community that has virtually no crime.

Any Suggestions??

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[msgt/ret]

Short-barreled 20ga is a good idea and if she wants a revolver maybe a S&W 36 or similar sized revolver loaded with standard loads rather than +Ps for the reduced recoil.

[yooperdug]

Please,no direspect here,but perhaps a gun isnt the answer.

[claude clay]

S&W 317 22LR....but perhaps a gun isnt the answer

[multistage]

You know her better than we do. If she is serious about learning how to run a gun, that's one thing. If she just wants one in the house, well, maybe not such a great idea......

[IAm_Not_Lost]

What about a Tazer? Specifically the type that have a pistol grip and shoot the charge on 15 ft. wires. That would be my best suggestion, it looks menacing, isn't lethal, and would provide your mother in law with some peace of mind.

A Ruger LCR .22 would be my next suggestion, with the stock Hogue grips it's pretty much as soft a shooting gun as can be found, and with a little safety training would be an excellent shoe box gun.

[Thunderstixx]

I think that a .410 would really do the trick. The have little recoil and still can stopo someone in their tracks especially at close range. I don't think a pistol would be a good idea as it is too easy to take away from someone like your Grandma !!! Not to mention it would be easy to drop and could possibly shoot herself or someone else in the house.

And Bless her little heart !!!

You should be proud of her !!!

My grandma was pretty independent even when she was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 92 and the doctor told her to quit smoking !!!

She had a fit told him "screw you" and said there was no way in hell she would quit now, she had been smoking for well over 50 years !!!

I loved her soooooo much !!!

Thunder

[Rotorblade]

Hadn't thought of a 410, that's a good idea! Something Jed Clampit style would make her feel safe with less of a chance of her blowing off her own head. I think she would be ok with the recoil as well.
Nothing more nerve racking then to see a 5 foot tall blue haired elderly women standing at the sliding glass door with a shotgun and a yapping toto dog!

That might be the answeru
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk

[matthew03]

S&W Model 10 .38 with a 4" Bbl and soft, recoil dampening grips. Most importantly spend time with her or set her up with some instruction on it's use.

[Outer_Heaven]

I think that a .410 would really do the trick.

You beat me the suggestion. I think that would be perfect, when I was a gangly little 12 year old I was probably 85 pounds after Thanksgiving and I could handle a .410 with ease, it ended up being one of my favorite to shoot.

[bmcgilvray]

I'm thinking that if she needs a gun at all, it ought to be a K-Frame .38 Special rather than any version of the J-Frame. The J-Frame is more an expert's gun with higher attendant recoil and she needs something she can control, shot-to-shot. She doesn't need to bother with a semi-auto pistol either.

Any sort of long gun might be more easily wrested away from her by a determined thug.


Don't you dare pull this kind of stunt with an old lady either!

A local rancher bud recently brought me a gun that the family had taken away from his wife's 101-year-old grandmother, asking me to see what was wrong with it and why it wouldn't fire. Seems my friend's wife's brother gave it to her a few years ago because she wanted a firearm for self-protection. It was a tiny Bernedelli .25 Automatic, fully equivalent in size to a Browning Baby. Only thing is, it is a striker fired design that's missing its mainspring and firing pin. I'm guessing they were deliberately removed so the poor woman wouldn't actually be able to hurt anyone with the tiny thing.

That's cold-blooded to mislead someone into thinking they have a firearm for self-protection after it has been deliberately disabled.

And then there's the fact that it is a .25 ACP. A double-pox on that thoughtless son!

[nwbackpacker]

I don't much about shotguns, but something to consider is where she will put this gun. If the size of the gun makes it more likely that she'll put it in the back of some closet somewhere, then that's not going to be a good thing. A revolver would be more easily stashed in a place that would be more easy for her to access.

I think you're going to have to take her to the range and see what her strength is. A lot of older people are way stronger than they look - my 100 year old grandmother is frail but still can push herself up by her arms when she stands. If she really is very frail then a .22 is perhaps the best option. Ruger LCR in 22, or SP101 perhaps. Realistically she's going to need more than one shot on an attacker, as do most people, and the 22 will really help her with that. If she's more of the tough-old-girl variety then stepping up to the 38 would seem appropriate.

[Haywood]

What about a Tazer? Specifically the type that have a pistol grip and shoot the charge on 15 ft. wires. That would be my best suggestion, it looks menacing, isn't lethal, and would provide your mother in law with some peace of mind.

A Ruger LCR .22 would be my next suggestion, with the stock Hogue grips it's pretty much as soft a shooting gun as can be found, and with a little safety training would be an excellent shoe box gun.

This sounds good to me.

[tkruf]

Viable options IMO would be the .410 shotgun. Something easy for her to load. Otherwise, I agree, revolver, little to no recoil. LCR .22 might be an option. Also maybe something in .327 Mag that she can down load to 32 H&R Mag, or 32 Long.

[mwhartman]

I realize there is a lot of questions regarding Taurus. I purchased a Judge for my wife. She is small and did not want to struggle with a shotgun. The recoil is very manageable.

Mike