Dilemnas

[Doctype]

Ok first off this may be a little long winded so bear with me. I am looking for a nice CCW piece for my wife. She purse carries mostly for concealment at her office. No offense to the ladies, but her purse does weigh a ton. She is a business woman and has her cell phone,a PDA as well as other stuff. She is constantly changing purses as well. She carries a PT 111 in her purse or my Kahr CW 9. Both seem bulky or heavy depending on her purse causing her to abandon carrying altogether. Sometimes at 2 a.m. when she has to go in and fix a problem she will not carry due to size or weight.
Now here comes the dilemna and remember I love my wife. If it sounds like I'm bashing, that's not the intent. She has tried concealment purses and found they are not functional for her everyday needs. She prefers the mag capacity of a PT 111. Not the weight of either the Kahr or Taurus.
So my question is ,what should I look for? I need something close to a mag capacity of 12+1 like the PT 111 but lighter. Caliber is not as issue. Just need a little help and guidance.
Thanks and everyone be safe.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Jackle1886]

I'm sure you will hear a lot of this. Take your wife to the gunshop and let HER DECIDE.

[JD]

... I need something close to a mag capacity of 12+1 like the PT 111 but lighter. Caliber is not as issue. Just need a little help and guidance.
Thanks and everyone be safe.

That's going to be a tall order, the PT111 is pretty small and light to begin with, to get smaller and lighter than that, you're going to have to decrease capacity.

The only gun that comes to mind as smaller and lighter it and still has close to the desired capacity is the KelTec P11 which is 10+1 but only weighs 14oz. (unloaded) and is smaller than the PT111.

[WJP9]

Based on all your criteria I would recommend a glock 26. Small, lightweight, and has the capacity you are looking for. Smaller and lighter even---if you can find one---the new Ruger LCP. Midsize between the weight you could check out a Bersa .380....not sure on the weight there though. Good Luck. Jackle had good advice too.

[limatunes]

EEEAAAHHH.. That's a tough one. The PT111 is PRETTY darned small and light for the capacity and a gun I often recommend to people who want to go smaller and lighter than Glocks or M&Ps but still want to stay in the capacity range.

Even the Bersa Thunder Concealed Carry, which is a single stack gun, is 23 oz. which is heavier than your double stack PT111.

JD (my husband) is looking at specs for the Kel Tec P-11 and it looks like that might be your closest bet but you are still only at capacity of 10+1 instead of your desired 12+1 and that is only 4 or so ounces lighter than your Taurus.

The Glock 26 only has a capacity of 10+1 and is only .6 of an ounce lighter but I think it is a little thicker than the PT111.

Would she consider the possibility of switching a few things around? Maybe carrying the gun on body and the other stuff in the purse, or even the PDA and cell phone on body and gun in purse (though I'd prefer the former).

If she (and you) were willing to go down in capacity you could certainly go to a much smaller gun (within reasons of good caliber (meaning .380 or above)).

[Doctype]

The mag capacity she doesn't prefer is like my Kahr. Like I said dilemnas. Normally she isn't so picky and believe it or not, I forgot all about the Kel Tec. I guess that's why she's the CEO and I'm the COO of Lawn Maintenance, lifting the heavy stuff and oil changes.

[crzy4guns]

Like JD and Limatunes said, a Kel Tec P11 is THE closest thing you are going to get without reducing capacity or caliber. I don't know of a single pistol other than the Kel Tec that will be adequate for her.

[snowdoctor]

sounds like it is time to take her to the gun shop...have fun

[ev239]

Compromises, compromises, compromises...life's full of them. If they could make a 45acp handgun that weighed 10oz carried 17 rounds and shot like a .22 that would be the only gun folks would buy, but they don't so we gotta compromise.

In deciding what gun to go with you need to write out all the priorities you wife has with carrying. From what you've said weight seems to be the determining factor in whether or not she carries in the first place. So that goes to the top of the list even above the desireable high capacity everyone wants. Now lets list out the lightest guns out there (with 380's being the smallest caliber we consider).
- Kel-tec P11 9mm - 14oz
- Kel-tec PF9 9mm - 12.7oz
- Kel-tec P3AT 380acp - 8.4oz
- Ruger LCP 380acp - 9.4oz
- Seecamp LWS380 380acp - 11.45oz
- Kahr PM9 9mm - 16.5oz
- Rohrbaugh R9 9mm - - 14.1oz
- Snub nose revolver 38spl - 11-12oz

There are others that I probably missed, but you get the idea. The next thing to do would be to have her handle as many of these as she could and decide from there what fits her hand best, what she's comfortable with, what she can shoot accurately and most of all what she wants to carry.

Good luck!

[Gideon]

I think expectations need to be realistic. If the Kahr CW9 didn't do it, then you can drop to the PM9 but it becomes a snappy shooter. You can't really get any smaller than that unless you get a J frame Airweight and there you have capacity issues although personally, it sounds like a S&W 642 (with a trigger job) would be perfect for her. Any of the glocks will be similar weight or heavier and thicker/bigger than the kahr. The Keltec PF9 will be lighter than the karh cw9 but I don't think it's in the same league as far as quality goes.

Below all of that you get into something like a Keltec P3AT or the Ruger LCP ( I have both). They get you back into capacity but caliber is deminished. I really think the new Ruger LCP is basically the 3rd generation Keltec P3AT and much prefer it over my Keltec. It's weight is nothing and it would be an IDEAL purse gun in my opinion. It's up to her. People always stress to let the person make the decision and I'm all for that but, if they're not as experienced as you or others, it's good to give them some things to think about and watch out for.