Joe, thank you so much for your input; it's greatly appreciated. With the job I do I am in the position of, " There is no such thing as too much safety". I carry that over to most everything. Wife will get training in the use of the .38 Snubnose and if I'm in town will attend. The weapon is home defense only ( at this time ) and I want the wife to expect and deal with the recoil if, God forbid, it becomes necessary. As with the shotgun, she was "surprised" at the recoil of 7/8 oz loads ( not in the pipe now ) so I want her to expect the recoil of a pistol and not be unwilling to fire the other 4 rounds.
Next we work on using the speedloader. Then.......
.38 spl. in snub is like nothing and very easy to control IMHO. Great first defense. I was told by my instructor that most SD shootings occur at 7', no BS.
You are certainly on the right track and please let me reiterate that I'm no expert but I've had a bit of experience. Here's a breakdown of the handguns I've owned, fired and handloaded for:
Ruger Bisley in .45 Long Colt with custom timing, gold inlayed cylinder and trigger and timing work. The gunsmith sucked and I learned my lesson 800 bucks later.
Ruger Vaquero .45 Long Colt in stainless steel. Awesome grip angle that put the hammer right in my thumb on recoil for a quick ****. I could fire that as fast
accuratelyas a double action revolver. The only problem was that the trigger itself cut my trigger finger with hot 300 gr. (Elk and Bear)handloads. Nothing a die grinder and some polishing didn't fix.
Ruger Blackhawk in .44 mag with a 7 1/2" barrel. What a beast and I swear that bastard with IMI ammo (Israeli Military Arms) about killed my hearing. I was using ear plugs not muffs.
Colt Anaconda .44 mag in stainless with a 4 1/2" barrel. It didn't like hot loads like those from Buffalo Bore or my own handloads but it had the sweetest double and single action trigger pull of any revolver I ever owned. I'm still kicking myself in the *** for selling that Colt. That sucker went camping with me here in Colorado more times than I can remember.
Glock 23. Cougar and man size protector. Super reliable and accurate and nothing like having those three tritium dots and 13 shots of .40 on the bedstand.
That's pretty much it IIRC for handguns.
