LadySmith Guns
 

Anybody have experience with the LadySmith line of S&W guns? I think that I might get one for the special someone in my life, provided that there are significant reasons for doing so.

She has comfortably shot up to .45 cal (no surprise since she comes from good Bavarian stock) but I'm a real sucker for .357 magnum. That should be enough for personal carry. She wants lightweight and small.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

Never shot one or even held one, but have read reviews concerning the light weight frame being unforgiving in the recoil department, especially since it was designed for small statured gals. Typical woman issues, get the fit and suffer on recoil, tame the recoil but suffer on fit.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

The S&W Ladysmith are nice guns, but they are VERY light, and so the recoil is substantial. I bought MY someone special a Ruger SP101 in .357 Mag, with the 1" barrel. Now it is definitely not as light as the Ladysmith, it's actually quite a chunk, but its small, and it shoots like a dream.
If I'm just plinking, I shoot .38Sp in it, because the .357 rounds make your hand stink after a few shots. However, for carry purposes, we keep .357 GoldDot rounds in it. If (when) I buy another pistol, it will be another one of these for MY carry weapon.

Plus, the S&W is significantly more expensive than the Ruger.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

It's just a brand name for their smaller, lighter framed gun. It also comes in more feminine designs, colors.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

I've been unable to hold onto the ones I purchase.

Invariably a person comes up to me at the range and asks if they can try it out. BOOM, it then belongs to it's new owner.

The trick with the Lady Smiths is to shoot .38's in them. As they are designed to handle hot .357 loads, they can easily handle .38 Sp in +P+ loads, which are hot. A standard .38 Sp load WILL do the trick.

The other thing that people do not realize is that MOST gunfights occur at a distance of seven feet or less. The number of rounds fired averages three.

So I always practice my close in shots with ALL my handguns.

I try desperately to have one Lady Smith in my safe all the time. Currently I do not. Though I have recently been offered an SP101 and I might just take it if the price is right.

The wife LOVES her Taurus .357 4" comped barrel pistol. She is flat deadly with it. She has only one complaint. We don't go to the range enough for her. GO FIGURE.

You won't go wrong with a Lady Smith, especially if you fire .38's out of it. There appear to be three current Lady Smith models.

Lady Smith Revolvers

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

Yes it will. Some people look at the tech specs and are shocked that a .38 Special has about the same energy as a hot .380. That isn't the whole story though. The .38sp has the same frontal area but fires a bullet that is much heavier. The velocity is lower but the penetration is still good because the heavier bullet retains its energy well. As I recall the .38sp was the result of upgrading the old military .38 case to deliver better performance. It isn't my top pick in handgun rounds but it definately is effective even with standard pressure loads. One neat thing about the .38 Special is that it's got a lot of case capacity because it used to be stuffed with blackpowder, way back when. If you had to do some survival reloading you have enough room in there to still get some decent performance with alternative powders.

I don't like that last statistic because it doesn't tell the whole story. Most defensive gun uses don't even involve a single shot being fired. Good guy is threatened by badguy, good guy pulls gun, bad guy runs for his life. A lot of these incidents never even get called in to the police. When somebody does have to shoot they very often empty the gun, whether its a revolver or auto. More capacity is always better because like the old saying it's better to have and not need than need and not have. If it comes down to a 5 shot handgun of some kind or no gun at all, well, obviously you go with the gun.

The first one is accurate, most altercations of any kind occur at very close distances... probably because it's hard to mug somebody from a block away. You definately need to have your close quarters drills down and that includes empty hand, too. Any kind of fight is an unusual circumstance.

It does seem LadySmith's are popular BUG's even with men from what I've seen.

Now I have done blacksmithing, and bladesmithing, I've even done a little goldsmithing but I think my wife would get upset if I started ladysmithing! :D

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

The S&W J frame revolvers are nice hideout guns, but...


If you look at the news, consider the times, and have any thoughts of forming a family unit with this woman; don't buy her a special purpose handgun with limited knockdown power.

If she is a girl of healthy stature, she'll be able to handle something more powerful,( especially if you handload). A Charter Arms bulldog in .44spl or short barrel 629 will be heavier to carry but more appreciated in deployment.

If you think there remains a reason to favor a "concealed carry weapon" over a more general purpose handgun, think again. Unless you have a rather full selection of working & defense tools to select your daily armament from; go with general purpose instead of special purpose.

The days are coming, soon, when open carry in holster will be de rigeur. Your girl and you will benefit more from a weapon with adj sights, heavier frame, and capacity to chamber magnum or standard rounds.

If you don't handload, you are missing 90% of the potential from your weaponry. A slight build woman may have trouble with a large frame handgun, but if your's is not slight, she will do fine. Load a .44mag w/specials and you give her a manstopper that she can handle. Handload 8-10 gr Unique under a 250 gr SWC bullet and you have a superb all around easy to handle cheap to shoot ctg. A 250gr bullet at around 1000fps is a formidable thing.

I saw Federal American Eagle .44mag for $40/50 the other day. Yikes! Handload some moderate lead bullets at about $125 per 500 and you have a gun for multi-tasking.

Buy something that integrates well with your collection, and don't forget holster and grips.

If you are thinking of scoring points on presentation: The LS is an eyefull with rosewood grips and scroll lettering etc. Or buy her a set of diamond earrings, and stash a real gun away for her to use when the day comes. She might not be with you when the time comes, after all; but you will always find use for another quality handgun.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

I bought a Lady Smith .38 special for my wife several years ago...the only complaint was the small grips.That problem was taken care of by have the grips replaced with bigger ones.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

MM,
My only disagreement would be the .44 spl.

I LOVE the .44 spl and had a really nice older S&W in .44 Spl snubbie that was teats! But if you are going big, go for the .44 mag and load it WITH .44 spl. Best of both worlds type of thing.

Having said that, my wife flat rocks with her Taurus .357 4" comped six shot revovler shooting HOT .357 mag loads. Flat kills the X ring every time with every shot. AT LEAST out to 25 yards. Past that, she would be using an AK anyway.

Grips are always an issue. The LS has really nice ones, but if they ARE too small you can always find after markets in the same material, only larger.

My theory on the LS is it's a good 'hidey hole' type of gun. Small, light weight, easy to 'drop in a purse' unnoticed by most people.

Yes, larger IS better. But some women and even some men prefer the .38 spl over the larger calibers. As long as it's at least a thirty caliber, it's all good with me.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

Well,

I must be a wimp.
I simply don't like shooting full factory .44mag loads from a 4" N frame.
Stings the hell outa the web of my hand, no matter what grips.

I subscribe to the thought that a 240+ grain bullet hitting anything but a large bear or moose (maybe elk), will put it down if going at 850fps or more.

From a Desert Eagle or lever rifle, sure; no sweat.
Likely full power .44mags are a piece of cake from a Ruger Super Redhawk. I know the 454 Casull is pretty tame from one.

If you are going to shoot a .44magnum DoubleAction, the recovery time is a big factor. I wear XL gloves, larger if I can get them.

I bought my wife a 4" 629 about 15 years ago. Loaded with .44spl Winchester Silvertips it is very manageable.

I have never bought round nosed lead bullets. They are junk. You want the flat nose and biggest meplat area you can get.

For backpocket bluejean carry, you can't beat the 2.5" S&W model 19 or 66. A 4" N frame, or 3" custom will serve even better. But the last thing I am going to have the cylinder stuffed with is factory loads.

If TEOTWAWKI is the consideration, then I want to preserve the gun as best I can. Shooting +P+ and magnum loads in a light framed gun will not be to its benefit. (In any situation, I am going to have a Colt .45acp 1911 on me anytime things might get hoary. I want that 230gr fmj flat point or Hydra-shock and single-action with good trigger pull, and magazine reloading working for me.)

A heavy flat-point bullet at moderate velocity will take care of business, be cheap to load, enable many handloadings, and is easy to train with and shoot accurately.

The time it takes to master double-action shooting with powerful loads is huge compared to learning DA skills with light loads. Semi-wadcutter or full wadcutter bullets are superbly accurate, their full diameter cuts a neat hole and properly loaded they do less damage to a game animal than a .22long rifle.

We have a 642 .38spl. It is a nice hideout/pocket pistol; yet nothing but a gun of last resort. A J frame with adj sights would really be the cat's meow; but few buyers of these guns ever shoot them.

Want to get your girl something really elegant? Look for a short barreled Python or Diamondback. Nice investment and those vent rib barrels are kinda cute.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

I bought my two Glocks (in 45 for me, 9 for my 98 pound girlfriend) so long ago I don't remember the year but guessing about 1993.

Before I did - I read a lot of articles - handled a lot of guns at ranges and - most importantly too this thread - asked a lot of police and detectives what they carried. There was a lot of vaiation on their handguns - tho the Glock was the most popular at the time........

but what amazed me was - when it came to a backup gun - the Ladysmith was far and away their favorite! And I mean by a clear margin - almost to a man!

So I purchased one and, while I would prefer a 45 in most cases - for a backup gun, its small and does a great job in 9mm. In fact, I would argue its my favorite to shoot at the range.....its my wife's favorite to shoot too - one day I should get a second one.

First thing I did was replace the grips with Hogue grips - end of the recoil problem. Because I have it next to me in the bedroom, in case someone breaks in at night, I replaced the sights for night-sights........

If I were to carry (I am in CA so we don't) I would wear the Glock and carry the Lady in my pocket or ankle holster.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

A couple of people in this thread have mentioned using hand loads in carry weapons. Now, I'm not a legal expert, but the Sherriff's deputy from whom I took the CC class indicated that, in a self-defense shooting situation, when you go before the judge, factory loads are one of your best legal defenses that you weren't just out to kill somebody. With a hand load, because you can't prove what type of bullet you were using, or the energy behind it, there can be a lot of sticky legal questions.

Basically, an unmodified gun (grips, sights, etc. notwithstanding) with an unmodified load shows self-defense intentions.

If somebody knows better, or has direct experience, I would certainly be open to correction.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

taurus 4" comp'd 357 is a sweet piece, love it. they sold a snubbie too

sp101 is great too, didnt they used to have a 3" bbl model? do they still? great piece

I'd rather have either of those than a ladysmith. my wife snickered when we looked one of those over and picked out a colt detective special instead. girls dont need crap like that. if they dont really want to have a firearm for self defense then you got no bidness trying to convince them to buy one with the cheesy grips and branding and such. planning to shoot someone in self defense is serious and if they need a pink grip to fdo that then they need their pretty lil headz examined.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

AE,
Don't take this the wrong way, but if 'the little lady WANTS' a pink grip, WHO CARES?

Are you also going to critique your wife's wardrobe NEXT? Not me.

I learned a long time ago to be honest but ALWAYS find something NICE to say about what she WEARS. There should always be something. If not, pretend you didn't hear the question, as that's safer than telling her she looks great when that is NOT true. Yeah, a little white lie is ok, but if she's going out and still has two 'hair rollers' in her hair that she missed, and she asks YOU and YOU don't say anything...

Well, let's just hope your couch is comfy.

:shocked_ma:

Problem Solver. You WERE told correctly. But a lot of us have several 'different' types of ammo for different situations. I mean if it's SHTF, I kinda doubt ANYONE is going to wonder what TYPE of ammo you are killing BG's with. If it's NOT, and you may be dragged into court, I'll carry what he said one further. USE THE SAME TYPE OF AMMO AS USED BY YOUR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT, if available to the civilian marketplace.

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

The Hogue grip I put on mine was grey.........and, for the record, while I believe there are pink grips out there - I have never seen one!

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

if I were a vendor, I sure in hell wouldnt! I'd stock fuschia, chartreuse, pink, whatever!

ha. my wife is pretty hot in the looks department but also suffers from heat in the temper department. in retrospect I question my wisdom getting her a piece at all. LOL

Re: LadySmith Guns
 

Solve recoil problems by using .38's:wink: