Rob Pincus

Hand Sizing Tips When Fitting Handguns for Women

Rob Pincus
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Duration:   6  mins

Handguns for women — is there such a thing? PDN Executive Director Rob Pincus doesn’t believe in making gender-specific recommendations because everyone is an individual. Some women have upper-body strength and some do not, just as some men have less upper-body strength than others. Same with hand sizes. Some women have large hands and some men have small ones.

General Recommendations

When someone asks Rob what he recommends as handguns for women, he takes the question in general to mean which handguns are good for someone with relatively less upper-body strength and small hands. Rob looks at five handguns and stresses that whatever handgun you choose must fit your hand. You need to manipulate and utilize the gun the way you’re supposed to appropriately to your strength, coordination, and the size and shape of your body.

The Guns

Rob first looks at three double-stack handguns. The Beretta M9 is a typical on-duty law enforcement and military handgun that many people like for personal and home defense and self-defense training. But it’s a large gun and not recommended for anyone with small hands.

The Glock 26 is available in several calibers. Though a subcompact, it has a very large grip, making it not a good choice for small-handed shooters.

The grip on the Springfield Armory XD is much easier for small hands to hold, due to some design features.

If you have any problem gripping a double-stack handgun, look at a single stack. With only a single row of bullets going in, the single-stack grip is narrower than the double stack. Rob shows the Bersa and Springfield XD-S single-stack handguns.

Which Guns Fit Your Hand?

Rob stresses that the idea of handguns for women is not what we should be thinking about. Man or woman, each person is an individual with a unique hand that their defensive guns must fit.

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4 Responses to “Hand Sizing Tips When Fitting Handguns for Women”

  1. Quin Wychanko

    Very informative video but I have one question. How come you never demo a Kahr PM9 handgun? I have one and it is very ergonomically suited to many different people that have tried my handgun at the range.

  2. Mark

    I learned some valuable information about sizing a pistol to my own hand in terms of fitting a gun to my own hand and not just a woman's hand. Nice video and good information. What other things should you consider when fitting a pistol to your hand? Can you recommend some videos?

  3. Will Atkinson

    Great video instruction. I've not seen many 'sales' people armed with this information to share with the potential customer....a real shame. I would respectfully add to this excellent coverage that a proper grip aids the complete cycling of the slide, thus preventing a jam.

  4. sempertodd

    Well Stated Rob. As an Instructor also I get asked this a lot too. I pretty much mimic what you have said here. One thing that I stress to people is a quality basic training course should address this topic, and as you know many do not. Again, great job.

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