I have 2 guns -- both are worthless as a defense as they are antiques. One is an 1871 Smith and Wesson revolver (they will do a search for you for ten bucks and a serial number) and the other is a Sharps 4 barrel revolver (very small, like a gambler would have used at the table). Both work but use a light .22 round and are too valuable to use in that manner. I would like to get a real gun and practice using it. There are firing ranges in South Jersey that are close. Any suggestions would be welcome!
There are a lot of advantages to revolvers, especially for female shooters, I've posted a lengthy discussion of that in the Firearms section before. In a small format gun, generally .38 Special is the best pick for a typical-to-petite size woman in one of these, preferably loaded with +P ammo and high-expansion bullets in the cartridges (+P ammo is about 10% higher pressure than standard ammo for a given caliber, and so will deliver a correspondingly higher energy in both recoil and in terminal ballistics at the target, either pushing the same bullet faster or a heavier bullet at the same velocity as the standard; military 9mm ammo, for instance, is loaded to +P pressure levels to push a heavier-than-standard 125 gr. bullet at the same speed as traditional civilian 115 gr. load) Cheaper ammo like standard-pressure semi-wadcutters (SWC) will do for practice with them, and Smith & Wesson is certainly the best pick in this size format.
In addition to the hand-strength and other issues that make high-caliber autoloaders suboptimal for many women, revolvers also do not suffer from the freak-out factor with neighbors and law enforcement officials in gun-hostile areas like Jersey. There are also no magazine limit issues with them, though you do need to be aware of NJ's weird hollow-point law which even many of their cops and prosecutors do not correctly understand. Here is the NJSP version of it
http://www.njsp.org/about/fire_hollow.html which, as you can see, has some peculiar ambiguities (Does the 'With a weapon legal for hunting in NJ' qualification to the permission to transport for hunting or target practice apply in both cases, or only if you're hunting? NJ courts have a long history of backing the most restrictive, pro-prosecution interpretation of any gun or hunting law, so do not count on common sense carrying the day there). You clearly
can have them at your own home or on your own property, and having them in a carry gun isn't an issue since it is almost impossible to legally carry a personal protection sidearm off your own premises in NJ, unless you are a retired NJ cop. Many local and even State law enforcement/legal folks, however, just think hollowpoints are outright illegal to own, despite what the law actually says.
