So I was at a class and a gal was shooting her husband's 40cal. Alternatively she was shooting a 1911 in 9mm also. Turns out she actually had the easiest time with my 1911 in 45. Reason being my gun with the smaller grip panels, grip frame (due to additional checkering and undercut of the trigger guard) and the short trigger all meant my pistol fitted her best.
Don't sell your wife short, it's more about technique & proper fitment than physical strength.
Did you just call her short? I didn't say it honey GZire did! /points and runs away!!!
It has been a long road trying to find the right piece for her and to tell the truth it's mostly me because I recoiled in horror to learn she carried (back in a free state) a dang Taurus PT111 M-pro. That scared me because of all the crap you hear about their legendary unreliability. But yeah, the tiny gun fits her hands and is easy to operate the slide etc. I've no doubt she'd like shooting my 1911s too - she qualified with one in the Navy - but that's not a carry gun for her by any stretch of the imagination. I have an EMP but the thing is quite heavy so that was out too.
Now believe it or not, the first gun she tried and liked as a replacement was a full size M&P 9mm! We tried all the 9s back then but that was the one she liked best at the range. Done. I bought my first XDm same time - 19+1 and all that what was not to like! Gun of Year rollmark! Anyways they all got neutered when we brought into state. And we lost the right to carry too. Sad.
She has issues at times with grip strength. That is a big problem with any manipulation of the weapons - from racking it to pulling the trigger. Big problems. We all grow old
So we have all kinds of smaller calibers which are very easy to function for her. But we know they are not one shot stoppers and don't reach desired penetration even on skinny framed targets so the shopping continued to find the right one. I don't know. Am going to try a pound or two lighter recoil spring on her PPS see what happens. The gritty trigger is now pretty much gone after break in. I've swapped in metal guide rods for the plastic ones to help mitigate recoil.
The Taurus sits in the safe because the rear sight screw went missing years ago and it was a year long travesty to get a replacement. If the thing will shoot 200 out of 200 maybe I will change my mind about that one and cry over all the time and money wasted!
When this state finally follows the Constitution I'll get her a nice Glock if she wants. She shot a friends comp gun and loved it! (argh!) Well, always more to say but way off topic? No can one size fits all that's for sure.