Camille,
Thank you for taking the time to put this together for us.
The .38's seems like the way to go, all things considered. Any load data you can provide would be greatly appreciated, as we're going to be doing our own reloads. I read an article (or ad) here on Trail Boss powder, and that seemed to address what I thought were some valid concerns about light loading and having problems igniting the top of the powder (as the cartridge lies horizontal, the powder doesn'r cover the primer). Any thoughts or experience with it? The article claimed it poured very easily, also as the grains are donut shaped.
I personally would love a '97. My only concern as far as my wife with either the '87 or a '97 was the weight and the requirement to rack or lever rounds. The added weight would help in felt recoil at 12ga., and with lighter loads, so much the better. And less recoil than light loads in a 20 ga. sxs, you think? I'll see if we can't get her a chance to shoot a '97 and see what she thinks. I received your same good advice on getting the initial set up of guns to fit her, and I'll certainly do that, thank you!
Is a forcing cone like an internal choke? If not, how do 12 ga featherlites or other light loads do on knockdown targets? Any concerns there?
As a side concern...don't '97's have about a million moving parts? How are they to strip and clean?
We have our eyes on a '94 Marlin in .38 for her. The action is short and smooth, and we've both fired it. She's confident with it. I wasn't able to see her too well when she was shooting, but it looked like the stock will be a good comprimise, and the recoil was nil; she had no memory of it, and she'd never shot a long arm before.
Excellent points on the girl leather, too. I've seen some and it is significantly different, no doubt about that. Thank goodness for the differences!
We have some new friends that have offered to provide some initial "CAS unique" training for us both, so we'll have a chance to reherse plenty. And I think my dry fire to loaded fire ratio is probably 25:1. The actual trigger pull on a real cartridge or shell to me is the fun "dessert" after the hours of procedure and muscle memory drilling. We'll both have several dozen hours in the training books before we ever step onto a range or stage "for real".
Thank you again for your time and advice. I want this to be as fun for her as it will be for me, and an experienced woman's perspective is invaluable.
(Somebody's gonna have something to say about "experienced women", you hide and watch!
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