Jessica’s 9mm

Posted On May 17, 2022

The need

We wanted to find a handgun that was small and reliable enough yet had bare minimum ballistics for Jessica to carry in the Alaska wilderness. Her smaller stature and hands made this choice way more difficult than a person would think as handguns that shoot high energy rounds are large, heavy, and difficult for people with smaller hands to grip. Charging moose are a bigger threat than bear attacks are so that helped with the caliber selection. Bear attacks are extremely rare so they make the headlines when they happen so you never hear about moose charging people. Jessica’s birthday is coming up soon so this would make an excellent and practical present as we do worry about moose while she is out riding around.

Today’s advances in ballistic technology have definitely helped out with caliber selection. A few years ago you have to find a handgun that started with “.4” to have anything reliable for an animal self-defense round. Recent developments in hard cast bullet technology along new powders actually made the 9mm Parabellum (9mm or 9X19) round an extreme bare minimum consideration when choosing a caliber that a person with small hands could manage. The Buffalo Bore +P 147 grain hard cast bullets had a muzzle energy of 395 foot-pounds at a velocity of 1,100 feet per second so it is capable of doing the job with a well placed shot. I would definitely prefer the power of a .44 Magnum for defense, but not everyone can grip them or control the recoil so I’d rather see someone place a good shot with a smaller caliber than have them miss due to flinching with a large caliber.

Choosing a caliber

There is a large variety of 9mm handguns available today for the whole range of activities from micro-sized concealed carry pistols to large frame competition sized ones so you have to shop for your intended purpose. The small sized ones are convenient to carry; however they are not always the most fun to shoot and the short sight radius makes aiming at smaller targets a challenge at longer distances. The shorter barrel might not let the fired rounds reach their full potential before exiting the barrel either so that size of pistol was skipped as self-defense from bad guys is not the primary purpose here. The large sized target or competition pistols are just that, a large size that does not carry all day as easily as a midsize model.

The midsize models are a good in-between for the animal defense purpose for Jessica. The midsize 9mm’s were available in both single or double stack magazine configurations so we chose the single stack to keep the grip size smaller. The smaller grip would allow her to hold and fire it naturally, which helps with accuracy later. The magazine capacity was not an issue for us because having a small enough grip for her to hold was more important. All the available rounds in the world won’t help you if you can’t hit the target. The spray and pray does not work on large animals charging you with the intent to severely injure or kill you so you have to rely on placing your shots accurately.

We decided on using the 9mm with Buffalo Bore hard cast ammo. It is more expensive, but it does provide the penetrating power needed for larger dangerous animals.

Choosing the right sized pistol

We are very blessed in Alaska as the gun stores are well stocked with guns and ammunition so you do not need to do a whole lot of looking around. The gun shows are also amazing if you ever get a chance to go to one. We went to a gun shop and looked to see what was available for midsize single stack 9mm’s and looked at several models. The cheap ones were not considered at all as accuracy an reliability were extremely important as was simplicity. The Smith & Wesson M&P 9 EZ is what we decided on as it had an easy to operate slide that could be easily operated in the winter with cold hands. The Smith & Wesson 9 Shield EZ has a 3.8” barrel, coated stainless steel slide, Polymer frame, manual thumb safety, weighs only 23.2 ounces, and has an 8+1 round capacity with an overall length of 7” making it an ideal sized all day carry gun. The magazines also had small finger tabs that could be pushed down to allow easier loading. The M&P Shield has a polymer frame so it is lightweight for all day carrying while in the woods and the slide is coated so it won’t rust as easily as blued steel.

There were also many holster choices for it too since Smith & Wesson is a large firearm manufacturer. This may not sound too important to most people but finding an exact fit holster for off-brand manufacturers is a real challenge so you may be stuck with a generic sized holster. Generic sized holsters can allow a lot of unnoticed dirt and sand to get inside the holster if you are in a dirty and dusty environment.

The surprise!!!

The Smith & Wesson shield that we bought came in a case that had an extra magazine, Bore Snake, eye protection, and ear protection in it so she had no idea what we brought in. I said that we had an early birthday present for her and got my camera ready so she deducted that it must either be really good or else it was a gag gift. She had no ideas other than it was a case so she was very excited and happy when she opened the box.

Holster Choice

I have been a civilian and a police firearm instructor for over twenty years so I had a fairly good idea that a belt holster would be the best way for Jessica to carry her new pistol. The belt holster won’t slip off or break like many of the clip-on holsters can and this was the best option as the pistol a holster have a rough life ahead of them riding on quads in the Alaska bush. The holster had to fit the gun tightly so it doesn’t rattle around while riding the as dust and dirt that gets inside the holster basically turns it into one large piece of sandpaper that will quickly wear out your gun’s finish. You won’t have to worry about this problem if you’re not out in the dust and mud all day so get what fits your intended use as you don’t hear many warnings about the “Sandpaper” effect.

I let Jessica try several different types of holsters that had different pistol retention features to see what she preferred.  There are several types available with some having a lever or button to push to release it, a simple tensioning screw that uses friction to hold the pistol securely, and a thumb break holster that utilizes a leather strap over the top of the gun to keep it secured. The pistols that she used to test the holster styles with were too big for her grip, but she was able to work all the various releases. She decided that the thumb break style was the one that she could use easily, was the comfortable, and protected the pistol to her demanding specifications. She is very picky about keeping her guns cleaned, oiled, and secured so it had to keep a majority of the mud out of the action and keep the pistol secured if she loses her balance while crossing ice or a log.

The DeSantis leather thumb break holster is what she wanted so we ordered one in black while there were still a few available. To our surprise and delight it only took about five days for it to get to Alaska so shipping was very fast. None of the local stores had leather thumb break holsters that fit that model so it was definitely worth the wait to get an exact fit holster.

Trying it out

We are blessed to be in rural Alaska where you can find places to shoot only minutes from your house if you can’t just shoot in your backyard. We went down the road to a popular shooting area as we also hunt for spent cases that we can reload later. It has a safe backstop and thanks, but no thanks, to some litterers there are usually targets to shoot at there. I gave Jessica some handgun training years ago so it was an easy transition as it only involved learning the safety, slide, and magazine buttons. I do teach not to use the slide release when loading as I prefer the slide to be released when pulled all the way to the rear so it gets more momentum to load a round. The small lever can also be hard to manipulate if you’re in a stressful situation or cold so the slide is way easier to grab in those conditions.

After getting used to the controls it was time to do some live firing. We didn’t bring much ammo so it was mainly figuring out the proper sight picture for the Smith & Wesson and getting used to the trigger. She figured it out quickly and began hitting targets so she has the basics down good. The only way to get better is with more practice so she’ll improve as time goes on. Proper shooting techniques help with accuracy and nobody is expected to be a great shot when they start shooting a new gun so I just made sure her stance, grip, and technique were correct as she started shooting the first magazine full. Her training is just starting so accuracy and speed will come to her naturally later.