Advice

In all seriousness, I have no idea why people are cubbyholed into gun recmmendation based on sex.  Women OR men.  Every shooter is different, I have found.  And rarely match pre-conceived stereotypes. 

I have no idea why gunstore clerks and other cling to the old saws.

For example, the ex, Saucy Trollop.  I recommended for her a mid range XD when she first went gun shopping and knew next to nothing about firearms.  Why?  Price, and I had shot a bunch of em and liked em.  The clerk and I helped influence her to get a .40.  She chose the midsized version on her own initiative.  Not full size, but not teeny sub compact either.  And she is happy with it.  She tried a few more varieties.  But that's where listening to my recommendation ends.

I like the XD, but I'm not married to it.

For her second gun, I had no influence at all.  She tried MBtGE's big old hunting .44 Magnum, fell in love with the stainless steel and unfluted cylinder, and haunted Gunbroker until one came up in her price range.  Then she ordered pretty wood replacement grips.  She can't get enough of the recoil.  Well, can't get enough of it in small doses.  It hurts her hand as much as mine, so that limits numbers downrange. 

She is five foot nothing.  Small hands too. 

She has her own ideas on what she wants in a 3rd gun.  Either a 2-shot Derringer in .44 Magnum or a full size Desert Eagle.  Not the gold Deagle, though.  She thinks that too garish.  Yes, seriously. 

I still get a kick out of going to the range with her.  She pulls out a 10 inch barrel .44 Magnum, and put up a 2 inch .38 snubbie.  Everyone has to come over and look when anyone shoots a .44.  90% of the time someone will ask if that big gun is really hers.  I tell them of course it is!  I can't handle something that big!  She is five foot nothing with small hands.  I'm over 6 feet tall and look like JayG, but with a meaner facial tic, and hands as big as coal shovels.  Well, half a coal shovel.

I'm not a fan of either .44s or Deagles, so it wasn't me that told her like them.  And the gunstore clerk only suggested a Hi-Power initially, so at least they didn't fall into the "snubbie for the lil lady" trap.  It's been her preferences. 

And if she had been a buddy?  A dude, non-shooter, I worked with?  I'd have given him the same recommendation, initially, and he'd have figured out his own preferences by the time he got his second gun.  And I have done this.  A few bought XDs, and liked them.  A few said no to the recommendation because they wanted a .22 first.  When they start doing research on the internet I warn them about the fun little arguments on whose gun is better than whose, and to use these as entertainment value rather than actual parts of the decision making process.

About the only person that doesn't listen to my advice on getting an XD and not bothering with 1911s or Glocks is... Me.  If I had listened to myself I'd have 2 XDs and not worried about Sig or Colt, or what have you.  Why?  Well, my conservative (small c) nature wrt to tool technology on the 1911 selections.  My obstinacy.  And there is something about the XD that just doesn't sit right with me, beyond its good (for me) range performance.  

But I've never seriously considered "gun advice for men" or "gun advice for women" as a 'thing'.  From the git go it's been "gun advice for n00bie shooter" or "gun advice for a limited experience shooter" with not other considerations.  For more experienced gun handler it's just shooting the poop about guns in conversations.  I sorta influenced a much more experienced shooter in the form of MBtGE.  I got him thinking about .45 and .308 over 9mm and .223.  But I didn't have to hold his hand down that slippery slope.  A slight nudge, a bug in his ear, was all that took.  He careened down the hill on his own power after that.