Pros and cons to each side of ths discussion,,,
I'm somewhere in the middle as far as this argument goes,,,
I start new shooters on a .22 and graduate them up to a centerfire.
For example just this past Tuesday I took a new shooter to the range,,,
The pistol I put in her hand was a Bersa Thunder 22,,,
At first she wasn't hitting a 1' square target,,,
But after about 60-70 rounds of .22,,,
She was putting them all on target.
So we took a break to let her rest her hand and chat,,,
Then I put the Bersa Thunder 380 in her hand,,,
Her first shot was literally center bullseye,,,
The next seven were all over the place,,,
The recoil was throwing her off.
So we stopped and I loaded up two more mags,,,
I told her to just burn them off quickly,,,
Have fun with two mag dumps,,,
So she did just that.
I don't believe in having someone do something,,,
And not telling them exactly why you are having them do it.
A degree in Occupational Education does that to you.
So I asked her why she thought we did those mag dumps,,,
She said, "So I won't be afraid if the recoil?",,,
Go to the head of the class girlfriend.
So I loaded up two mags of .22 again,,,
She nailed all 20 in a 6" target.
We stopped and talked a bit,,,
I told her to think about the .380 recoil.
I asked her if it was it really that much more than the .22?
Was it painful?,,,
Did it actually hurt your hand?,,,
She replied no to both of my questions.
So I said to her,,,
Knowing that, you can overcome the ~flinch~.
Man, I felt like Mr. Miyagi and Yoda all rolled up into one.
She loaded the .380 and put both mags in the 6" target.
I believe the reason she did so well,,,
Was because I started her on the low recoil Thunder 22.
She gained some competence shooting a pistol,,,
Without having a heavier recoil get in the way of that.
I do have an advantage in that I have several rimfire/centerfire pairs,,,
So no matter what type of handguns I want to use,,,
I have a good selection in revolver and semi.
I started Courtney on my Bersa pistols because she has very small hands,,,
When I started teaching Mike I used my CZ75B Kadet in .22,,,
Then moved him up to my CZ-75B in 9mm,,,
Again, that was in the same session
It had nothing to do with male or female,,,
It's simply the size of their hands.
As slender as the grip of a 1911 is,,,
Courtney would never have been able to hold it,,,
So my double-stack 9mm pistols were out of the question.
The trick for me is to start with low recoil,,,
Then introduce them to higher recoil in the same shooting session,,,
But again I say that the reason this works so well for me is having identical guns.
The consistency of the grip staying the same is essential.
If you start newbies on centerfire,,,
And it works well for you,,,
Go for it.
If you start newbies on rimfire,,,
Stay with that method,,,
If it works for you.
But me, I've had good results with my method,,,
So I can vouch for it's effectiveness.
Aarond
.