Concealable 9mm with an easy to rack slide

[WTR]

I've posted this before. When my hands were extremely weak I could not rack a semi. However, after applying skate board tape to the sides of the slide slide of a 1911, Browning HP and a H&K I was able to rack them all. The 1911 has an eighteen lb. Wolfe recoil spring, the HP and H&K are factory.

[nightmare69]

Glock 43. I love mine and I've seen a aftermarket slide with a "hook" on the end simulating a charging handle similar to one on a AR.

[RPBrown]

P938 is easy to rack. My wife normally carries an XD9SC but wanted something smaller. The XDS didn't fit her right so we tried a bunch of different guns. When she racked the P938 I knew the search was over. She tried to like the Kimber Micro 9 but it was too hard to rack.

There has been a good deal running on the BRG Two-tone. Sportsman Outdoor Superstore has it on for $534 and free shipping. That's about as cheap as I have seen a 938 in the last couple of years.

The two tone BRG is not on the Sig website so it may have be a special run or something.

Sig P938 Two Tone BRG

I stumbled across another store that had it for a few dollars more but I don't remember who it was so.

Unfortunately, the P938 was one of the guns my wife bought but after some time, her hands got bad enough where she couldn't rack it, moved to a XD9sc and again, after a few months she couldn't rack it either. Thats when we moved to a revolver

[surferdaddy]

My p938 is by far my easiest pistol to rack. After that is probably my hk p30; if I first cock the hammer, the slide is quite easy to rack.

Surfer

[SigM4]

FWIW, my wife had the same issue. We went through several semi's (added to my collection now) and as her hands got worse we would change weapons. Strange thing though, to me it seemed as the smaller the gun got, the harder it was to rack the slide. She finally settled on a revolver and she loves it.

Exactly. The smaller the HG, the more difficult it is to rack, typically. What is the biggest you can conceal? Have you tried a G43 or a G19?

Think about it, the smaller the handgun, the less slide retraction there is (potentially); thus stiffer recoil springs are used. Couple this with less purchase area on the slide to grip while racking it makes for a difficult process. One firearm not mentioned (and not surprisingly as it was never in wide production), but that provides a very easy to retract slide is a Sig P250 Subcompact in .380. I've only ever handled one, but it was by far the easiest retracting slide I've ever handled. Gun never really gained a following, but the result is that you can sometimes find a used one for a song, just be sure it comes with two mags as you're not likely to find a lot of spares out there. None-the-less a very good option for someone with reduced hand strength.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

Recently I read a gun magazine review on the Springfield Armory XDE (Exposed hammer).

In the article they mentioned that it has an easy-to-rack slide, and opined that hammer-fired
handguns in general have slides which are easier to rack than striker-fired pistols.

I don't understand why this is so. I just add this statement to possibly have anyone with a
slide-racking issue look at the various hammer-fired pistols.

Several people have mentioned that Walthers have easy slides to rack. I believe another plus
for Walthers is that they seem to have low trigger pull stats. Although when I have handled various
Walthers at gun shows, the grips seem a little bit chubby to me. I guess that's what happens when
I'm used to my slender XDS45!

SIA

[WTR]

As mentioned before, when the hammer is left cocked on a hammer fired gun, it does make it easier to rack the slide.

[treadlightly]

Think about it, the smaller the handgun, the less slide retraction there is (potentially); thus stiffer recoil springs are used. Couple this with less purchase area on the slide to grip while racking it makes for a difficult process. One firearm not mentioned (and not surprisingly as it was never in wide production), but that provides a very easy to retract slide is a Sig P250 Subcompact in .380. I've only ever handled one, but it was by far the easiest retracting slide I've ever handled. Gun never really gained a following, but the result is that you can sometimes find a used one for a song, just be sure it comes with two mags as you're not likely to find a lot of spares out there. None-the-less a very good option for someone with reduced hand strength.

Overcoming the hammer at a mechanical disadvantage eats a lot of recoil energy, or at least it seems it must. My Sig P250 is much easier to cycle than my P320, except for that first effort to get the hammer off vertical.

I think a striker fired gun will probably always have a stiffer spring than a hammer fired, caliber and other things being equal.

There is no problem with getting spare mags for a P250 as long as the P320 remains popular. They are interchangeable. I often carry my P250 subcompact with a spare 17 round magazine from my full size P320. It functions perfectly with either magazine.

I have no idea why the P250 never caught on. Maybe because it's a poor choice for a match gun, being DAO. I can live with that. I can hit with it.

[Liberty]

I was at Acadamy yesterday and was looking all the fine 'pretties' under the display case. I asked to look at the Sig 260 'Legion'. I was amazed at how easy the slide was to operate. This was a $1200 + gun, but I was assured the base model works the same. The thing is with most hand guns you have an inititial resistance to get the rack started .. this was so smooth and easy I that I was priming a .22.

Gun is full size and the grips are kind of big, so it might not be ideal for the OP.