This Taurus 24/7 Pro is still just a bit large for this woman's hand. With the pad of her trigger finger on the face of the trigger, she’s unable to get a proper grip.

If neither the original nor the A1 work for a shooter, messing around with combinations (arched housing and long trigger or flat housing and short trigger) will give most users a good fit.

Short stock screw bushings, shortened stock screws and very thin stocks are also available to minimize the circumference of the gun.

Most double-action autos--properly called "trigger cocking" actions--have triggers with long reaches because they have to travel a long way to fully activate the hammer. So trigger reach is a big problem with this design, as it is with double-action revolvers.

S&W "target" stocks on the Model 29 (left) are too big for most hands. The custom stocks on the S&W Highway Patrolman (right) are thinner, fore and aft and side to side.

This problem is enhanced with autos that utilize double-stack magazines. These high-capacity autos are often quite thick with rounded surfaces. And if their stocks are made of wood, it makes the whole affair even bigger. The feel of such double-stack, double-action autos is akin to a new bar of soap.

Just as with revolvers, when deciding on a semiauto you should first look at the overall gun for proper fit. And you'll want to try out as many models as possible to find one you can work with.

Fortunately, when it comes to today's designs, there's a new paradigm. The firearms industry realizes that we aren't all the same size, and companies have spent considerable amounts of money and time ensuring their flagship guns can be adapted to different shooters--typically through swapping out different sizes of backstraps or grip thicknesses.

But how do you check the fit? The commonly given advice is to make sure (that's doubly sure) the gun is unloaded, point it in a safe direction and then do the following: Hold the gun in the non-firing hand, place the trigger finger of your firing hand on the trigger--locating the distal pad or distal joint on the trigger face as you would when firing--then roll your hand back from the trigger and grip the gun. If the muzzle is in line with the bones of the forearm with your finger at its proper location on the trigger, the gun is a fit. If, as the late famed gun fighter Jim Cirillo would say, you're shooting the gun "side-saddle," it's too big.

That's a simple check, requiring only a safe backstop to test the gun fit. Others have measured the circumference of the gripping surface. I always used a cloth tape from the left side of the trigger at the front, around the left side of the (unloaded!) gun high on the backstrap (where your hand should be) and around to the right side of the trigger.

The U.S. military service pistol, the M9, measured in at about seven inches around. The previous U.S. pistol, the 1911, measures just under 6½ inches with a long trigger. While a half inch doesn't sound like much, it makes a big difference.

There are lots of variables beside simple linear measurements. The thickness of the hand and its digits makes a difference. My trigger finger drags on the frame of the Glock. I can't do anything short of modifying the gun to resolve that. Over a trial of several thousand rounds, I learned to make do. Many shooters won't do that, and most agencies won't allow that kind of break-in.

Watch for the index finger rubbing the side of the frame during dry firing. Also be aware of your finger dragging on the inside of the trigger guard. Short, thick fingers can wreck trigger control.