Durability of NAA mini-revolvers: Ever wear one out?

Never heard of it happening. The guns just work, really the quality is outstanding.

I will say one thing though, in the manual it says not to take out the screws. It's in there for a reason.

Mine is still in a plastic bag in about twenty pieces and once they get like that they're extremely hard to put back together without the special jigs at the factory. I'll have to send mine back.

My brothers and I all own NAA revolvers, and my Dad carried one up until he passed. Great little guns, IMO.

The only one that has had a problem - my youngest brother's mini. He took it apart of course....Now it needs to go back to the factory as it does not index properly and sometimes locks up when cocking the hammer.

Until he gets if fixed, he has to use his Guardian instead......

I haven't personally ever worn out any firearm. Some of mine are over a hundred years old. Some I've owned for more than 30 years. I know that competitive shooters can and do wear out their firearms. If it's a pretty good firearm in the first place, I don't imagine that a casual shooter such as myself putting a few hundred rounds through it a year will ever wear one out. Maybe it will need new springs or something every now and then. If I bought an NAA revolver or any other quality firearm, I would expect it to last longer than I will.

The one thing I can imagine needing is a replacement main spring after many firings. Some rimfire rounds require really forceful ignition.

I had one that got damage to the hammer, by falling between cylinders. It was entirely my fault, but on rare occasion it would fail to fire. When I called NAA they told me to send them the gun and $25. So I did and they completely rebuilt the gun when I got back it looked like a new gun, grips and all. I honestly looked at old pics of the serial number to make sure they didn’t just replace the whole gun and put the right number on it.

Never worry about dealing with that kind of company.

A few years back we had a report from a member in South Africa on an NAA blowing up in his hand in a gunfight. It seems the base pin crept out (something not unknown in Colt SAAs and Ruger Blackhawks.)

WVGunman said:

An NAA in a gunfight?! I want to hear the REST of that story!

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Check the archives. He was coming home and encountered the bad guys in his driveway. He usually carries something bigger but this time had only the NAA.

The guy goes by the name of "Proud Boer."

I carry a NAA Blackwidow every day with Hornday CD 22 mag loads. One of my grandsons and his wife also carry one every day. The guns are regularly shot with the 22 mag and with the optional cylinder 22lr cylinder. They have had 100's of rounds go through [not 1000's] without a hiccup. I use mine to take care of small things on the farm and it takes up little space and always works. NAA makes the gun with 1" barrels if you want really small. For me the 2" is the sweat spot as the Hornday CD goes a little over 1000 fps with a 45 gr HP and is very effective on coon size animal. Yep I like the NAA revolvers.

Cooldill said:

Never heard of it happening. The guns just work, really the quality is outstanding.

I will say one thing though, in the manual it says not to take out the screws. It's in there for a reason.

Mine is still in a plastic bag in about twenty pieces and once they get like that they're extremely hard to put back together without the special jigs at the factory. I'll have to send mine back.

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I tore one of mine apart years ago to polish the frame. One of those itty bitty springs went flying, I spent an entire afternoon on my knees on the kitchen floor.

I'm used to working with tiny stuff, have built functional crossing signals for my 1:450 scale T-gauge train set using 1/16" OD tubing and soldering .002" solenoid wire to SM0402 LEDs (1mm x 0.5mm diode), and I'd still rather not tear into another NAA mini.

i have a new naa mini survival 22lr and a used naa guardian 32acp. i had to send the guardian in for warranty work (i don’t exactly recall the problem, but the slide wouldn’t function) and naa pretty much rebuilt it gratis. so even if you were to wear out your mini, naa would make it whole i’m sure.

Had a NAA mini in .22 Mag a few years ago. Easily the best deep concealment weapon I ever owned. Sold it to help pay some bills and still regret the sale. The only problem I had with mine was the Micarta grips lost a fight with a tile floor when the wife dropped it using the restroom. Few drops a glue and could hardly see the line where it broke.

Keep an eye on the hammer axis screw. It's a left hand thread. I had one back out and turned it the wrong way. Had to send it back to the factory, the small parts I could not get back into alignment. Also the cylinder pin, had the detent ball bearing work free.

I have had my 1 1/8” mini mag convertible for years. I carry it on the ankle. I had one issue. In the manual it recommended in order to dry fire to remove the cylinder. So I would remove the cylinder and dry fire it to practice trigger control and follow ups. One time this broke the insides of the revolver. I sent it back and naa fixed and re polished it free (it was under two years old so shipping was covered). Dry firing is really out of the question. It’s been great and reliable since. A couple of times when shooting yellow jackets (.22lr) the cylinder locked up due to debris? Removing and re installing the cylinder corrected that. It’s well Built imo. And it only has to give me those 5 .22 mag spear gold dots reliably if god forbid needed. I carry a .38 snub as primary.

pezo said:

I have had my 1 1/8” mini mag convertible for years. I carry it on the ankle. I had one issue. In the manual it recommended in order to dry fire to remove the cylinder. So I would remove the cylinder and dry fire it to practice trigger control and follow ups. One time this broke the insides of the revolver. I sent it back and naa fixed and re polished it free (it was under two years old so shipping was covered). Dry firing is really out of the question. It’s been great and reliable since. A couple of times when shooting yellow jackets (.22lr) the cylinder locked up due to debris? Removing and re installing the cylinder corrected that. It’s well Built imo. And it only has to give me those 5 .22 mag spear gold dots reliably if god forbid needed. I carry a .38 snub as primary.

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Interesting... I've always wondered about that recommendation for dry-firing... Never did it myself -- thankfully, based on your experience.

I've used either Snap-Caps or spent casings -- rotating them after each hammer-strike.

JFrame said:

Interesting... I've always wondered about that recommendation for dry-firing... Never did it myself -- thankfully, based on your experience.

I've used either Snap-Caps or spent casings -- rotating them after each hammer-strike.

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That's how I do it with my 1938 Colt Woodsman. Whenever I unload the gun, I leave a fired case in the chamber and drop the hammer on it.

An associate of mine bought three NAA mini .22lr revolvers when they first came out. He was fascinated by the little revolvers. Got home and decided to see if the insides were made as well as the outside was finished.

Took a screwdriver and began dissasembly. After a few turns of the screwdriver he heard a little "sproing". Took it apart, looked at all the pieces and went to put it back together. Nope.

Ok...he must be putting something in wrong. We’ll just take another one apart and see how the pieces all go together. A few turns of a screwdriver, heard a little "sproing" noise, got the sideplate off.

After a couple hours, he dicided he would take the third apart to see why the first two were being so difficult. Screwdriver...Now familiar little "Sproing" sound of a spring letting go inside somewhere.

After six hours, all three guns were dutifully packed in individual plastic sandwich bags and returned to my friend that owned the gun store by a bleary eyed, obscenity muttering associate of mine.

I had the mainspring snap in one of mine. A .22 short as I recall. It had been played with a bunch.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but i didnt fare too well with mine.
I really liked it. It shot acceptable, minute of 2 liter bottle.
I carried it for a year or more, then had a few light strikes...., sent it in , got repaired. No problems until one day i snapped the holstergrip past its stop and broke it. It was quickly replaced at no charge.
The next issue came when i spotted a coyote about 50 yds from me, i quickly drew my NAA to hurry him on his way. When i snapped the hammer back, something broke and it wouldnt stand cocked.
I sent it back. When it returned, i traded it for my lcp.
Good trade.

^^ I wonder how many stories of them doing quite well we're not hearing..