Just bought an NAA Guardian .32 acp.

I have a Seecamp .32. I don't load mine with JHP ammo for defense because if it expands it won't penetrate deeply enough to reliably reach and damage vitals. I prefer a load with consistent terminal performance characteristics.

I have fired Federal Hydra-Shok and Speer Gold Dot JHP in my Seecamp and it functioned flawlessly. Seecamp was originally designed to fire just the Winchester Silvertip JHP (for functional reliability) but Seecamp now recommends other loads that work just fine in it. (FMJ-RN cartridges are too long in length to fit in the Seecamp magazine because the magazine was designed specifically for the shorter length Silvertip JHP cartridge.)

For defense I load my Seecamp with Winchester Q4255 FMJ-FP. (I'm aware that Buffalo Bore loads a +P hardcast flat nose cartridge but it provides no advantage over the Winchester Q4255 load, and costs more than twice as much. The Buffalo Bore +P load also produces greater recoil for no gain in terminal performance.)

no they arent designed to shoot any particular round. The variety of ammo you can use in the Guardian is much greater than in the Seecamp. I have both.

When I was researching small pocket pistols my final choices were the Seecamp and .32 ACP Guardian. I was fortunate enough that a local gun shop had both in stock and I was able to compare them side by side.

Based on my research I preferred the Guardian because it had sights and the Seecamp didn't. But once I got my hands on both of them I chose the Seecamp because it was 2-ounces lighter and carried better in my pocket than the Guardian. Had the Guardian come with better "stock" sights (along the lines of the Beretta Bobcat) I probably would have chosen it over the Seecamp.

The Guardian looked like a very well made and nicely finished pistol. Good luck with yours!

FWIW, I ordered a leather pocket holster from Ryan Grizzle Leather. I was gonna order black ostrich leg because it makes such a visually attractive holster but came to my senses when I realized it was going to sit in my pocket all day and I wouldn't be able to admire and enjoy it. I ended up ordering plain ol' leather in mahogany finish.

http://rgrizzleleather.com/pricingandordering.html

http://mecopocketholsters.com/frontpocket.htm

http://mecopocketholsters.com/rearpocket.htm

http://hedleyholsters.com/guardian.html

There are some cell 'phone/pager holders out there that do a dandy job of providing discrete and handy access to the mini-blasters when carried in a 'casual dress' enviornment.

For jeans wear, the Guardian, in a hip-pocket PocketHolster.com, nicely framed with a nasty looking bandanna, has been overlooked in two 'field searches' that I know of.

I have Buffalo Bore in my Guardian. It functions and the +p just might deliver more gas.

salty

Take a second and read the range report, I did on my NAA Guardian.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=424940

For ammo. I carry the pictured maroon box Fiocchi 73gr FMJ.
Will

I had a Guardian and it wasn't reliable with any brand ammo and since it felt like a brick in my pockket I just dumped it.

I had one, I didn't like the recoil, seemed like too much for a lil' .32acp. It is a well built gun, and seems to have started life as a small block of stainless steel. Is yours one of the older ones made by KAHR?

Mine's an older AA serial series and has never once failed to feed or fire. Yeah, they do have a heavy DA pull stroke and stovepipe the last round, but so what, you're dry then anyway. I most seriously doubt one'd notice the pull in a stress filled defensive encounter tho.

Singular downside is the weight of the guns compared to some of the plasticized types now available......still, from the perspective of quality there is no comparison, and unlike those Seecamps the NAA version works with anything you can stuff in it!!!

Meant to comment that I also go with the FP WW stuff.........accurate as can be.

as i sit here typing this,i have a .32 guardian in my pocket loaded with federal hydro-shocks.i have carryed it either in a pocket holster or ankle holster as a backup weapon every day for the last 3 years.no telling how many hundred rounds i have fired through it and never once had a failure to feed.if someting were to happen to it today and i had to get another backup weapon,i would start making phone calls to find the closest gunshop that i could buy another one just like it.the stove pipeing on the last round,it is designed to do that according to a NAA rep that i spoke to on the phone.i have also since descovered that if you eject the spent mag,replace with the full spare mag and chamber a round.this automaticly ejects the stovepiped round,which goes back to it being designed to do that.

My Guardian required a trip back to the factory for feed ramp work before it would function reliably. It now functions fine with everything I have tried except for Sellier & Bellot which it does not like at all. I keep Gold Dots in it and they function 100%. A lot of talk back and forth about whether to use JHPs or FMJs. True, JHPs don't expand well in this caliber out of a short barrel but then it's pretty much penetrating like a FMJ anyway.

I've had my little NAA Guardian for 3 years now and it sees a lot of pocket duty in some of the jeans I wear that won't take a bigger gun.

My Guardian absolutely will not feed consistently Winchester FMJ with the flat truncated nose shown in post #2. I haven't even bothered with JHP ammo in my Guardian to see if that would cause the same problems or not.

Another thing to remember about the Guardian is that its magazine is larger front to rear than a Seecamp. This allows carrying round nose FMJ and that is probably the best thing to do to help avoid rim lock with the .32 ACP. My particular Guardian does well with S&B FMJ and Fiocchi FMJ ammo and that is what I practice with and carry.

The one thing that Guardian owners do learn is this short slide stroke, blowback operated pistol is fairly intolerant of anything that resembles limp wristing. You really have to hold that pistol tight or it will pivot in your hand just enough to cause an extraction or feed problem.

Truth be told......I had a Guardian 380 that was so bad.....it went back to the factory 3 times....they couldn't fix it so they then issued me a brand new one which I have. Deciding whether to trade it in as this one has issues too.

Pyro said:

Only complaint was that both my pops and I hit the mag release by accident at least once.

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Did you notice hitting the mag release or did you have a feed jam with the mag hanging a bit low?

In my experience with my NAA Guardian there are two things to remedy this.

One is to remove the finger extension on the one mag that has it and replace it with a flat bottom plate on the magazine. When I had the NAA "finger hook" extension mounted, my fingers would sometimes pry out the magazine while firing.

Two would be if you are truly hitting the mag release, you could get a set of wider grips from NAA*. All those wood and imitation mother of pearl grips are much wider than the standard plastic Hogue grip panels and protect the mag release from being pressed.

Those wide grips are fat though. I didn't like the original width of the wide grips and sanded down (& polished) my imitation black m-o-p grips to 1/4" less overall width than original. The sanded grip panels are still 1/4" fatter than the thin plastic Hogues (total width on the gun), but you have a bit more to grip in your hand and the mag release has to be purposefully pressed to work.

* All the non-standard grips are fat and contoured. http://www.northamericanarms.com/accessories/g-accessories/g32-accessories/32-grips.html

I have the same gun-bought used. I always carry FMJ and have never had a feed issue with them. Very easy to carry/conceal but just a bit heavy.

Right after I got it, the mag would drop upon shooting and it wouldn't feed the next round. The mag catch just BARELY held the mag. I sent it back.

Got it back and they said it was an older model. They fixed the problem and replaced over $200 worth of parts, never mind the labor on it (according to them). No cost to me. It now runs perfectly and I love the lil thing.

You DO need to hang on to it and not limp wrist it and it does buck and snort for such a small caliber. Accuracy is WAY better than anybody would expect.

Very good for the niche it fills.

I have a 10rnd mag for mine and it feeds perfectly.
Will

I do have two of the 10 round magazines, as well as the original two 6 round magazines.

In my case, if I load up a full 10 rounds the top round in the mag won't feed. The nose of the top round gets tilted too far down in the mag due to the semi-rimmed ammo stacking wrong. If I only load up to 8 rounds it works pretty good.

The good thing about the 10 round magazines is that they can be converted to 6 round magazines by disassembling and removing the spacer. Except you would have to cut the long mag springs or get new mag springs. That's just an option if you get 10 rounders and they don't meet your expectations.

Hey Pyro! I have that problem with the S&B FMJ and the Fiocchi FMJ. I can't remember if I had that issue with the truncated FMJ from Winchester, but that Winchester doesn't work well in my gun anyway. Back when I got my 10 round mags, the NAA website had a statement about recommending the 10 rounders only for target practice. The website got upgraded since then.

One thing I didn't realize when I got my Guardian was that .32 ACP is semi-rimmed. If you have a tall enough stack of ammo, the rims add up to an angle change of the ammo. In my case, the mag follower will not change angle but the top round in the mag will.

.22LR rimmed ammo can do the same, but their magazines are made to compensate for .22LR by having a highly angled magazine or a curved magazine. Some of the more vertical .22LR magazines have cut outs at the top to allow the rounds to somewhat double-stack on the tail end.

Anyway, it is something to know about the .32 ACP round which can help you understand how it may or may not affect your Guardian.

From reading everyone's posts here, you can see that we have differing results with different ammo. All you can do is test a few types and see what works best in your gun.

I do like my little Guardian. It just requires a little more getting acquainted time than other pistols.

Pyro said:

Yes I understand the idea of semi-rimmed cartridges, my .25 acp is the same way.

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My apologies for going too far on that subject!

Concerning hard primers, I've never had to double strike a round or had a round not fire yet from my Guardian.

When it comes time to replace the firing pin, it is super easy to do. Although, I haven't had to do that yet.