NAA Mini Revolvers

Blackbeard 44 said:

I carry a wasp all day everyday, 22 mag is not a weak round by any means, speer makes a short barrel load for these pocket pieces, suprisingly accurate 10-15 feet its not that difficult to plug all 5 shots into it

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My first NAA was a Wasp. I love the look of it. I need to see if the fluted cylinder will time up in my Black Widow. I like the Widow because it's just a tad longer and has those big chunky sights on it.

Still, the Wasp is a great carry piece. Love the little mini .22 mags. Not the greatest SD choice, but having a .22 mag Wasp/Widow in your pocket would make you better armed than 97% of most. Were I in a situation where I were to be pinned and was only able to get my off hand free, into my pocket, and thumb back 5 random belly shots, I would be thankful for the NAA on my person and would curse the .45 in my safe.

I know that's a cliche thing to say, but as a guy who fully admits that he carries with comfort in mind, the NAA makes sense. Will I get killed only packing a .22 mag? Maybe. But as I've said, y'all can give my urn a fair and deserved "I told you so" if it makes you feel better. 90% of the time I have a .357 or .45 acp on me AND the Widow. The other 10% I dont lose sleep over. Plenty of ways to die. No need to give into the irony of flittering away my given time worrying about something statistics say is unlikely.

In short, give me a capable gun with a back up NAA. If circumstances deem me unable to carry anything larger than the .22 magnum, so be it. If the universe looks upon my situation with cruel irony and decides to strike me down, have a laugh at my expense and chase it with a good stiff drink in my memory. Nothing more I can ask than that.

MedWheeler said:

My pocket-gun is a Kel-Tec P32. I own four guns that are smaller, a Beretta Bobcat in .22LR, a Beretta Jetfire in .25ACP, a Bauer Automatic in .25ACP, and a NAA Mini 1.125" in .22LR.

I can't think of a scenarion in which I'd be so attired that I could conceal any one of those smaller guns, but not the P32. If I did have to go smaller than the Jetfire for some reason, I would have to consider the Bauer and the NAA. I do not feel the Bauer is safe to carry "hot-piped", so that means it will require two hands to get it ready to fire. But, it will have six rounds, and they can be fired more rapidly and accurately. I could also carry a reload if I sourced another magazine.
The NAA can be brought into action with one hand, but is slow to fire and gives up a round in capacity.
So, those are considerations I'd have to weigh if it came down to that. Fortunately, it hasn't.

I do like the NAA, and it stays in a small "man-bag" that leaves the house with me every time, but stays in whatever vehicle I'm driving. I guess I could pocket it should I ever do become involved in something that results in the guns on my person being seized by law enforcement (or by a BG who happens to get the drop on me.)

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I consider the NAA more reliable than all your other pocket guns.

Some here say they are fragile. Why, what tends to break on them?

F1 said:

Some here say they are fragile. Why, what tends to break on them?

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I dont think much can. If figure you could snap the firing wedge off the hammer with too much dry firing. I also suppose the spring could wear out if you cock it a lot. It is a pretty tiny wire.

Dry firing any .22 without a snap cap is a no-no in my book, and replacing the spring on these guns seems to be a piece of cake. I would say that they are so small and take such a dedicated amount of effort to cock that kost folka won't wear them out fumbling with them over the life of the gun.

Fiv3r said:

I dont think much can. If figure you could snap the firing wedge off the hammer with too much dry firing. I also suppose the spring could wear out if you cock it a lot. It is a pretty tiny wire.

Dry firing any .22 without a snap cap is a no-no in my book, and replacing the spring on these guns seems to be a piece of cake. I would say that they are so small and take such a dedicated amount of effort to cock that kost folka won't wear them out fumbling with them over the life of the gun.

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I recall that at one time, people were experiencing breakages of the hammer on the Wasp, where the cutout thinned out the metal. IIRC, it was frequent enough that Wasp owners were requesting swap-outs for the standard NAA hammers. But I haven't heard instances of such breakages in the past couple of years or more, so maybe it was a case of the kind of heat treatment they were using on that part, or something. In any case, NAA seems to have addressed that point.

Other than that, the only issue that seems to crop up on the NAA users forum from time to time is the breaking or weakening of (as you mention) the main spring -- typically after thousands of rounds of shooting. But I suppose that's to be expected.

My Black Widow developed light primer-strikes after about 400-500 rounds of range time, so I sent it back to NAA and asked Justin (the gunsmith) to make the main spring extra-stout. Boy -- did he deliver!

.

F1 writes:

I consider the NAA more reliable than all your other pocket guns.

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..to my

My pocket-gun is a Kel-Tec P32. I own four guns that are smaller, a Beretta Bobcat in .22LR, a Beretta Jetfire in .25ACP, a Bauer Automatic in .25ACP, and a NAA Mini 1.125" in .22LR.

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I'm not done figuring that out. I've had the P32 out many times, and, except for a case of rimlock using too-short ammunition during the very first outing, it has run flawlessly. The Bobcat and the Bauer have only been out one time each, and both were very unreliable, not being able to get through a full magazine without malfunctions. Handling the Bauer later has led me to believe I may not have been properly seating the magazine, as it clicks before being so seated, but I have not tried again yet. The Beretta was tried with only one brand of ammunition (CCI 40g MiniMags) and has not yet been tried with another. That gun was pretty dry that day.

The Jetfire, made in 1964, has not yet been fired by me. The NAA has only been out once, and fired all 25 or so rounds loaded into it. Hardly testimony to reliability, though.

So, I'm not ready to agree with you yet. Given a choice among this group, it's P32 all the way. It's also the only one of these guns purchased solely for self-defense.

I've got a Pug, and even with the slightly-oversized rubber grip that comes with it, I can't fire it safely. I have big fingers, and I just can't bend or stretch them the right way to hit the trigger stud while still keeping a grip on the gun (it's something less than a 1-finger grip for my hands). I put on a set of Black Widow grips, which makes it shootable, but now it's quickly approaching the dimensions of a small .32 or .380 BUG (especially once it's in a pocket holster), and why wouldn't I just rather have one of those? I still want to see if it can be fitted with one of the folding grips, but I haven't carried it in years.

Why bother, I can hear you asking? Well, I originally thought that if it ever came down to having nothing, or having a Pug, I'd rather have the Pug (and that's still true). I have to work in a lot of places where, while carrying is legal, if there is any indication whatsoever that I'm armed, I stand a very good chance of losing my job, and possibly even my career. So it seemed like an obvious solution to get the smallest firearm possible - and if I could fire it with the stock grips, it would have worked. Problem is, with the bulbous BW grip, it's not even easier to hide than the 911 I also have... which actually packs a respectable-if-not-ideal defense cartridge - and more of them, to boot.

I've been shooting these little things since I was in junior high.
It feels odd that you need two hands to shoot something this small.

I had a friend who carried one of the NAA .22LR standard versions around in a tiny custom made leather belt clip holster.
I fired a cylinder full out of it once, and with my medium-sized hands I found it easy enough to shoot.
Aiming was a point and shoot proposition really in my very limited experience.
But then, it's a very short range gun anyway.

If you all are interested in an uptick in grips or for Speedloaders of sorts, Revision CV might be worth a look. Also, the merchandise is Made in the USA and economical! I've got some speedloaders for my J-frames and they do the trick nicely.

http://www.revisioncv.com/catalog/1

Neat little jewels. Bought mine 35 years ago, but still can’t hit much over 5 yards away.

I like mine. It fits just right in an old tri-fold leather wallet along with my CCL and disappears in just about any pants pocket. I would not want to get into a gun fight with it, but it will basically do what I ask of it from 5-15 feet. It is nice to have it along when walking our little dog. I usually have the .22WMR cylinder installed.

Posted this in the other mini thread. Best way I've found to carry one.

Rides horizontally along the belt.

jeepnik said:

Posted this in the other mini thread. Best way I've found to carry one.
View attachment 906532
Rides horizontally along the belt.

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That is a seriously good looking holster.

I had one (22 mag) for a while. VERY loud gun and not accurate enough for rabbit hunting so I traded it. But very fun

I like them a lot. They are engineering jewels and make a great BUG. These are last resort guns and are not for primary carry.

This is my Sidewinder with swing out cylinder.


And this is my Ranger 2. The same holster fits either one. I have a holster for each and put boot grips on them for better grip.

While these NAA guns are cute and deadly, I want to have something just a bit more substantial as a pocket pistol. While both the NAA and the Colt in my picture would fit in a pants pocket and not cause my pants to fall down, I would carry the .25 Junior Colt. The Junior Colt fits my hand much better than the NAA.


Even my single shot derringer fits my hand better than the NAA .22 Long. However, if my choice was between the single shot derringer and the 5 shot NAA, the NAA wins every time. Just throwing in my 2 cents.


All three of those guns would be great as a vest pocket gun but no one wears a vest these days, just T-shirts.

Mr. Mosin said:

Question for those of you that have one of these minute trinkets. I have only ever handled one, never shot one. The craftsmanship on the several I've dealt with has been top notch, every bit the equal of S&W and Ruger, and possibly better. My hiccup with them is that... they are *too* small. I can not manipulate them. I want to like them; but... I can't actually *use* them. If I want a small gun, the smallest I can successfully manipulate and handle quickly and accurately is a Baby Browning or the old IJ top breaks (J-frames being a *bit* bigger in my experience). The fact that I actually *have* a gun (tinker toy or no), is irrelevant if I can't actually employ it. So; anyone care to help me out ? What makes these tiny guns actually *useable* ?

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before i joined this site i had a NAA companion cap n ball, the holster grip they make makes all the difference.

Oaktree45 said:

The Junior Colt fits my hand much better than the NAA.
View attachment 906679

Even my single shot derringer fits my hand better than the NAA .22 Long.
View attachment 906680
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Oaktree45, I have the same problem with my big hands. But I set myself up identically to Crowman - without knowing. Because it is a superb grip for control, follow-up, and carry. In that holster, any pocket...