NAA Guardian .380 - Is It Reliable?

[Powder_Burn]

I was looking at the NAA website and am interested in their .380. It looks like a Seecamp but only costs ~$480. Does anybody have experience they could share? Also, Kahr is no longer machining the slides so what impact did this have on guns produced after 04/06? Thanks in advance.

Reference:
http://www.naaminis.com/380.html
http://www.naaminis.com/sandy040106.html

 

[pocketgun]

I have heard they are reliable, though they are still pocket pistols and need to be cared for as such (keep it clean and lubed, pass on the Glock torture test stuff). The biggest complaints I have heard are that the trigger pull is too stiff and the larger model (.380ACP and .32NAA) is heavy (almost 19 ounces unloaded).

 

[MICHAEL T]

their relieable but heavy and blowback. Keltec 380 a lot less money less weight and less kick. Lifetime warrenty. I have 3 all out of box relieable. The Gen 2 KT are a fine pistol.

 

[SLCscottie]

It took work

The Guardian .380 is my primary carry. I can take it almost any where because of it's size. It fits right in my back pocket with a pocket holster. No body ever knows. (Even the wife thinks its the wallet.)

Problem: Failure to eject with with the next round crammed against it. It takes way too long to unjam it. because it does not lock the slide in place. This was about every 7th round. Not a real confidence builder. (This was the stores display gun. The price was so good I couldn't resist.)

Solution: Sent it in for repair. Customer Service is excellent. Took it out several times after the repair without a hiccup. Maybe 200 rounds with white box winchester, some corbon and some remington. No hiccup.
He sent me an extra clip, when he sent it back.

Service rep says that he uses winchester sivler in the Guardians.

I prefer my XD sub-compact 9mm over the Guardian, but it is harder to conceal.

Is it pleasant to shoot? No. It's a little beast.
But it is a very small gun. I would rather have this over a .22 or a .32.

 

[1 old 0311]

Love mine. Have over 5000 rounds through it. It is heavier than a Kel-Tec, but smaller.

 

[usp9]

The NAA discussion board http://naaminis.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi has alot of info. Seems to be a fair amount of negative talk, mostly about the trigger pull and weight. Reliability probably average. There also seems to be a great deal of after market work done to improve the gun such as decreased trigger pull, sights, and melting. While it is true the Seecamp is about $300 more, it has all this done already and weighs much, much less. Not being negative, the NAA is a good gun, but in this comparative case, price is a accurate indicator of what you get. IMHO

 

[kokapelli]

My Guardian was not reliable, stung my trigger finger and felt like a brick in my pocket.

I am now a happy P-3AT owner.

 

[Kankujoe]

I would suggest looking at the Kel-Tec's. I have a P3AT. Happy with it so far. Large following of users who are over whelmingly happy with theirs.

Beware: .380 in a small pocket pistol has a significant recoil. It takes a little to get used to it. Good for defense but not too much fun to shoot.

 

[1 old 0311]

www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=160074&highlight=keltec

 

[warmrain]

My NAA Guardian in 32 ACP has been perfect and 100% reliable. I purchased it because the Seecamp was a 2+ year wait. It is for all practical purposes the same size as the Seecamp

The NAA 380 is a much larger pistol. While all the Seecamps are the same size the NAA pistols come in two sizes and the 380 is quite a bit larger than the 32 version.

NAA recently fired Kahr from making their NAA 380 frames for some (quality?) reason. You can check this out on the NAA website in the archives of the president's newsletters/columns. You may want to research old vs. new versions.

If you think it will be as small as the Seecamp you will be disappointed. It also has a long, stacking and heavy trigger and a very snappy recoil. Still, it is a powerful little pocket gun.

 

[kokapelli]

It also has a long, stacking and heavy trigger and a very snappy recoil. Still, it is a powerful little pocket gun.

Yep, unlike the P-3AT's locked breach design, the NAA and the Seecamp for that matter both use a blowback action that produces much more felt recoil.

Both are much heavier and thicker then the P-3AT too!

 

[RyanM]

Used to have a .380 Guardian. It would jam if allowed to get dirty, but worked fine if clean. After a few hundred shots (the previous owner had something like 100 rounds through it, IIRC), the takedown button broke. Sent it back to NAA because I lost a tiny ball bearing when the button had popped out. They polished the chamber and feed ramp, and replaced the button. After the polish job, it needed to get a lot dirtier before it would jam. I don't know why they don't do that on all their Guardians. I then traded it for a Glock 23, after making sure it was reliable. A short time later, I got an e-mail from the new owner saying the darn button had broken again, and NAA was sending him a replacement, since he had the tools necessary for staking pins in place. I don't know if it broke a third time.

The takedown button broke in a way that didn't affect firing or anything; the slide was in no danger of flying off. But it did make it very frustrating to reassemble after field stripping, since you'd have to keep track of a button, a tiny spring, and a tiny ball bearing. Apparently that's a relatively common problem; there was a bad batch of buttons made a few years ago. They've probably got the problem ironed out by now, but older Guardians that haven't been fired much may still be suspect.

 

[ugaarguy]

A more in depth P3AT poll:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=218146&highlight=p3at

 

[pocketgun]

Yep, unlike the P-3AT's locked breach design, the NAA and the Seecamp for that matter both use a blowback action that produces much more felt recoil.

Not quite correct: the Seecamp uses a "retarded blowback" setup where a ring of metal in the chamber delays the spent case from being pulled free until the pressure drops. I do think it has more felt recoil from all the accounts I have read of.