NAA Mini .22LR, will it save my life?

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I carry my .22 LR 1 1/8" Mini when I can't carry a gun. It fits quite nicely in a generic ballistic nylon knife sheath carried in my pocket. I did replace the stock grip with the NAA wooden square butt "western" looking boot grip, which give better purchase without much size increase. It's not a rapid deployment platform, but given a few seconds, I have greatly increased my defensive capabilities above "Please don't hurt me!!!". It's big brother, a .22 Mag 1 5/8" is carried almost daily as a primary EDC.
 
I was affected by the Onion Field incident. I had one of those guns that I wore for years in a cloth pocket right inside my zipper in my uniform britches.

I figgered if I was ever taken hostage, that probably based on my own preferences in shaking a guy down, that was the most likely place some BG might miss.

My idea was that at some point I would try and convince the BG that damn the circumstances, I had to take a leak.. The hope was that if the BG let me do my thing, I would recover that little rascal and put it in his eye or nose when I got close to him again.
This truly was a last ditch hope at best.


At ranges beyond that, I found a couldn't hit the side of a barn if I was inside it. I traded it for something else when I quit the LE business.
 
I have one 22mag/22LR . I can't hit a office building let alone a barn. I went back to my Beretta 950 . That I can hit with and more rounds on target faster. And can reload in less than 15 mins.
 
Bought a .22lr Mini in the late '80s, but even though it was a really neat, well made lil' booger, I couldn't operate it efficiently - so in the safe it went. Gave it to one of my sons for Christmas last year.

Not long after that purchase, I bought my .22 Magnum Mini & carried it a few years, but it too went into the safe when larger calibers came along.

Since it was kind of hard to handle with those little birdshead grips, the boot style got my attention later on. But the $35 price tag was not attractive until NAA put them on sale recently for $28 - still a bit pricey, but ordered a pair anyway. It handles a heckuva lot easier now.

Those little .22 slugs may not tear the bad guy up a lot, but the noise coming out of that stubby barrel sounds like a cannon and might scare them to death.

52b25e04d4dcc191be40a75bcc78a9ff7a2d538.jpg
 
I would caution you to change out the rounds in your gun at least bi-weekly if you carry the gun in a hot, humid climate in a pocket. Pocket sweat will render heal seated bullets inert over the course of a month or so in my experience. I change 'em out for fresh, shoot up the ones that came out of it in practice or plinking.

I don't find .22 magnum susceptible to this. But, it's not heal seated like the LR rounds.
 
I watched the vid. Interesting, BUT, my gun's accuracy is non-existent with CCI mini mag. Mini mag is my default if I can make 'em work because they always go bang in about every gun I own in .22 caliber. However, accuracy was HORRIBLE with CCI stuff. I settled on the Federal because I could hit what I was shooting at with 'em, a B27 right out to 20 yards off hand center mass, at least inside the 7 ring, usually 8 ring or better.

There's not enough variation in the HV rounds to make me give up accuracy for penetration. Shot placement is everything.
 
Any gun you have is enough... unless it isn't. Truth is, you'll likely get through life without ever needing your gun.

Then, in most of the usual scenarios, if you do need it, you'll not need to fire it.

Then, in most of the usual scenarios in which a gun is fired in defense, you'll not need to incapacitate the bad guy, or even hit him.

So that leaves an extreme unlikelihood that this piece, assuming you live a wise lifestyle, will be a poor choice for you.

But, it's not an impossibility.
 
I recall at least a couple of documented (and, I believe, authenticated) accounts of the .22 mini-revolvers saving the owners from serious bodily harm.

One involved an older gentleman in an RV at some isolated campsite. He heard noises outside and came out to check. As he stepped out, he got whacked on the back of the head by something like a piece of branch and knocked to the ground.

While at least one guy pounced on him, he managed to work the mini-revolver out of his pocket and fire off three blind shots. The assailants went tearing off into the woods.

The more circulated incident took place in South African before the ANC takeover. A white landowner and his family were driving down the private road of their property when they were waylaid by three AK47-wielding revolutionaries.

The cool-thinking father palmed a mini-revolver as he was ordered out of the car. When the opportunity allowed, he put a round into the nearest attacker's abdomen. This caused said attacker to double up and collapse, and caused the other two to flee into the brush.

I'm sure in both instances, the person being attacked wished he had a belt-fed minigun. But the mini-revolver was what each of them had, and in both cases, allowed them (and the loved ones) to come out unscathed. At least in the latter case, the sheer concealability of the mini-revolver seemed to play into allowing the father to get the drop on at least one bad guy.

.
 
I have no doubt that the mere presentation of a gun can also stop a thread, nor that a .22 can not stop or kill a thread. It has been done a lot of times. Of course bigger is better.

But I just would like to ask this question that has been on my mind about these mini revolvers:
Since the .22LR/Magnum versions are also so small, why would one choose to buy the version that shoots .22 shorts?
I can understand that the muzzle flash of the .22 Magnum might be too much for some. But as the .22 are already low powered, why carry a .22 short when you can carry a .22LR in the same sized package?
Surely the .22LR does not recoil too much?
 
The .22 short model is really tiny and more of a true novelty gun. I think you would need small hands and lots of practice to shoot it well.

The Black Widow was really the smallest NAA I could grip securely. With the excellent sights and longer 2" barrel, it's much more than a "get off me" gun. I use it as a primary when even a J-frame is too large.

There was a story a few years ago about a man and his son getting robbed in a Walmart parking lot in Alabama. The man pulled his mini and shot and killed the mugger.

There was another story of a home invasion, when an older gentleman went to answer the door and was knocked on his rear by home invaders. He managed to get his mini out of his pocket and shot one or both of the robbers, causing them to flee.
 
I have a .22 Mag version with over sized factory grips that I carry where ever I legally can and have done so for many years. When I am at the range and talk to the concealed carry commandos with their super high cap mags and fancy holsters I find most of them never carry one of their safe queens because it is too heavy or it is too bulky to carry for some reason. I would rather have this mouse gun in my pocket all the time than a safe queen carry gun at home. This is a back up plan incase my brain can't get me out the situation without resorting to the use of a firearm.
 
fineredmist said:
I have a .22 Mag version with over sized factory grips that I carry where ever I legally can and have done so for many years. When I am at the range and talk to the concealed carry commandos with their super high cap mags and fancy holsters I find most of them never carry one of their safe queens because it is too heavy or it is too bulky to carry for some reason. I would rather have this mouse gun in my pocket all the time than a safe queen carry gun at home. This is a back up plan incase my brain can't get me out the situation without resorting to the use of a firearm.
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yep, that's why i got an lcp, so i can carry at times i'd leave the g30 or the px4 at home. sometimes bigger isnt better, that's generally when you don't/won't have bigger with you for xyz reason.
 
Everyone should have a mouse gun for those occasions when the big rig just doesn't work. Or, just to have a 24/7 gun no matter what else you carry.
 
I pity any mouse within five feet of you.

Seriously though, I want one.
 
In a short answer it will. here is mine that I picked up a few months ago for a backup to my 642.

v-fib

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Hard to operate, hard to reload, hard to hold, hard to hit anything, not much power on the off chance you do.

Aside from that it's OK, I guess.

If you need a deep concealment backup gun, you can keep one of these in a shirt pocket, it's easy to operate and reload. I'd load it with some of these.

A much better choice than an example of a design that's been obsolete for over 100 years.
 
If I got to choose what gun my opponent would have in a gunfight it would be one of these.

To put it another way, if you were going into a gunfight and you got to pick what gun to use, what other repeating gun would you turn down to use one of these?

With the possible exception of the 22 Short version, I can't think of a thing.
 
natman said:
If I got to choose what gun my opponent would have in a gunfight it would be one of these.

To put it another way, if you were going into a gunfight and you got to pick what gun to use, what other repeating gun would you turn down to use one of these?

With the possible exception of the 22 Short version, I can't think of a thing.
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Well there is always the High Standard .22 2 shot derringer...

Deaf
 
IIRC Massad Ayoob recounted the tale of the young man who was attacked by a couple of would be kidnappers for ransom. He used a High Standard derringer for two contact, DRT shots and walked away.
As gun enthusiasts we subliminally answer the question 'What gun should I get?' with 'All of them.' But the first rule of gun fights is 'Have a gun'. In Proud Boer's case the Mini was also enough gun. In Ayoob's tale the High Standard was also enough gun.
 
Though a .22 wouldn't be my first (or second, or third, or . . . ) choice, I think the difference between using bare hands and a .22 mini-revolver to defend yourself is greater than the difference between using a .22 and a .45. At the very least, poking a few holes in the bad guy before resorting to fists tilts things in your favor a bit.

Are you sure you can't carry a small .25 or .32 auto?
 
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