LynnKCircle
Member
I've always been a fan of miniatures. In handguns, because I happen to be a peculiar shooter, I've always favored adjustable sights so I can correct for my individual peculiarities. One peculiarity is that because my trigger finger was smashed years ago, it has a boney knob on the bottom of where the first knuckle used to be. If I don't consciously concentrate on trigger control, the knob levers the trigger and I tend to shoot about 4" below my point of aim at 10 yards.
Therefore, when I found my first Black Widow was shooting about 12" high at 7 yards with the rear sight screwed down tight to the frame, I knew something was wrong. I sent it back in for repairs and received an entirely different gun which shot only about an inch high at 7 yards (that is with the front sight screwed down to the frame). But, unlike the first gun, this one had a gritty, staging trigger.
I should also say that even if the adjustable sights could have been properly adjusted vertically, they had no provision for adjusting them horizontally except for drifting the sights in their dovetails, just as with fixed sights. That wasn't too cool with me, either.
When I again wrote Sandy (Sandy Chisholm, President of North American Arms) to say I was still not happy with his product, he asked me what would make me happy. I offered three alternatives, one of which was to return my original gun with its superb trigger with either a good set of adjustable sights or, alternatively, fixed sights. Since getting my first Black Widow I had been reading on the Net that almost everyone who had the adjustable sights had had problems with them, whereas those who bought guns with the fixed sights were very happy with their purchase.
Last Wednesday my original revolver was returned to me with fixed sights installed. Apparently the vertical adjustment of the "adjustable" sights is too much of a problem for the factory to overcome at this time.
The first thing I noticed is that, even though I am using the same pocket holster as before, the entire gun seems far less bulky and feels lighter than it did with the adjustable sights. It's strange, but apparently the minutely greater width of the adjustable rear sight and the greater heighth of its corresponding front sight mad a significant difference as to how the gun & holster slides into a pocket. While I could carry the combination in tight jeans before, the grip aways threatened to peek out of the pocket Now it fits securely in the same pocket without any problems.
Last Friday I took the gun out to the range. Just as I remembered the trigger is superb. There's no takeup or grittiness at all; just a tightness and then BANG! I fired about 200 rounds of .22LR (Remington Golden Bullet .40 grain solids) and my last 25 round os .22WMR (CCI). Every single round fired off. When the gun was brand new, some rounds needed second strikes, but whether it was just breaking in (as I'd expected) or a factory adjustment, the revolver was 100% reliable.
Some of the ammo wasn't however, I could hear the difference in the reports, and some rounds were noticably underpowered. Not surprisingly, these went way low. But the gun shot to point of aim with .22LR, when I really concentrated on grip and trigger pull. When I got careless or shot too rapidly, my old habit kicked in and I was hitting about two inches below point of aim. With .22 WMR the gun was shooting about .5" above point of aim, which meant that when I shot rapidly I hit pretty close to what I was pointing at.
I didn't have a benchrest to really test the gun like I did earlier, so all firing was done standing with a two-handed grip. That means that the variation was my fault and I wasn't able to do more than get an intuitive feeling for its accuracy. But the fact that there were a lot of three-shot groups with touching holes tells me that this little revolver is as accurate as anyone could wish, and far more accurate than I am as a shooter.
My conclusions and recommendations: the NAA Black Widow is a superb hideaway always-with-you gun. I believe it is arguably the very smallest firearm which offers some sort of realistic self-defense potential. .22 WMR from its two-inch barrel should certainly have better terminal ballistics than a .25ACP fired from a small pocket semiautomatic. With its .22lr cylinder, the Black Widow offers the opportunity for practicing enough at low cost to really master the weapon, something else not available with center-fire pocket autos. I can recommend it without reservation -- well, with only one reservation: DON'T BUY THE ADJUSTABLE SIGHT MODEL.
(I also have to highly compliment NAA's devotion to customer service!)
Therefore, when I found my first Black Widow was shooting about 12" high at 7 yards with the rear sight screwed down tight to the frame, I knew something was wrong. I sent it back in for repairs and received an entirely different gun which shot only about an inch high at 7 yards (that is with the front sight screwed down to the frame). But, unlike the first gun, this one had a gritty, staging trigger.
I should also say that even if the adjustable sights could have been properly adjusted vertically, they had no provision for adjusting them horizontally except for drifting the sights in their dovetails, just as with fixed sights. That wasn't too cool with me, either.
When I again wrote Sandy (Sandy Chisholm, President of North American Arms) to say I was still not happy with his product, he asked me what would make me happy. I offered three alternatives, one of which was to return my original gun with its superb trigger with either a good set of adjustable sights or, alternatively, fixed sights. Since getting my first Black Widow I had been reading on the Net that almost everyone who had the adjustable sights had had problems with them, whereas those who bought guns with the fixed sights were very happy with their purchase.
Last Wednesday my original revolver was returned to me with fixed sights installed. Apparently the vertical adjustment of the "adjustable" sights is too much of a problem for the factory to overcome at this time.
The first thing I noticed is that, even though I am using the same pocket holster as before, the entire gun seems far less bulky and feels lighter than it did with the adjustable sights. It's strange, but apparently the minutely greater width of the adjustable rear sight and the greater heighth of its corresponding front sight mad a significant difference as to how the gun & holster slides into a pocket. While I could carry the combination in tight jeans before, the grip aways threatened to peek out of the pocket Now it fits securely in the same pocket without any problems.
Last Friday I took the gun out to the range. Just as I remembered the trigger is superb. There's no takeup or grittiness at all; just a tightness and then BANG! I fired about 200 rounds of .22LR (Remington Golden Bullet .40 grain solids) and my last 25 round os .22WMR (CCI). Every single round fired off. When the gun was brand new, some rounds needed second strikes, but whether it was just breaking in (as I'd expected) or a factory adjustment, the revolver was 100% reliable.
Some of the ammo wasn't however, I could hear the difference in the reports, and some rounds were noticably underpowered. Not surprisingly, these went way low. But the gun shot to point of aim with .22LR, when I really concentrated on grip and trigger pull. When I got careless or shot too rapidly, my old habit kicked in and I was hitting about two inches below point of aim. With .22 WMR the gun was shooting about .5" above point of aim, which meant that when I shot rapidly I hit pretty close to what I was pointing at.
I didn't have a benchrest to really test the gun like I did earlier, so all firing was done standing with a two-handed grip. That means that the variation was my fault and I wasn't able to do more than get an intuitive feeling for its accuracy. But the fact that there were a lot of three-shot groups with touching holes tells me that this little revolver is as accurate as anyone could wish, and far more accurate than I am as a shooter.
My conclusions and recommendations: the NAA Black Widow is a superb hideaway always-with-you gun. I believe it is arguably the very smallest firearm which offers some sort of realistic self-defense potential. .22 WMR from its two-inch barrel should certainly have better terminal ballistics than a .25ACP fired from a small pocket semiautomatic. With its .22lr cylinder, the Black Widow offers the opportunity for practicing enough at low cost to really master the weapon, something else not available with center-fire pocket autos. I can recommend it without reservation -- well, with only one reservation: DON'T BUY THE ADJUSTABLE SIGHT MODEL.
(I also have to highly compliment NAA's devotion to customer service!)
It did appear that they both tumbled in bottle number 3.
