Never Say Never: New to Me NAA Mini Revolver

I'll just leave this here.

The best way that I've found to fire this tiny beast is to grip it with one hand and operate the hammer and trigger with the other.
Been doing it this way for around fifty years.
I'm still not particularly happy with my accuracy, though.

JCooperfan1911 said:

You carried it for personal defense and loaded it with CB caps and subsonics?

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I carried it as a last line of defense, with ammo that would punch holes and allow me to maintain control of my firearm.

CBee were Remingtons subsonic ammo, haven't seen them in years. Hence switching to CCI's offering.

sgt127 said:

Let’s try this.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/573440652

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Ok , basically fanning. I hadn't thought of that.
Are you able to hit anything by shooting in that manner?

JFrame said:

I have several NAA revolvers and the Beretta 950. Small is certainly relative to the area where a weapon can be concealed, but the smallest one I have (the .22LR Mini) is considerable smaller in total surface area than the Beretta, and (I believe) weighs about half as much fully loaded. This photo below (albeit a crappy shot) lines up the two handguns pretty well for comparison.

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Good photo and size comparison but I don't think that was the gun I compared the Beretta to. But that was when I was in my old house so over 16 years ago. I could be wrong. But I never wanted one of the smallest guns they sold. I like the slightly bigger versions with longer barrels and bigger grips.

Waveski said:

Ok , basically fanning. I hadn't thought of that.
Are you able to hit anything by shooting in that manner?

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Eh. It’s about minute of felon at 7-10’.

I really need to just put up a IDPA target and try to see how accurate it is.

Somebody showed that to me and, it was just kind of a neat trick. I swear I’ve done all 5 in a second. But, that was a while ago. Sorry for kinda fudging on the time. But, everybody here can make head shots at 100 yards with a .45. ( ) I wasn’t too far off.

It really is a remarkably solid grip though.

I've owned a 1 5/8" mini mag for 25+ years. They take a good bit of practice to learn how to grip, aim, and fire them with any speed and accuracy.

I grip mine like this but it may not work with large hands.


I use the back of the frame where the hammer goes as a rear sight notch.

In WMR, mine does well with just about any ammo except Aguila. Aguila ammo swells enough at the rim to lock the cylinder up on the third shot.

Practice enough with the gun to feel comfortable handling and shooting it and you should find it is accurate enough at 20 feet.

I carry mine in this discontinued pocket holster from NAA. It stays in place in a front pocket without rotating and the little paddle pouch holds five extra rounds.

‘Minute of…(fill in the blank)” has been bandied about on this forum lately; I don’t know what it means.

It’s a takeoff on minute of angle (MOA), which is a measure of angular spread from the point of aim. MOA is 1.047” per 100 yards if I remember correctly. Scopes, red dots, etc usually have their adjustment “clicks” in terms of MOA. People will riff on it with things like “minute of pie plate” or “minute of bad guy”, which I usually take to mean “accurate enough for shooting pie plates or bad guys” at whatever distance they state.

I have guns that are incredibly accurate. More capable than I am.

But, if I can get solid hits on an IPSC target at 100 yards with my 1911, I consider it “minute of felon at 100”

It’s more of a pattern than a group, but without measuring it, I know I, and the gun, can get hits.

I probably heard it 30 years ago. “Felon” being the cop version.

Waveski said:

‘Minute of…(fill in the blank)” has been bandied about on this forum lately; I don’t know what it means.

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It means they havent bothered to learn to shoot the gun and be able to hit anything better than whatever the "blank" is.

And of course, reasonable expectations apply. They arent long range and/or target guns, but they arent close to being unshootable either. At 5 yards or so with any of mine, I can keep a fist sized or smaller group on target, where I was looking when I was shooting, and thats shooting as fast as I can cock and shoot. And by "looking", I mean Im not "aiming", Im point shooting, and shooting one handed.

If you cant make decent hits, at realistic distances with them, its not the guns fault.

my tendency was missing everyting to the left 6 or 8 inches for several reloads until I got a feel for it. if I can shoot minute of tin can at 20-30 feet, I figure I'm good enough and it works so all good. if I want to shoot targets for fun, I get out a target pistol to work with.

Frankly for $160 ea. (great price) I would probably have bought all three (or as many as he would sell at that price). I was going to buy one last week with a plan to store it in a hidden compartment on an item I should be able to take to where I may end up soon. Then as I was abought to pull the trigger on the purchase I realized I hadn't gotten my DL renewed. So I have to see if I can get that done as you can't buy withought a valid DL.

I have a Black Widow. The grips are a little larger than some of the other models. I realized I had long fingers while figuring out how to hold/shoot a .357 snubnose. I tried several different ways of holding and shooting my Black Widow before I came up with a couple different ways that work for me. I have found that little revolver to be wonderfully accurate, and if I really do my part, it will do it's part.

I have it on me almost all the time in a cross draw "driving" holster from Desert Gun Leather. I did however take it off while I was participating in a 3 Gun match. I figured with a full size pistol, magazines, shotgun ammo, and whatever else, I didn't need it. Did I mention we had triple digit temperatures? It sure felt good to get home, get the full size gun off me, and slip that little gun on. Really, slip into something more comfortable.

I like the dedicated 22 lr models for what they are.

I also like the foldable pocket clip grips.

36 grain cci hps supposedly do the best from these, I think they either achieve or darn near go 12 inches in ye olde ballistics jelly.

While I really consider this a last ditch, one handed belly gun, they can get decent accuracy with two hands. For me the best method is to wrap my trigger finger around the front of the grip and pinch the back of the grip with my thumb. Then I wrap my left hand around my right hand like I would with a j-frame, but I use the index finger on my left hand to pull the trigger and my thumb on my left hand to cock the hammer. I really like the Desantis holster.

I do much like @bassjam ^^^ except I grip with my left and operate the hammer and trigger with my right.

I've had the Black Widow 22Mag/LR for a dozen years or so and I still like it for last ditch carrying and critter work. I live in the city and it will shoot CCI 22 CB Long about as loud as a cap gun, but has killed a lot of opossums. Might take multiple shots, but it is less loud than a pellet gun. But, with the 22WMR, I've had guys at the range ask if it was a 357 Mag. I have chronographed about 1,200 fps with 22 WMR 40 gr. It is actually pretty accurate if I practice with it. Mine has decent sights, just have to have control, as the gun is so light and the trigger is not light, so control is key to accuracy.

Here is my "holster":

Loaded with PROPER ammo, as in not subsonics or CB caps, these little guns beat harsh words. I’ve personally found several successful incidents of them being used for personal defense, mostly without a shot being fired.

Old members here might remember the Trooper Mark Coates shooting in the early 90s. Long story short, one round from a .22LR NAA ended the Trooper’s life, while the perp was his 5 or 6 times with the Trooper’s .357 service revolver but is still alive to this day.

Shot placement is everything. I carried an NAA during my bar hoping days as a young man. It was so small you could get it passed most bouncers pretty easily. I took it apart one time to clean it and couldn’t get it back together. The factory uses a special jig for this process, and little did I know they charge $50USD to reassemble the gun. I sold the bag later on and bought a .25 Beretta.