NAA Mini vs knife

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dev_null

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I'm sure there are some *holes* (pun intended) in my thinking here, so counting on y'all to point them out.

Carrying an NAA Mini in .22LR vs carrying a good knife.

Accurate Range
NAA: point blank
Knife: point blank
Advantage: tie

Damage
NAA: makes a hole that's .2" x .2"
Knife: makes a hole that's anywhere from .1" x 1.0" to .1" x 24" or more
Advantage: Knife

Penetration
NAA: up to 12" ???
Knife: up to 5" (for legal carry in TX -- your state laws may vary)
Advantage: NAA

Carry
NAA: requires CWP; illegal to open carry in most jurisdictions
Knife: can be carried openly or concealed in most jurisdictions
Advantage: Knife

Cost
NAA: ~$175 new
Knife: $25-50
Advantage: Knife

Accessories
NAA: ammo (required); holster (optional)
Knife: none
Advantage: Knife

Noise
NAA: click - BANG
Knife: click (for folders; doesn't apply to sheath knives)
Advantage: Knife


So, what am I missing here?
 
You can carry both, you know. ;-) I need to get a decent one hand pocketknife with a clip myself.
 
Accurate Range
NAA: point blank
..
So, what am I missing here?
Click to expand...
Practice. You should be able to hit your target beyond arm's length. Also, the NAA isn't sharp enough to cut yourself, even by accident.
 
I'd rather shoot in self-defense from a 5-10' range, than go hand-to-hand, face-to-face with a knife...if I had the choice. I'm pretty sure that little .22 bullet would travel the 5-10' quite accurately. ;)
 
Well, I've never shot one of those NAA revolvers but I'm positive some of their owners can hit targets at better than point blank range. So the advantage there goes to the NAA owner who actually practices with his weapon.

Why is the NAA making noise a disadvantage? If anything, I consider it an advantage.
 
Knife only goes out to arm's length. Huge disadvantage.
Knife travels slow enough to be blocked. Huge disadvantage.
 
It'll travel 5-10' and then some, of course... question is, with what level of assurance of hitting and severing something vital?

ETA:
2Wheels, good point on blocking.
 
It's tough (and expensive) to open my mail with a revolver. For $25-50 more (your knife budget) fer pete's sake pack both. If I was absolutely limited to one, I think I could find a $50 knife that would give me a little more self-defense peace of mind than an NAA .22LR. But I'm not hard-headed sure.
 
Knife travels slow enough to be blocked
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Yep, and your arm can take a lot of steam out of a .22LR before it gets to your vitals. And you "may" be able to stay in the fight. You (YOU) can block away at a Becker Combat Bowie if you want, but losing an ARM as a result isn't out of the question. That's a tiny gun, how big is the knife?
 
The whole point of a gun vs a knife is that the gun is supposed to "equalize" the combatants. It gives a small person the ability to take on a larger one. It reduces the need for having good hand to hand fighting skills on the part of the person using the gun.

Most assailants are armed. If THEY are armed with a gun then your knife seems pretty silly. But if they are armed with a knife and you pull a knife then it comes down to reflexes and combat skills as to who walks away with the smallest blood trail. So just how up are you on your knife and hand to hand fighting skills? But pull out even a little mouse gun and the guy with the knife is going to begin to wonder about the risks of a lucky shot. A knife wielding assailant could well think "I can take this guy" if he's facing a startled victim that's holding a knife. But if he sees a gun he realizes that he can't dodge or block a bullet. The gun produces an immediate shift in the outlook of the assailant. Something that a knife may well not. Or perhaps the sight of a knife in the hands of the victim could produce the opposite effect of wanting to "try the guy out" on the part of the assailant.

Nope, I'd take the NAA or other small gun over a big knife any day of the week. Then use it at a range beyond the assailant's arm's reach as often as I could before we closed. Then I'd try to block their knife thrusts as well as possible while the wounds hopefully do their job.
 
Agreed BC, but that's still why I'm on the fence about this particular scenario. You are absolutely five-and-out with the NAA, in the smallest, least effective imaginable caliber, with a gun design that requires micro motor skills to grip, cock & score HITS! Whoooo, to me it has spooky written all over it. Admittedly, my natural tendency has been to lean toward bigger, easier to handle handguns. I readily admit to knowing NOTHING about the capability & characteristics of guns this size. While there's no such thing as "good" knife fighting experience. I've been closer than I wish to tell.
 
You can do a LOT of damage with a knife in a couple of seconds. And in close quarters it would be fairly easy to disarm or at least deflect the hand of a guy wielding a NAA mini revolver. Disarming or blocking a guy wielding a knife...not so much. And I can't cut a steak or open a box with a NAA revolver. The NAA is fun to have but for more practical EDC I'll take the knife.
 
Vonderek said:
And in close quarters it would be fairly easy to disarm or at least deflect the hand of a guy wielding a NAA mini revolver. Disarming or blocking a guy wielding a knife...not so much.
Click to expand...

So it's easy to disarm a man with a gun, but it's difficult to disarm a man with a knife.

Pull a knife on a cop, you'll get pepper sprayed or Tasered. Pull a gun on a cop, you'll get shot. There's a good reason for that.
 
Pull a knife on a cop, you'll get pepper sprayed or Tasered.
Click to expand...
If you're within 20 feet of him with the knife drawn he better be about putting some immediate distance between you & him or he won't clear his sidearm, his taser or his pepper spray from his belt. And I'm not near the first person to believe (know?) that.
 
Ghost Tracker said:
If you're within 20 feet of him with the knife drawn he better be about putting some immediate distance between you & him or he won't clear his sidearm, his taser or his pepper spray from his belt. And I'm not near the first person to believe (know?) that.
Click to expand...

Then it sounds like your question has been answered. The knife is clearly better.
 
Wow this is an interesting one...

I feel that even a poor shooter can get to about 8 feet with an NAA mini, so it has better range than a human using a knife who isn't throwing it.

Your "hole size" argument makes sense on paper (meaning if you shoot/stab paper!). Soft fleshy things are a little more complicated when they are torn through at high velocity. The knife will make a cut pretty similar to the shape of the blade, but a self defense .22lr round will expand and shock/mutilate some of the flesh around the wound channel, causing more severe damage than stabbing someone with a pencil (which is what you are reducing the .22 to). Taking these into consideration, the NAA wins on range and damage.

After those two reversals, it is 3 to 3 (with one tie). And now I agree with someone from earlier: Carry Both!
 
You can do a LOT of damage with a knife in a couple of seconds. And in close quarters it would be fairly easy to disarm or at least deflect the hand of a guy wielding a NAA mini revolver. Disarming or blocking a guy wielding a knife...not so much. And I can't cut a steak or open a box with a NAA revolver. The NAA is fun to have but for more practical EDC I'll take the knife.
Click to expand...
In the case of the Mini, I agree.

For those who dont think someone with a knife wont "get" you, even when they appear farther than arms length, you need to get a chalked dummy knife and a dummy "mini", and have at it force on force. I think youll find the knife wins more than the gun. Put someone in the mix who understands how to use the knife, and the odds they win go up considerably.

Knives cut and puncture, and can do so much quicker than most understand, with a lot more damage than most understand.

This aint John Wayne movie knife fighting. :)
 
This aint John Wayne movie knife fighting.
Click to expand...

In that scenario I'm hoping more for Butch Cassidy, but you can't always get what you want (as somebody once said). :D

Good comments, all. I'm still not convinced the NAA is the better choice, but we'll see. The "both" crowd are correct, just "get a bigger gun" would be, but that wasn't really what I was going for.
 
i still have two legs, so i can use a .22 mini gun with a car or table or whatever between us. the knife is of no use until they are close enough to stab you as well.
 
So it's easy to disarm a man with a gun, but it's difficult to disarm a man with a knife.

Pull a knife on a cop, you'll get pepper sprayed or Tasered. Pull a gun on a cop, you'll get shot.
Click to expand...
Yup, exactly. Didn't say either was easy. In close quarters try grabbing someone's knife and tell me how that works out for you.

A cop will shoot you just as quickly if you have a knife or a gun.
 
Engagement distance:
Knife = Contact weapon.
NAA mini = arm's length or slightly better.

Fear Factor:
Knife = scary cuts and lots of blood.
NAA mini = Little hole maybe no or little blood.

IMHO kind of a draw, I'd suggest using the knife to open the mail and get at least a Rohrbaugh 9mm.
 
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