Oh, they're accurate all right!
OK: the best mini is the Black Widow with the smaller of the two factory sight setups and both 22LR and 22Mag cylinders. This is the 2" "heavy" barrel variant ("heavy" only in comparison to the smaller minis!). It also comes standard with big rubber grips - you'll want to either shave the rubber down to something more concealable, or better yet switch to the smaller wood grips (less than $20 from NAA or there's actually some custom grips available
).
Underneath that large rubber grip, the Black Widow and MiniMaster (4" barrel) share the same grip frame as the short-barrel 22Magnum family.
With smaller grips on, a Black Widow is still very "pocketable" and will have seriously better sights and slightly better ballistics than the 1 and 1/8th or 1 and 5/8ths flavors. For some reason, adding an inch of barrel to these smaller 22Mags gives you an extra 100fps velocity(!).
Ammo: there are ONLY two loads I'd carry for personal defense - the CCI MaxiMag +V and the "TNT" flavor of that same round. Both use 30grain JHPs and get about 1,200fps from a Black Widow 2" barrel (1,400 from a MiniMaster 4"). The "TNT" uses a Sierra bullet with a bigger JHP. Basically, if you want more reliable expansion go TNT, if you want a deeper punch go with the original formula.
I've fired a LOT of these in two different minis and both accuracy and ignition reliability have been superb.
Winchester has a 33Grain Supreme that looks good on paper but I have NOT had as much success with ignition.
A 30grainer @ 1,200 is around the middle of the pack of 32ACP, in terms of energy level.
You'll hear people "dis" the 22Mag in small handguns, saying it's not giving you anything more than 22LR is. With all too many 22Mag loads, there's some merit to that but those two CCIs are tuned well for short barrels and make these guns a viable "front pocket surprise".
