Very small.
Jan02
North American Arms have caught my eye since I was a wee child, and saw a revolver on a family friend’s belt buckle. Even at that early age, I thought “that is a tiny, tiny gun, what would you use it for?”
Not that I’m against them, per se. I’m sure they have a good use in the real world, with practical applications. Maybe you really hate that wolf spider that’s setting up shop in your windowsill. Or you want to sneak to within 5 feet of a jackrabbit and pop a couple caps in his ass. Maybe you were hit by a mummy’s curse, and you will die within 1 hour unless you technically keep a firearm on your person.
OK, OK, I’ll stop now. This is your chance, NAA pistol owners: What are these minuscule firearms good for?
…would they even make a viable holdout gun?
no. no they wouldn’t.
I can’t really think of much of a use for them. Mine is currently a paperweight for a stack of cash in my gun safe. I’ll shoot it once a year, say “damn that thing is stupid” and toss it back in.
A Widow in the boot, beats a Deagle in the drawer. I’ve got one of the few they made in .17HMR. That said, I would generally only wear it as part of a Klingon dick-swinging contest to see how many weapons I could fit on me without being obviously heeled. My usual “boot” gun would be the P3AT.
Oh — and it’s fun to watch other shooters react to the .17HMR’s muzzle flame out of a 2-inch barrel. Given the mech issues I’ve had with mine (fortunately, NAA has GOOD warranty service), I can see why they quit making the .17.
the instructor who taught my Utah concealed carry class has a .357 derringer. he keeps it mostly for shits and giggles, he says.
I dunno. A couple friends of ours have a double-barrel .410 fleagun, like a side-by-side derringer, and although firing it is a big bag of bitch, I can see the practcal applications.
I just…I can’t. I mean, why bother with that when you can get a Ruger Elsie Pea, have higher carrying capacity, and still have a tiny-as-hell gun?
A .22 magnum will kill you just as dead as a .44 magnum, especially at the range you’d be using anything to defend yourself at. Grouping and retained energy at 100 yards is great, but try convincing a jury that you feared for your life at 100 yards…or 25.
It might not look like much, but it’s something and a headshot with a .22 is more likely to fatally wound than a 9mm since the .22 will penetrate but probably not exit, transferring all of it’s energy to the target rather than wasting it on the other side. A hit to an extremity certainly won’t have the same shock effect as a major caliber, but a heart would still be ‘jellied’ and as mentioned, a headshot would likely be fatal. Especially at the range this would be used at, try a few ballistic gel or clay comparisons at 5 yards and see what’s what or just read some coroner’s reports…
Personally, I’d rather have the most energetic round I could control for self protection at close range but I’ll take what I can get and if size mattered for concealment or for some reason this is what I had at the time, then I’d be perfectly comfortable with it…remembering that a pistol’s main purpose should be getting you access to a long gun, either yours or your attacker’s.
interesting comparison of relative energies, remembering that the .38 special was my duty weapon in uniform until it was replaced with a 9mm last year.
.22mag
30 gr (2 g) HP 2,200 ft/s (670 m/s) 322 ft·lbf (437 J)
40 gr (3 g) JHP 1,910 ft/s (580 m/s) 324 ft·lbf (439 J)
50 gr (3 g) JHP 1,650 ft/s (500 m/s) 300 ft·lbf (410 J)
.38 special
110 gr (7 g) JHP 980 ft/s (300 m/s) 235 ft·lbf (319 J)
130 gr (8 g) FMJ 810 ft/s (250 m/s) 189 ft·lbf (256 J)
148 gr (10 g) LWC 690 ft/s (210 m/s) 156 ft·lbf (212 J)
158 gr (10 g) LRN 770 ft/s (230 m/s) 208 ft·lbf (282 J)
200 gr (13 g) LRN 679 ft/s (207 m/s) 204 ft·lbf (277 J)
I wouldn’t say they’re completely useless. This guy on Swamp People killed an alligator with one. Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPQCFLWJG1E
It’s probably going to be marketed to the anti-zombie fanatic. Either a last-ditch defense when you’re trying to keep one from biting you, or post-bite on yourself.
Here’s a tale from a lady who used one to protect herself. The little gun you have beats the big gun you have not.
http://lesliebard.blogspot.com/2010/10/hoplophobic-cops.html
Such ‘sub boot guns’ have 2 purposes:
1) Some people like shooting weird stuff at the range, and these little pieces qualify as at least unusual.
2) If it’s easy to stash somewhere infrequently searched, it’s another close range ‘backup to the boot gun’.
Not sure what you would do with it, Ive never been able to hit anything with the 2 ive shot. After a few rounds, their accuracy at 5 feet is greatly diminished.
Sometimes you get something just because. I have one of the Whitney Wolverine .22LR handgun reproductions made a few years ago. I rarely shoot it. The magazine has such sharp edges it’s actually dangerous to load. The rear sight is so loose it moves with every shot. However, the appearance of this thing… The original was designed in the Fifties, and still looks like it was made fifty years from now.
Thanks but I will stick with my Lightweight Commander.
Shooting someone with a .22 is really going to piss them off. Even in the head (albeit for a very short time). It’s like stabbing someone to death with a deck screw. Kind of a dickhead move.
I own a number of firearms and most of them stay in the safe. The only gun that stays out and occasionally goes out with me is
my S&W model 42 .38 “lemon squeezer”. I inherited it from my grandpa who bought it in the 60’s. For such a nice old gun it shoots straight and operates flawlessly. Load it with the right ammo (WC, HP, frangs) and muzzle velocity / delivered energy are no longer are an issue.
-I can always find ammo for it.
-It is small enough to comfortably carry concealed.
-It packs enough punch to end a deadly threat.
-It works. It goes POP every damn time. Which is kind of important.
It is an undercompensator! Guy with the jacked up truck and long barrel .357 ‘just like Dirty Harry’ is making up for something ifyouknowwhuitImean. This gun? Tells the ladies ‘I’m packing all the heat I need au natural, the gun is just to let you know it. ‘
the only real use i can think of for it is the “oh shit i forgot my bigger gun” gun. like keep it in your glove box for those little emergencies.
although then again, just tossing something like a ruger lc9 in there would do it too.
A .22 Magnum is amusing….
If I were to buy one of these…I’d at least get hollow point rounds to make it worth while.
The Klingon “how many weapons can you carry without being obviously heeled” is a good point for this type of gun as well. You’d probably be able to put 2 of these in each boot without having too much difficultly walking normal.
Courtesy of Jay G., there’s the North American Arms Paralegal….
I got my girlfriend one of the .22mag ones for Xmas, with the dress code at work it’s basically the only thing she can conceal entirely. She’s way better at shooting it than I am, since her hands are smaller. She can get all 5 on a 8.5×11″ piece of paper at 5yds, which is about all you can ask for from one of these.
I have an NAA .22 Magnum I keep loaded with snake shot. It’s plenty good enough to blast snakes, rats and other small varmint at close range. And I don’t have too many qualms about setting it off in a concrete basement of garage if I really need it.
*snerk*
Brace your wrist all you want, video-guy; there is no manly way to hold that “gun”.
J – VERY good story/article you linked to!
Damned funny, too.
I carry my NAA .22 Magnum 5-shot any time I don’t feel like carrying the .357 snubbie or Glock 26. Disappears into my pocket.
What the heck, it’s better than just my fists, and I can hit man-size steel targets with it at 50 yards.
To change the subject for a moment… Do you have any more Obama Demon strips? I really liked them! Common sense and humor, all in one place – what a bargain!
No storylines at this time involve Obama Demon, but will in the future, because he’s so much fun to draw. Says a guy who voted for him twice.
DiFeinstein is coming up next week though, and although the Obama strips were lighthearted ribbing, I really and truly hate Diane Feinstein.
i wonder how many of his shots skipped off the water and into the buildings beyond. not what i would deem an adequate backstop for any caliber.
What are they good for? They’re good for making sure you can fulfill Rule #1 of a gunfight under almost any imaginable, and many unimaginable circumstances. A sufficiently clever and creative person could probably even get one onto a plane or smuggle it into the UK – not that I have ever given any thought, much less am advocating, such illegal activity.
Should it become necessary to use such a tiny gun, though, I would suggest proceeding as though it were a personal-scale equivalent to a Liberator pistol – find a way to use to to kill one of the bad guys and take his better weapon, rather than trying to win a shootout with a five-shot single-action.
And .22 Magnum is definitely not to be sneezed at as a defensive load, even out of a two inch barrel. It is considerably – no, MUCH – more lethal than .25 ACP, and about on par with a .32. It certainly beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and this is coming from someone who would literally rather have a well-sharpened #2 pencil than a .25 ACP.
They’re also good if most of your camping buddies are pacifist hippies and you frequent areas with lots of poisonous snakes… nobody knows you have it unless you need it, and then they are strangely uncomplaining.
Uncapitalize the “M” in “5 MW”. A 5 milliwatt (5 mW, 0.005 watt) laser is MUCH different from a 5 megawatt (5 MW, 5,000,000 watt) laser.
Great. Now you have me thinking about the implications of a five megawatt laser that could fit in the palm of a hand.
That is uncapitalized. The font is all caps.
And I believe a 5 MW handheld laser would also be called a “lightsaber.” Or it would if I owned one.
Huh. Font weirdness—and to think I almost hadn’t noticed. Also, lol (although I’m pretty sure a megawatt-class laser would count as less of a saber and more of a cannon).
Bruce Mitchel on “Swamp People” Kills gators with his NAA