Deep Cover Magnums

Most of the CCW stuff I read is great for off-duty cops and wannabes, but pretty irrelevant for us working stiffs. It just doesn’t apply to the real world of the average man or woman.

Belt holsters and shoulder holsters? Forget it! The minute your coat is off, all is revealed. In fact, the minute you put both hands on your hips, reach for your wallet or push your jacket accidentally aside, all is revealed. In my part of the country, we don’t wear jackets in the summer anyway.

Ankle holsters? Get real! They don’t go with skirts. They don’t go on or come off easily. Cross your legs when seated or pump the accelerator or brake with a client in the front seat, all is exposed.

Fanny packs? Only when you’re in a jogging suit or hiking the trails, and even then, everyone assumes you’re “packing.”
Special gun purses? “Sorry,” says my lady. “Absolutely no style and the wrong color or material if it does have style.”

Holster bras, holster undershirts, holster underwear? Maybe if the temperatures are moderate and you are of modest size. But if stuffed with anything larger than a very small handgun, they still reveal big bulges in the wrong places and are slow to access.

Service-sized 1911s, Wondernines, .40 S&Ws and their worthy compact clones? Too big and too heavy. Why all the self-defense schools and combat competitions design their courses around this type of handgun, or even lightweight versions thereof, continues to confound me.

North American Mini

Nope, for real world CCW work, make mine a North American Arms (NAA) mini-revolver in .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR) with a 1-1/8″ barrel. It may not be the biggest ballistic bull on the street, but it will be there when I need it and not resting peacefully at home.

The first petite .22 WMR revolver I ever fired was the Freedom Arms (now discontinued) 1″ barreled model carried fully exposed clamped in the middle of a handsome Freedom Arms trophy belt buckle. I remember the first shot out of that runt as if it were yesterday. Aiming it at a tin can on the ground, I focused intently on the fuzzy sight picture and slowly pressed the trigger. It was the mouse that roared.

“Wham!” The noise was deafening, but even more impressive were the gyrations of the little gun itself. It flew out of my grip, turned a complete somersault and returned to my hand as I reached out and caught it in thin air. I couldn’t do that again if I tried a thousand times.

Lesson one: The 1″ barreled .22 WMR revolver makes a lot of noise (which is good since it’s so small), and you have to remember to grip it firmly.

My introduction to NAA’s .22 WMR was the result of a casual conversation I had with Jerry Anderson, a retired highway patrolman living in Tucson, Arizona. We were discussing CCW, and I asked Jerry what he carried. It was an Arizona summer and both of us were wearing shorts. Jerry reached into his pocket and pulled out a NAA .22 WMR. That was a long time ago. Since then, I have carried a 1-1/8″ barreled NAA .22 WMR more than any other handgun I own. It’s a remarkable CCW gun and its intriguing lineage and history can be found on the North American Arms’ Web site.

The NAA mini-revolver is a blend of something old and something new. Let’s see, single action, spur trigger, bird’s-head-style grip, .22 rimfire. Hmm, sounds and looks suspiciously like an 1857 Smith & Wesson No. 1 in .22 Short, which was so popular during the Civil War as a concealed handgun. And new? Well, the NAA is made from 17-4 Ph stainless steel and chambered for the modern .22 WMR cartridge, plus it’s a bit smaller and more compact than a S&W No. 1.

In fact, with a 1-1/8″ barrel, the NAA mini-revolver is only 4-3/4″ long, 7/8″ thick over the cylinder and weighs a mere 5.9 ounces. Stuffed in a pocket, it doesn’t print, and dropped into a handbag, it simply disappears.

Loading

The NAA mini-revolver is very simple in design and operation, which adds to its rugged reliability. The cylinder accepts five magnum cartridges. To load them, you place the hammer at half-cock, pull the cylinder pin out and remove the cylinder from the frame. If there are spent cases in the cylinder, you eject them by tapping them out with the cylinder pin.

Once loaded, the cylinder is returned to the frame and locked in place with the cylinder pin. Next comes the important safety drill. Between the chambers are safety slots that accept the nose of the hammer. The hammer is lowered into one of the safety slots, locking the hammer and the cylinder in place and ensuring the nose of the hammer is not in contact with a cartridge rim. That’s the safe “carry mode” for the little gun, and it permits you to carry all five chambers loaded. The system reminds me of the safety slots in the cylinder of most Civil War cap-and-ball revolvers.

NAA recommends CCI and Winchester ammunition, and I concur, although you have to test various loadings by both companies for accuracy and stability. Even with its 1-1/8″ barrel, the mini-revolver is surprisingly fast, averaging 1,082 fps with CCI Maxi-Mag +V, which turned in 1-1/4″ 3-shot groups at 15′ over open sights. CCI Maxi-Mag Gold Dot was equal in accuracy, but a bit slower, averaging 808 fps over the PACT Professional chronograph.

Laser Accuracy

NAA offers a complete catalog of mini-revolver accessories, but the neatest accessory of all is LaserLyte’s new clamp-on laser sight. Only 1-5/8″ long and weighing .4 ounces, LaserLyte’s fully adjustable NAA-1 laser sight is a study in miniaturization, and provides the shooter with the smallest laser and handgun combination in the world. It also brings out all the potential accuracy and range a NAA mini-revolver has to offer while not compromising the minirevolver’s qualities as a CCW.

Outside in full sunlight against a neutral-colored object, I can clearly see the red LaserLyte dot at 25′. If the same object is in open shade, the dot is visible at 50′. Inside a house or at night, the dot is visible to the limits of your vision.

Clamped to the top strap of the minirevolver, the laser is switched on by the tip of your thumb as you cock the hammer. LaserLyte has a neat video on their petite laser on their Web site. In the menu, it’s listed as “North American Laser.” It’s well worth watching.

Yes, I would rather be packing my Glock 36 in .45 ACP, my S&W Model 60 or even one of the new .380s, but when it comes to day-in-and-day-out concealed carry, more often than not, I’ll be packing my deep cover NAA Magnum and I’ll feel confident carrying it.

.22 WMR Mini-Revolver
MAKER: North American Arms, Inc.
2150 South 950 East
Provo, UT 84606
(800) 821-5783
www.northamericanarms.com

ACTION TYPE: Single-action revolver
CALIBER: .22 WMR
CAPACITY: 5
BARREL LENGTH: 1-1/8″
OVERALL LENGTH: 4-3/4″
WIDTH: 7/8″
WEIGHT: 5.9 ounces
FINISH: Stainless
SIGHTS: Fixed
GRIPS: Laminated wood

Subscribe To GUNS Magazine

RELATED ARTICLES