“I’d rather have a knife than an NAA revolver.”
This all started when my wife was walking our dogs and one of them stepped on a copperhead that was trying to cross the road. Thankfully the dog was fine, but I immediately regretted not having something relatively quiet that we could carry rat shot shells in for such problems. I had always been aware of NAA mini revolvers, but always have thought of them as a novelty, or at least something I would never need or want. But I got to thinking about them again after the copperhead run-in. If I (or more importantly my wife) could carry a gun that was as unobtrusive to drop in sweat pants as pepper spray, wouldn’t that be a value add for dog walks? I decided that it was worth the experiment, so I went and picked one up.
Fast forward three months, and not only has it proven very useful for that role (meaning she doesn’t go unarmed on dog walks), I’ve found that it might be the top of the mountain for a true Underwear Gun. I literally haven’t stopped carrying it since I got it. I find it truly effortless to carry and, for once, am literally armed from sun-up to sun-down. So I figured I’d share some thoughts I’ve got about it.
What is it?
The NAA Sentinel is one of North American Arms more recent releases. It’s a 5 shot, 7oz, single action .22mag/.22lr (with the 22lr conversion kit SKU) micro revolver that it small enough to hide in the watch pocket of your jeans. It combines features of their PUG (XS dot-the-I sights) with their Sidewinder (a swing out cylinder as opposed to the removable cylinder of the PUG). I have no illusions of reloading this gun in a fight, but I decided that the swing out cylinder would make range trips less tedious. So far that was a good choice.
Maybe 10 years ago, I shot a mini revolver with the ramp front post and no rear sight and laughed at how dumb that gun was. I found it nearly impossible to find a defined and repeatable sight picture. With the addition of the the XS sights, aiming isn’t as much of a guessing game and they make a huge difference. The impossibly small size is the main attraction of a gun like this because practical accuracy, capacity, ease of reloading, split-times, and caliber are below the floor that any reasonable firearms instructor would suggest for a student. It’s the true Min-Max hideaway gun. And I dig it.
Have they been used successfully?
Choosing to carry a gun like this goes beyond even caliber debates. It’s basically selecting one of the oldest revolver actions with one of the more marginal calibers in a size that makes it quite difficult to shoot well. So a reasonable person would ask, “Have they ever even been used successfully in a shooting?’ And thanks to Claude Werner’s recent patreon post: Tiny Guns IRL, I was given a few examples. Please join Claude’s Patreon as it’s well worth the small fee.
Ned Marshall was shot with a .380 during a robbery, which he eventually succumbed to, but before the guys got away he shot one with a mini revolver. The bad guy eventually showed up at a hospital and that started the line of questioning which got the crew caught.
A female motel clerk was assaulted by a knife-wielding man who told her to take off her clothes. She center punched him with a mini-revolver and he died right there.
- All Outdoors recounts a road rage incident he diffused by producing his NAA. And one more in the comments from @endofyourlive.
- John at ASP talks about a South African example here:
Four of these five events resulted in a psychological stop, and in two of which the good guy was shot first. One ended with a physiological stop. This isn’t great, but I’m reminded of Claude’s observation that a private citizen’s job is to force a break in contact with the bad guys. So I think I can say it worked 5/5 times in cases I’ve seen (isn’t that how gun youtubers draw conclusions?).
As for caliber. I have extensively carried .22LR for defense in the Smith 43c, so I’m really not worried about caliber debates. But .22mag is actually a very capable round. Go check out Lucky Gunner’s ballistics lab on the .22mag. I chose to go with the Federal Punch 45gn and the CCI .22mag snake/rat shot for the original snake issue. The snake shot pattern at 1 Yard is about 6″ and gives good coverage. So that’s handled for next time.
When making a carry gun selection, it’s obviously worthwhile to know if the caliber, loading, and platform you’re choosing is sufficient for the task. I have convinced myself that if I can do my part it is sufficient. While some would call this confirmation bias (it is), I’m ok with it. Especially for the role this gun fills for me.
What it does well?
As I mentioned, this is a true Min-Max gun. Maximizing concealment, size, and weight, and giving up just about everything else. This gun makes even a KelTec p32 look large. In addition to a grass mowing, beer running, dog walking, mail checking gun, it also is a great secondary or tertiary gun if you’re into that sort of thing.
It might be the purest example of an Underwear Gun as I laid it out in 2014. The single action and built in safety notches between live cylinders also makes it extremely inert even without a holster. I stopped using clip-drawed pistols around the house when my son was small, because he would crawl on and wrestle with me and even a DAO gun clipped without a holster was a no-go (which meant I wasn’t carrying a gun around the house). The mini-revolver is another matter. If I had one at the time, I would have felt no concerns carrying it around the house. So deep concealment safety is also one of its strong suits.
By all accounts, they are very reliable. I’ve only got about 200 rounds through this example, but everything has gone swimmingly so far. I’ve also seen some people complain of keyholing, but most of those were in .22lr minis, and mine has been good with PUNCH 45gn and CCI Maxi-Mags out to 12 yards. One thing I’ve seen to avoid is the high velocity varmint rounds, which NAA says can cause stuck cases as they form to the cylinders, as well as potential projectile stabilization issues.
Most people will call these a belly gun, or an ENT gun (screw into Ear/Nose/Throat and shoot), but as with most small guns, it’s the indian and not the arrow. Especially with actual sights. This one has been no different for me. As usual, dryfire and experience will extend the effective range of any gun. To paraphrase Darryl Bolke, all I need is sights I can see, a trigger I can manage, in a reliable package and I’m good to go.
Accessories?
Easily the most important addition to this gun is a set of grips that fill the void behind the trigger (the sinus). When getting a grip on the gun with factory grips, your middle finger can ride up deep enough behind the trigger that it can physically block the triggers rearward movement. So any grip that fills this space will be an improvement.
A second feature of aftermarket grips (stocks) that will benefit most people would be ones that increased the length of pull from the meat of the palm to the face of the trigger.
The best stocks I’ve seen or heard of for this gun are the Hamre Forge grips with the optional knife clip. They have both of the above features and really change the shooting mechanics for the better. The ability to use a knife clip for IWB, inside the pocket, or inside the boot is just a nice bonus. Hamre has been sold out of them for months (due to some equipment issues he has had), but I was able to convince a kind redditor to part with a set that they didn’t love. They are a necessary upgrade, in my opinion.
The ridge at the back of the grips is a good index point for the proximal joint of the thumb to rest when you get a full-firing-grip in the pocket. With the thumb placed here, the pad of the thumb is in position to work the hammer as you draw. Another benefit of these grips.
There are some other aftermarket grips that also accomplish this, and I’ll list a few here:
- These increase the LOP but don’t fill the sinus: https://link.amazon/B0gk8tHQ2
- These NAA grips provide more finger purchase and fill the sinus: https://link.amazon/B0ggwAoD8
- you get the idea
As far as holsters go, you can find just about any style and shape of IWB, OWB, cross-draw, Pocket, or Boot holster you can imagine. Being a small time leather sewer, I ended up making my own design. I wanted a pocket holster that would hold the gun as well as some POM pepper spray. A perfect dog walking tool combo. So I designed The Dog Walk Rig for myself, and anyone else who needs one. They are listed on my SHOP page. I have designs for the Sentinel, the PUG, the .22lr version, and the KT P32. Having a true force option holster puts me at ease for anything from dog charges to snakes to bad dudes on my suburban neighborhood walks.
Because we’re talking .22s, and you know I’m going to recommend dryfire as the primary skill builder, you will also need a pack of #4 drywall anchors to use as dummy rounds. They’re cheaper and more resilient than dedicated 22lr or 22mag dummies while still protecting your hammer and cylinder.
Skills and Drills?
This gun might be the highest on the list of Talisman Guns that I can think of. The average person who buys one of these to drop in a pocket is hoping to ward off evil by just the presence of the gun and that they’ll muster the skill on the day. But we all know that’s a losing bet. Just like with our big guns, and perhaps even paradoxically more so, we need to be able to shoot these small guns well. And that means shooting small targets (head boxes and high center chest) in realistic self-defense timeframes (within 2-3 seconds) at realistic distances (3-5 yards). So most of my practice has been targeted at skill building at those distances and par times. Split times are going to be slow, but it is what it is. Dryfire and live fire are focused on this, with the largest emphasis on draw to first shot proficiency.
I have been mostly concentrating on the following skills at 3-5 yards on the headbox, both freestyle and strong hand only:
- Draw to first shot, hands outside pockets
- Draw to first shot, hand staged on gun (covered low ready – D. Bolke)
- Doubles from both start positions
- Failure drills (2 body, 1 head)
- Transitions on near to far targets
- Busy Hands (drop pepper spray, draw gun and 1-2 shots on headbox)
Conclusion
All in all, I think this will be a good gun for its intended purpose. I would never recommend that you sell your g19 or J-frame and only carry one of these. But I think there might be a role for this kind of gun for some people. If you catch me on the streets, I’ll probably have this thing in my pocket. If you think I’m a dumbass, you can take comfort in knowing that you’re right. Thanks for reading.
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