North American Arms revisited the page of American history where small, single-shot derringers or mini-revolvers ruled the concealed-carry/pocket-pistol world of self-defense. This Utah-based company has made tiny revolvers for many years without their role in self-defense being fully appreciated. That’s changed. Welcome the NAA Pug, a five-shot, derringer-size revolver that has been equipped with a very serious set of self-defense sights designed for deployment in low- to no-light situations with lightning rapidity. Measuring 4.5 inches long, 2.75 inches tall and 7/8 inch wide, this little powerhouse can be carried concealed by any size person. Made of 17-4 PH stainless steel and equipped with a 1-inch heavy barrel, the Pug will probably outlive your grandkids assuming you and I don’t screw up and elect all the wrong people to political office.

Yes, the Pug must be fired single action, but it carries five rounds of .22 WMR ammunition (the same number of rounds as your dad’s J-Frame), and the barrel is topped with a set of XS Sight Systems’ tritium sights, which are as fast on target as any sights I’ve used. Additionally the tritium insert in the large front sight dot makes it visible in the minimal light conditions that frequently accompany a hostile situation. Although the .22 WMR will not stop a charging buffalo, five alternating rounds of jacketed hollow points and solids should produce the desired effect on any adversary.

One interesting attribute of the Pug is the number of very useful accessories available for it, direct from North American Arms. For openers, pocket holsters will keep the little revolver properly oriented in your pocket and hold an additional five rounds should they be needed. Admittedly the gun is slow to reload given that it must be partially disassembled to remove empties and reload fresh rounds, but having five additional rounds available is certainly reassuring. It becomes incumbent upon you to sufficiently solve your initial dilemma such that you can find time and create enough space to reload. Keep in mind, many confrontations involving a five-shot revolver don’t involve a reload. To paraphrase a popular slogan, “five is better than none, and 10 is better than five!”

A great self-defense feature of the pocket pistol is the ability to have your hand on the gun with it partially drawn from the holster, but still concealed in your pocket before trouble starts. Brandishing your weapon is not allowed, but preparedness while maintaining concealment is smart and provides a great advantage. At a recent event at Gunsite Academy, I found getting a partially drawn pocket pistol into action was much faster than deploying a holstered gun concealed under a vest or jacket. As with every other skill acquired in life, practice is the key.

One huge advantage of the NAA Pug is a gun firing .22 WMR ammunition is much easier to master than one firing .38 Spl., and much less expensive to shoot. Buy an extra cylinder in .22 LR, and costs decrease even more. If you go camping or take day trips into the outback, you’ll acquire skill much faster simply because you’ll reach for the Pug whenever it’s playtime.

How about that: CCW capabilities with a gun that’s just fun to shoot! At a suggested retail price of $312, I believe it’s called a bargain.

This five-shot, single-action revolver has a 4-inch barrel and an integral, quasi-ventilated rib. Atop the rib resides a ramp front sight highlighted in florescent orange and either a fixed, low-profile or adjustable Millet rear sight, depending on the customer’s preference. The front and rear sights are both dovetailed into place. There is no trigger guard, and the rearward-sweeping, .4-inch trigger has two sets of horizontal ribs to enhance purchase. The test gun’s trigger had minimal creep and broke at 3 1/2 pounds of pull.

The Mini-Master is available in either .22 WMR or .22 LR, with the latter capable of handling .22 Short, .22 Long and .22 LR ammunition interchangeably. An additional cylinder in the second chambering can be purchased separately, or it’s provided with the conversion option. Each non-fluted cylinder has its cartridge designation stamped at the muzzle end: “M” for .22 WMR and “LR” for .22 LR. While .22 Short and .22 Long ammunition can be used in the .22 LR cylinder, .22 WMR cannot, and vice-versa, as .22 WMR cases have an incrementally larger diameter. Between each chamber is a safety slot that allows the hammer to be lowered on a loaded cylinder for carry without the danger of an accidental discharge. Shotshells in the appropriate chambering are safe for use in the Mini-Master.

To load, the hammer is first placed in the half-cock position. Then you remove the cylinder pin assembly by pulling outward on the retaining latch while twisting either clockwise or counterclockwise and pushing the unit forward. In addition to retaining the cylinder during operation, the cylinder pin is also used for extraction of spent cases.

Sending hundreds of rounds downrange when evaluating a centerfire handgun can sometimes be an unpleasant undertaking, particularly with today’s ultra-lightweight alloy and big-bore revolvers, so it was a welcome change to spend an evening with the light-recoiling Mini-Master. Since the sample I had on-hand was a conversion model, I had the ability to shoot both .22 WMR and .22 LR ammunition. Of the four types tested—two for each chambering—Federal Premium .22 WMR 30-grain Sierra jacketed hollow points grouped the tightest, averaging 2 inches for five, five-shot groups at 25 yards. There were no failures to fire, and only after the cylinder became excessively hot and fouled did extraction of spent cases become a sticky affair.

As a trapper, my initial thought of the Mini-Master was that of a trapline companion rather than a personal-protection piece. Although a bit longer than some revolvers I’ve used in the past, it more than made up for that extra length in weight savings. In fact, it weighs approximately one third of the semi-auto .22 LR that typically goes with me, and it tucked nicely inside my wader chest pocket. Similarly, the Mini-Master would make a wonderful trail gun anywhere large carnivores are not an ever-present danger, especially when stoked with both shotshells and traditional rimfire ammunition.

In reality, the .22 WMR and .22 LR cartridges are not the best choices for self defense. Given correct shot placement, the Mini-Master would probably prove effective in life-or-death situation. There are better choices for personal protection though, and single actions such as the Mini-Master do not offer the quickest reloads, which could determine an attack’s outcome. However, for the person who wants some means of protection but is intolerant to recoil, or the trekker who wants a versatile trail gun, the Mini-Master will handle both.

The guns in question are .380 autos, little 9×17 mm pistols that carry easy and perform efficiently as defensive firearms. While .380 ACP pistols are far from new—having first seen the light of day in the early 20th century—these are all fresh. More importantly, they are all very small and very light.

So let’s look briefly at .380 pistols in general and in so doing, get some kind of idea why the guns at hand are so different from the many other pistols in the .380 ACP chambering. Like other early autos, most .380s used blowback operation. This operating system contains the pressures of firing by the interaction of two factors: the weight of the slide and the strength of the recoil spring. When fired, these two forces work together to keep the action closed until pressure in the barrel and chamber drops to a lower level and the bullet exits the muzzle. It is a simple system that can be very compact.

If you want the gun to be easy to carry, however, you have to work around the fact that a blowback pistol still has to have a certain mass to the slide—so it’s heavy. If you want a light pistol that is also compact, you go to some form of recoil operation. Six of our eight guns use this system, where the barrel is mechanically locked to the slide for the initial bit of slide travel. Although several kinds of recoil-operated systems exist, all six of ours use the Browning-designed tilting barrel.

One of the better known of history’s .380s is the Walther PP/PPK/PPKs series. Those legendary pistols, the first of which was produced in 1929 and remains in production today, also introduced the first broadly successful double-action trigger system in a pistol. With one notable exception, all of today’s new .380s use some version of a double-action system. This kind of trigger action is particularly well suited for a concealed-carry defensive pistol. Excepting the single-action SIG Sauer P238, that leaves us with seven double-action .380s to survey. They are the Walther PK380, North American Arms Guardian, Magnum Research Micro Desert Eagle, Rohrbaugh Firearms R380, Kahr P380, Ruger LCP and Kel-Tec P-3AT.

In a sense, the Walther PK380 might not fit in with the other guns because it is a bit larger and heavier. For most people, however, it is still concealable. At 19.4 ounces, it is light and it fits into a 6.5-inch-by-6.2-inch box that is 1.2-inches deep—the gun’s thickness. With the extra height comes a slightly longer magazine, so the PK380 has a capacity of eight rounds, plus one in the chamber. The receiver is an ergonomically excellent polymer molding, matched with a squared, blocky slide and barrel upper assembly. Working on the recoil principle, this Walther uses the same basic receiver as the .22 field pistol the company introduced several years ago. It has large, easy-to-find sights, equipped with the typical triple-dot highlights. The trigger system is DA/SA, so the shooter can use the dynamic double-action trigger for the first shot and go single action on follow-ups. Curiously, what appears to be a typical Walther safety/decocker on the slide is really a firing pin block. A combination of greater weight, a fair trigger, excellent ergonomics and proper sights make this an easy gun to shoot. Several malfunctions during testing did not help. For a recoil-shy shooter looking for an easy-shooting, easy-carrying defensive pistol, this Walther might make a good choice.

Next up is the North American Arms Guardian, lighter than the Walther by roughly 3⁄4 ounce. It may be close in weight, but it’s much smaller in size. The “box” on this little gun is 4.75 inches by 3.53 inches. It’s .93-inch deep and the gun weighs 18.72 ounces. The Guardian is a pure, original-style, blowback semi-auto, which means the barrel is fixed to the receiver and its top surface is exposed. The front sight is actually milled right out of the barrel’s material. Surrounding the short, 2.49-inch barrel on both sides and rear is a heavy steel slide. Along with a steel receiver, the gun weighs close to 19 ounces. There is a great deal of evidence of care in manufacturing this heavy little gun. With a capacity of 6+1 rounds, the gun is heavy enough that it doesn’t jump out of your hand. It is, nonetheless, a bit difficult to handle, This is a hammer-fired gun, and part of the recoil may be absorbed by the hammer spring. If so, it doesn’t help the trigger pull, which is long and heavy. The gun is tough to master and if you are working on a precise shot, the sights are not big enough to clearly see. It had several malfunctions, mostly failures to chamber, a problem that seems endemic in these .380s.

Shooting Results