By: Cary Kieffer
I finally got my NAA Pug, a few years ago I did short reviews on my 2 NAA mini revolvers, I ended up giving them both away as gifts. I always wanted to pick up another one, the model known as NAA Pug in 22 WMR was the one I had my eye on. A couple of months back I picked up an NAA Pug at my local dealer Johnsons Guns in Adrian, MI. Let’s take a look.
The Gun: It comes in a really nice lockable metal case, a lot nicer than you would expect, it’s like a little safe. Additionally there was a little leather holster with it but frankly I don’t have much of a use for it. The pistol is a very well made, 4.5 inch long, 7.1 ounces empty, 7.8 ounces loaded, 5 shot, 22 WMR single action revolver with a ported one inch barrel. You must remove the pin holding the cylinder in to load or reload/unload just like every one of their revolvers I’ve ever seen. This one though the pin does pull out differently, you must twist part of the barrel lug to the side and pull it out. Nothing difficult, just different than most of their guns. The machine work is superb just like always from NAA. The pistol came with a Laserlyte laser grip from the factory and and a large set of iron sites we can actually use. Last there is a safety notch in between each cylinder, what you do is after loading just pull the hammer back far enough to turn the cylinder a tad and lower the hammer into one of the notches. This makes the weapon totally safe to drop in your front pocket and forget it, you could literally beat the Pug on it’s hammer on concrete and it will not fire.. There’s no way it can fire if placed on the notch until you pull back the hammer and squeeze the trigger and that’s the only way I will carry it. Finally I bought the gun NIB and several boxes of Hornady 30 grain ammo and the bill was just a little over $400.
Shooting: It is a loud little bastard, that’s for sure. It does require ear pro…everything should as we all know but sometimes we skip it or think it isn’t required if it doesn’t cause pain. Well, because of that attitude I had and a war I lost a lot of my hearing, in spite of that this little thing makes my ears ring a bit more and people with regular hearing said it was painful to some of them. So get some plugs in before shooting this little NAA Pug.
Once you get used to handling and firing this little NAA Pug 22 mag it is fairly easy and quick to put 5 bullets in a nice group even out to 20 + feet. The reload is slower than molasses but the Pug shoots really well. Actually way better than I feel I had any right to expect. I’ll let the following groups speak for that. Obviously they are paperplates and the reason I used them was too be able to see the red laser in bright daytime sunlight at 20 feet back. In bright daylight I lose the laser at about 5 feet on most targets, I don’t see that as any major setback as most defensive fights are in lower light and this NAA Pug really was made to be pulled out of your front pocket, jammed into the bad guys gut and let him have a couple. That ought to give you the upper hand in the fist fight after if there still is a problem.
Plates: There is a 20 feet with laser group, hit high at top of plate, just needs a bit of adjustment on the laser. Then there is a 20 feet iron sites group and then 2 groups fired at 5 feet from the hip. So, totally instinctive on the one group and the laser on the other 5 foot group, which printed a really tight group as you can see.
Summary: This is a high quality mini revolver not a cheap novelty junk pile. The little NAA Pug goes bang everytime you pull the trigger. I’ve never experienced a misfire or malfunction of any kind in all 3 of them I’ve owned. For what it is the NAA Pug is capable of very good accuracy. It drops in my front weak side pocket everyday opposite my Glock 42 or 43 and you forget it’s there. A lot of times it’s in my strong side pocket at home at night and is the pistol I usually drop in my pocket when I run to the convenience store quick. It’s a gun for when your pretty sure you’ll never need a gun…but will also perform pretty well with some practice if you’ve turned out to be wrong about not needing a gun. I love the NAA Pug. As always thanks for reading and train often.
5-26-16 Update: I forgot about it being in my swim trunk pockets and went in my lake for about an hour. The Laserlyte grip from the factory was totally submerged the whole time. The laser would not focus a dot right out of the water but would come on. I removed the grips from the pistol and let them dry out 3 or 4 hours and it works just fine, so while not water proof it at least did survive it.
Cary Kieffer
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Don’t you mean 6.4 oz.?
Yep, I went dyslexic for a minute I guess. But as it turns out, the spec sheet is wrong too. I weighed it just now. It came in at 7.1 ounces empty and 7.8 ounces loaded with Hornady Critical Defense. Thanks for the catch.
I’m trying to find this exact model with the lazer grip, ported barrel and the black sripes on the cylinder… I don’t even see it on the NAA website. Can you provide the Model number or tell me where I can tell my local dealer to order from…
Thanks!
I’ll take a look when I get home from work and get back to you. Cary
I don’t see it listed anymore on their site, not with the cylinder I have or the grips. There is one on gunbroker but it’s way overpriced in my opinion…its gonna set you back near 500$ by the time you ship and transfer fee. Frankly, it’s not worth that much. Maybe just go with a standard “Pug” and add some laser grips when you find a set cheap on Ebay.