I've been taking a lot of big pistols to the (alleged) BackUp Gun Match, and I figured it was time to try out something that actually would quality as a back-up gun. So, I got my hands on one of NAA's .22 Mini-Revolvers. This is the smallest practically shootable "real" gun made, and they are relatively popular with some people as a deep concealment pistol.

They are available in .22 Short, .22 LR, and .22 Magnum, with a wide variety of options and features. What I am using today is a very basic example. It has a .22 Magnum 5-shot cylinder, basic wood grips, and is single action only with a sheath trigger. It has a 1.625" (41mm) barrel and weighs 6.5 ounces (184 g). It has a front sight and no rear sight, and is effectively impossible to aim at any reasonable distance. So, let's see it f it is still better than a Taurus Curve!

Epilogue: I placed 27th of 31 shooters (87th percentile), with a total score of 2 point. With the Curve - including the fact that I used a fully-functional HiPoint for the last stage - I scored -4 overall. That was not on the same course of fire, so it's not strictly comparable, but I think it is highly suggestive. I also placed worse relative to the field with the Curve, at 37th of 41 (90th percentile). The Mini-Revolver is slow to shoot, underpowered, and essentially impossible to aim, but it is well made and reliable. The Curve has much more oomph, but it does not run reliably at all. Given a terrible choice between only these two guns, I would be very temped to take the NAA simply because I know it will at least work.