Small but Deadly Like a Rabid Jack Russell Terrier on Steroids
Since I was a little guy, I loved to roughhouse around. On the playground when some mixed up young man pushed a girl down, I would step in and show him the errors of his ways. If any one thing would fire me up, was to see a girl or woman being abused. Seven days after my twenty first birthday, I was commissioned as a law enforcement officer. Since then I spent my adult life protecting women, the weak, the old and children. I protected the sheep while looking for the evil.
Early on as a youngster, I found a fascination for single action firearms. Most likely it was due to watching television shows such as Hopalong Cassidy wherein the difference between good (warriors), bad (dirt-bags), was presented clear as a mountain stream. Of my toy pistols, most were the “cowboy guns” including the Old West Derringer. To this day I still like the derringers, single actions and the small twenty-two caliber revolvers. So for those sheepdogs who are looking for a pocket canon or those warriors who are looking for an ideal backup gun, here are the six best American made mini-guns under $500.00.
As a warrior for my purposes, there are only two companies in the USA who make a high quality handgun you can easily put in your pants pocket. A mini-gun with sufficient firepower to take down any wolf who presents himself or herself. Those two companies are Bond Arms of Texas and North American Arms of Utah. Bond Arms with their powerful derringers and North American Arms with their iconic tried and true small single action revolvers.
Bond Arms
Bond Arms produces, by my count, sixteen different derringers and soon one 9mm Bullpup type compact semi-auto pistol. I will be testing this Bond Bullpup and reporting back to you. But I digress. I have chosen three you can buy for under $500. One derringer, the Snake Slayer, retails for $568.00 but….if you shop around you can find it for around $495.00.
Snake Slayer
The Bond Snake Slayer is one bad boy derringer. The barrel is 3.5 inches long and houses a .45 Long Colt (250 gr bullet) and or a .410 gauge 2.5 inch shotgun shell. I would say the Snake Slayer is not only a snake killer but can handle any critter causing you harm. Up close and personal I believe this small derringer can take out a large brown bear. I know you 500 S&W mag. warriors are choking on your coffee right about now. Here are the facts. In 1953 in Alberta Canada a Native American woman by the name of Bella Twin shot and killed, at the time, the world record brown bear. She used a Savage bolt action single shot rifle shooting a .22 Long round. Not a Long Rifle but a .22 Long. With one shot in the side of the head Ms. Twin dropped this monster in his tracks. She then jumped up and shot the bruin in the head eight more times using all the ammo she had with her.
So if a .22 long can kill a huge brown bear then a .45 Long Colt can as well. I would hate to have to resort to this way in killing a brown bear. But choosing from being mauled and eaten or sticking this little giant under the bruin’s chin and pulling the trigger….well you can know my choice. So the Snake Slayer can double for snakes and larger animals who present themselves as a threat including dirt-bags. The .410ga shotgun round with #8 shot can eviscerate any snake you will encounter. The serious hikers and survivalists need to take a good look at this very neat firearm. Now I recommend you only shoot the four venomous snakes in North America and let the rat and mice eaters do what they do. The Bond Snake Slayer is a high quality firearm and cheap at $568.00, but like I said can be found below the $500 mark.
Snake Slayer Specs
Model: Bass / Snake Slayer
Caliber: .357mag/.38spl or .45LC/.410shotgun
Capacity: 2
Barrel: 3.5 inches
Grip: Extended Rosewood
Sights: Front blade, fixed rear
Length: 5.5 inches
Weight: 22.0 ounces
Price: $568.00 (Can be found for $495.00)
bondarms.com
Girl Mini
For the women warriors and sheepdogs, the Girl Mini is made for you. The Girl Minis’ two barrels are chambered for the hardcore .357mag round which means you can shoot the lesser .38 special rounds as well. The neat thing about this, you can practice with the cheaper .38 special target loads and carry the .357mag when you are out and about. Be sure to use the .357mag rounds from time to time to be aware of the recoil. To reduce the recoil of the .357mag, I suggest you carry a round with a 100gr bullet. It is called “Action-Reaction” and is Newton’s third law of motion.
The Bond Girl Mini gets its name by sporting some real pink grips. This little dynamo has a 2.5 inch over and under barrels chambered for the .38 special and .357mag. To load this firearm, you shove the lever on the left side down, lift the barrels up. You load the rounds and then reverse the process. The barrels will snap and lock shut. As in all of the Bond Derringers, there is a safety hammer block button placed to either side of the hammer. You can place the hammer on half-cock and activate the hammer block at the same time. Push to one side for safety and to the other for firing. In this way you can carry this firearm in complete safety. What a nice concealable handgun for the ladies.
Girl Mini Specs
Model: BAM38 / Girl Mini
Caliber: .357mag/.38spl
Capacity: 2
Barrel: 2.5 inches
Grip: Pink Wood
Sights: Front blade, fixed rear
Length: 4.5 inches
Weight: 18.5 ounces
Price: $469.00
bondarms.com
Backup
Okay for you manly warriors and sheepdogs, Bond has the derringer for you as well. The Bond Backup is about the same size at the Girl Mini but is chambered in .45acp or the 9mm. The grips are black rubber so no pink grips guys. The barrel is bead blasted to knock down the stainless shine with the frame being powder coated. As in all of the Bond Derringers, with an allen wrench you can take off the Backups’ barrels and replace them with any of the 20 plus different caliber barrels including the .410ga. This means you buy one gun and can change the barrels from the .22 Long Rifle up to the .45LC/.410ga. With all Bond Derringers, after firing the pistol you break open the weapon and eject the shells. The rimless rounds like the .45acp, 9mm etc. you will have to latch on them to fully extract the empty case. The backup is one I would most likely purchase for a CCW and or backup.
Backup Specs
Model: BABU / Backup
Caliber: .45acp or 9mm
Capacity: 2
Barrel: 2.5 inches
Grip: Rubber
Sights: Front blade, fixed rear
Length: 4.5 inches
Weight: 18.5 ounces
Price: $490.00
bondarms.com
All Bond Derringers have the following unique features:
- Compatible with all Bond Arms barrels
- Automatic spent casing extractor
- Patented rebounding hammer
- Retracting ring pins
- Cross-bolt safety
- Spring-loaded, cam locking lever
North American Arms
Black Widow
As a warrior patrolling our not so safe streets of metropolitan America, in addition to my 1911 45acp duty weapon, I had tucked away on my person a NAA Black Widow. Why? Just because. Just because I could and felt I needed too. Because of all the acquaintances I have made in the world of Dirt-bags who would just love to revisit old issues. Because maybe the $20,000 bounty placed on me years ago gave me an insight on the depths of their evil diseased minds.
The North American Arms, (NAA) company is a premier manufacture of high quality mini guns and pocket automatics. On this website in the article about “Street Survival for Women: An Issue Close to My Heart” I talk about why women need to learn how to defend themselves. I exhibit a picture of the NAA .32acp Guardian. A great semi-auto pocket pistol.
The NAA Black Widow I still carry to this day, is another example of a small but powerful weapon which can be used with minimal training. It fits nicely in my right or left front jeans’ pockets. When walking out of the mall I can take the Black Widow from my pocket and slip it into my waist band where I can easily call upon it to assist in self-defense. The Black Widow is a very deadly weapon.
The NAA Black Widow comes in .22 magnum. It holds five of the, ounce for ounce, deadliest rounds on this planet. The two inch barrel has a semi-fluted rib with a full length under-lug. The sights are real decent for such a small revolver. I don’t do much target shooting with the Black Widow but the sights are there if you so desire. Like all NAA revolvers the Black Widow is a single action weapon….meaning you have to cock the hammer back for each shot. I love my Black Widow with its oversize rubber grips which feel great in my average size hand and keeps it from slipping downward while being carried in my waist band. You guys with the “bear paws” for mitts will love this gun. I place the Black Widow at my top three firearms I own.
Black Widow Specs
Black Widow BMW
Caliber: .22 Magnum
Capacity: 5
Barrel: 2.0 inches
Grip: Oversize Rubber
Sights: Front blade, fixed rear
Length: 5.88 inches
Height: 3.69 inches
Width: 1 inch
Weight: 8.9 ounces
Action: Single Action
MSRP: $288.00
northamericanarms.com
The Sheriff
The Sheriff is my latest NAA purchase. The reason I bought this little deadly revolver is, I love the design and I could afford the price. The 2.5 inch barrel is a little longer and removing the cylinder to reload is a little easier than my older version of the Black Widow. Like most of the NAA mini-revolvers, you have to remove the cylinder to eject the empty cases and then reload fresh rounds. The Sheriff as most other NAA mini-guns are not made for offensive combat but for fun shooting and close in self-defense.
The Sheriff sports some real nice rosewood grips. These grips make the handling of this revolver a joy. I have shot my Sheriff many times and love shooting at tin cans and other non-living targets. As with the Sheriff and Black Widow, I have dispatched mortally injured animals victims of an encounter with a two ton vehicle. Shooting the .22mag within a metropolitan area is safer than with my .45acp. Close up one shot to the head with the .22mag is successful every time. The Sheriff is a very cool firearm and perfect for the front pocket CCW.
The Sheriff Specs
The Sheriff NAA-1860-250
Caliber: .22 Magnum
Capacity: 5
Barrel: 2.5″
Grips: Rosewood Boot Grip
Sights: Post front, Notched in frame rear
Length: 6.31 inches
Height: 3.13 inches
Width: 0.94 inches
Weight: 7.7 ounces
Action: Single Action
MSRP: $298.00
northamericanarms.com
Sidewinder-250
In the above reviews of the Black Widow and Sheriff, I mention you must remove the cylinder to eject the empty cases and to reload. NAA has solved this problem by coming out with the Sidewinder models. Pictured here is the Sidewinder with the 2.5 inch barrel. They also offer a model which has a .22LR cylinder to accompany the .22mag (NAA-SWC-2.5) in 2.5 inches and a 4 inch Model NAA-SWC-4. The smallest is the NAA-SW with the 1.5 inch barrel.
Like all of the NAA mini-revolvers, there are notches in the back of the cylinder. Once loaded you carefully cock back the hammer ever so slightly till you can rotate the cylinder. Line up the hammer with one of the safety notches and softly let the hammer down. Now the cylinder is locked tight and the hammer is rested on steel and not on a round. If you drop it or your wife finds out you bought another gun and throws it at you, the pistol will not fire.
To open the cylinder you place the Sidewinder in your left hand. You then take your right hand and pull the center rod outward and at the same time using your index finger push the cylinder outward. Then using this helpful finger, you push in on the same rod which will eject the empty cases. This is a great feature for those who need to have a quick reload.
I have not yet purchased the Sidewinder-250 but I have it on my radar. When I acquire one I will review it here on Warriors and Sheepdogs.
Sidewinder 250 Specs
Sidewinder-250
Caliber: .22 Magnum
Capacity: 5
Barrel: 2.5 inches
Grips: Rosewood Bird’s Head
Sights: Post front, Notched in frame rear
Length: 6.31 inches
Height: 2.88 inches
Width: 1.06 inches
Weight: 7.7 ounces
Action: Single Action
MSRP: $389.00
northamericanarms.com
Note: CCI makes a 35gr “game point” round called “A22 Magnum”. I highly recommend this round for any .22mag you would carry for self-defense. I have test fired the A22 rounds and found them to uphold the high standards of CCI products. The A22 is my new “go-to” .22mag ammunition.
http://www.cci-ammunition.com/whatsnew/newproducts.aspx
