Hey there, Coot,
I may be able to help you along the trail a bit in your search for a “12-shot .22 Mag. derringer."
While not fully up to the dozen-shot capacity you somewhat jokingly seek, I'd bet you'd quickly form an attachment to the North American Arms (NAA) “Black Widow” mini-revolver with its 5-round .22 rimfire cylinder.
I recently bought one and, like the Kahr .380 Auto mentioned in my previous post, it, too, displays what I consider incredible accuracy for such a diminutive “gat." It's so accurate that, also like the Kahr, it could actually serve as an ultra-light “trail pistol” tasked to potting the occasional skillet critter, mean snake, bad actor, or bean can.
It'd also make an absolutely great trapper's pistol.
The Black Widow is one of the few designs in the volumous NAA catalog that has adjustable sights (front and/or rear drift-adjustable for windage), which helps greatly when trying to turn a tiny “deep hide-out, belly-gun” into a gun capable of precise bullet placement.
My Black Widow easily makes 3-inch five-shot groups, off-hand, at 15 yards or so.
Last Monday, July Fourth, I saluted our Independence with a cylinder-full of CCI Long Rifle cartridges fired at a 3-inch bullseye pasted to a sheet of typing.
From 25 yards -- two-hand, off-hand shooting -- the little slugs formed a group of less than 5 1/4." Three of the five shots struck the bull, while two landed just above it.
I'll happily take that sort of accuracy any day from a hide-out pistol weighing 8 ounces and possessing a barrel only 2 inches long. And particularly so, when the piece is capable of an even slicker “disappearing act” than my ultra-tiny Kahr auto when placed in a jeans pocket.
If I ever learn how to post photos on this forum, I'll send along a “copy machine-made” pix of my Fourth of July target with the little Black Widow superimposed on the target. The image will also proudly display the “slippery elm” grips I recently whittled to “spruce-up” my little treasure.
And, by the way, I know talk of a .22 rimfire may seem out of place on a forum devoted to bullet casting and, thus, to reloading, but it's my guess that anyone interested in cast-bullet pistol accuracy would also share my interest in the accuracy of the non-reloadable rimfires.
If not, I apologize in advance for boring you.
Happy trails,
-- Cary Gunn --
