Got my Black Widow

T

Texas2NC

New member
I have been wanting one of these for a while and since I sold my .357, I had the money... I figured what the heck.

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It has a killer bull barrel, looks strong as heck...

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Here you can see the dovetailed sights and grooves on the top

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Got an ankle holster for it and picked up some CCI MaxiMag +v and some CCI MaxiMag GoldDot ammo.
I LIKE IT! Heh...

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cuerno de chivo:

Lengthwise, it's not much smaller, but is a whole lot thinner and lighter.

Blades67:

I picked it up this afternoon but didn't have time to shoot it, I had to run to the gunsmith WAY across town and pick up my Springfield before he left for vacation.

I'll get out this weekend and give it a workout.
 
I have been wanting to get a Black Widow for some time, but have not found one with the new designed cylinder pin, and new plunger. In fact, I havn't seen any Black Widows,new or used, around here in several months. Even if I could find a used one at the right price I would buy it since I understand that NAA will machine, and replace the old style pin, for free.
 
For a size comparo:

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Top gun is a Charter Undercover .38Snubbie a "J-clone" that takes the same speedloaders and even hosters.

Middle is a "MiniMaster", same as a Black Widow but with a 4" tube. Grips are slightly different - I have the older "square block o' rubber" grips which I shaved down into a bird's-head layout. His factory grip will be just a hair bigger than this - my backstrap is open, his ain't. Sights are the same. My gun can shoot 4" groups at 25 yards, his will come close to that. These are *accurate* little boogers.

Bottom is the smallest .22Magnum minirevolver ever made, 4 shots, by Freedom Arms. Note the one finger grip - only Dick Casull would make something this psycho :D. NAA's smallest Magnum-frame grips are at least two-fingered.

As you can see, the MM with a 4" tube would still be easier to conceal than the J-class in 2".

The BW will simply vanish in a front pocket.
 
Quit thinkin' and get to buyin' dag nabbit....

Gotta support a company selling great guns... designed by a master (what red-blooded-American Man with both his jewels doesn't like Casul firearms???) The more converts we can make, the longer they will be around to support the lifetime guarantee :p
 
Jim March: I like the grip on your MM... this BW thing is horrendous. It is twice the width of the revolver and trying to actually conceal this in an ankle holster is a pain.

I wear wranglers every day and there is NO flair to the pants leg as they are cut for boots. This thing prints badly because of the grip but when I pulled the grip off, the print disappears completely.

I ordered a set of the small grips in rubber and we will see how those go. I may end up making myself some if those aren't thin enough.
 
Assuming the new BW grips are built like the old ones, converting yours the way I did is pretty easy. Take 'em off, and make sure they're just soft rubber all the way through (bend 'em a bit, it'll be obvious).

If so, from the inside you'll be able to see the line where the backstrap goes. Basically, that's your cut line. Once the rough cutting is done from the inside, put 'em back on and with an exacto knife, do rough cleanup to shape, then do final polishing with a dremel sanding drum or hand-sand the rubber.

Go to this page: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/jimguns.html

You'll see a pic of what my grips originally looked like. Compare with the mods, and you'll realize exactly what I did. Should be easy to copy. As the grip frame curves down and forward along the bottom, you pick a point to "diverge" downwards some more - my final grip is still a bit longer than the grip frame. I now have a two-finger grip, which I find to be plenty - originally, it was three-finger, if I had continued the arc of the backstrap further, I would have ended up with a one-finger grip which is a little extreme :D.
 
My brother and I bought Oleg the Black Widow for Christmas; I have the .22mag. it's just so darn cute, you have to have one!

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And that's real mother of pearl!
 
Here's my BW,

I did the same thing to my full sized wood grips as Jim M. did to his rubber grips. I wanted to fill the space behind the trigger, but didn't want the added bulk of the large grips. I took the wood down to the backstrap, & sanded it down like a boot grip with a taper to the bottom. I also had the taller front sight used with the adjustable rear sight sent to me, so that I could get a red ramp, but more importantly, have the higher sight to file down to my chosen load zero. I took a dremmel to the pointy corners- just enough to reduce pocket holster wear (& resale no doubt.) When I first got it, the mag cylinder was not in time, so when I sent it back, I asked for a fluted cylinder (which I prefer) NAA graciously accomidated me. The lr cylinder is unfluted. I have it very well regulated with my load. It out shot my 3” S&W 317 (so I sold the 317.) I know NAA had a rash of mainspring problems a while back, if it happens to you, see if you can smooth talk NAA into sending you a new one. It can be installed by just removing the grips. (Do not try to take the NAA apart- it ain’t a S&W in that regard!) IF one experiences the “walking cylinder pin” I’d send it back to NAA in a heartbeat, if you can run a lot of 50gr Mag ammo w/o the problem (as I can) then “if it ain’t broke…”

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Great tips on the grip reduction, guys.

I went a little different route and may just stay with it.

I ordered the birdseye rubber grips from NAA and then whittled them down so they were of almost uniform thickness. I cleaned up the extra material in the backstrap and under the trigger, then used sand paper to get rid of the whittle marks.

I ended up with a decent finish on the grips, almost exactly that "tacky" rubber feel than the original oversize grip had.

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I expected more recoil from this little pistol. The recoil is a sharp yank but not unpleasant.
 
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one to take a file to some rubber revo grips. A couple of months ago I realized that the boot grips for my S&W 940 were what was making the recoil feel sharp - I got busy with a rat-tail and now the thing fits (and points) perfectly.

10mmman - don't worry about resale. You can pick up a new set of grips on NAA's site for not much gelt.
 
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