How to get better with the Black Widow

[Tank24]

I'm enjoying my Black Widow and have shot well with it on occasion.  The best I can do is about 1.5 inch group of 4 at 5 yards that always gets ruined by one flyer 4 or 5 inches out with one of the five shots.  I think it is a problem of the pistol moving in my hand as I press the trigger, but I'm not sure .

Some days my best group is all five spread out over 6 inches at 5 yards. 

I've been taking out the cylinder to practice dry fire at home.

Any advice form anyone on shooting this fun little revolver better?

Thanks,

[Uncle_Lee]

Mornin Tank,
Put on a set of CV grips and it don't move in your hand.
Just my opinion.

[Canoeal]

Really the answer is not that simple. A good grip helps, careful aim might, as will short barrel ammo. But the reality is that is a small gun with a short sight radius. The real answer is to become very familiar with your gun. Practice as often as you can and you will get better, but don't expect miracles.  It is not an Olympic target gun it is an in your face Self defense gun. Don't be upset with 3-4 in groups, that is good for SD. Mine took me a couple of years to get to the point I am confident it shoots where I point it. My BW has over 1200 rounds through it...

[pietro]

.

The handhold effects accuracy, and since NAA's are not large SA revolvers, they IMO should not be held/shot like one (jes' say'in).

Ergo:

   

   


However, it would be good to keep in mind that NAA's are not target pistols, they are "get off me" guns, and to look for top draw accuracy is IMO an unreasonable expectation.


.

[Cary Gunn]

Hello Tank,

I share your desire to shoot better with the NAA Black Widow.  The little revolver is capable of MUCH better accuracy than most people think.  The first 5 shots I put through mine were fired at a bullseye target about 12 to 15 yards away, and the slugs printed about a 3-inch group centered on the bull.

Other than the shooting fundamentals of precise sight alignment, breath control, and trigger squeeze, I've found the most important ingredient to me for consistent accuracy is find a way to hold the tiny gun so that the trigger squeeze doesn't result in movement of the revolver in the hand.  Because the gun is so small, that's difficult, but not impossible to achieve.

The Black Widow is one of the few NAA designs that comes with really decent grips and sights.  The somewhat chubby rubber grip provides plenty of hand-purchase to firmly hold the gun, and the 3-dot sights that come standard on the piece are some of the best I've seen on little pocket-pistols.  The sights are also adjustable for windage, a quality I consider important, and one not usually found on such small handguns.

For practice, I remove the cylinder from the revolver and repeatedly "dry fire" it while trying to keep precise sight-alignment with a dot on the bright livingroom wall.  Any visible movement of the sights at all during the moment of trigger release is easy to spot with such a drill.  And, be assured that the tiniest bit of observable movement will greatly enlarge the size of your groups on target.

One little trick I've learned is to allow my left thumbnail to grow a little long, and to "hook" that nail over the left bottom edge of the cylinder window in the handgun frame.  I'm right-handed and -- with a two-hand hold on the revolver -- my stiff left thumb and nail allow me to place just enough "rightward" pressure on the gun to overcome my natural tendency to pull the pistol down and to the left as the trigger breaks.

As I said, practicing trigger-squeeze and sight-alignment, while staying tightly focused on an aiming dot on a wall, will allow you to experiment with pistol-holding technique until you develop the ability to "break the shot" without the slightest disturbance of the sights on the dot.  That's the theory, at least. 

My own practice has not led to perfection, but I have been able to consistently hold standing, two-handed groups of under 6-inches at 25 yards.  That's very, very close to "head-shot" accuracy from a tiny little "belly gun" that many people believe is incapable of accuracy beyond "card-table" distance.

With the windage-adjustable sights on my Black Widow, the pistol will group precisely on point-of-hold at 15 yards with .22 Long Rifle 40-grain solid bullets from CCI Mini-Mag and Remington Thunderbolt ammo. 

With .22 Magnum ammo, my gun groups about 3 1/2-inches high at 15 yards, and there is no elevation adjustment available.  Since I also use my Black Widow for close-range small game shooting and plinking, I want it to shoot precisely to point-of-aim at 12 to 15 yards;  this means my little beauty almost always sports her .22 Long Rifle cylinder. 

Anyway, Tank, have fun getting better with your Black Widow.  I know she'll impress you.

Happy trails,

-- Cary Gunn --

[Canoeal]

Sure looks like a good way to get the trigger messing with your knuckles...

[Cary Gunn]

Howdy Canoeal,

Rather than "messing with my knuckles," the trigger on my Black Widow is so small that it touches nothing but the fleshy pad on the last joint of my index finger.

If I'm careful enough with my hold on the little gun to insure that that nothing moves on the trigger squeeze except the last joint of that digit, the bullets tend to go where they should. 

Happy trails,

-- Cary Gunn -- 

[Canoeal]

I was referring to the top of the knucle on the underlying hand. The one with the trigger being pulled into it. I tried it when it first showed up. Banged the 22 mag into my knuckles pretty hard. TEHO...